systems design again
Okay, flight crew may have made mistakes. Fine. Maybe maintenance, airline management and ATC also made mistakes. Fine.
This does not mean that systems/automation cannot be improved and it does not absolve Boeing from needing to have a very careful look at their automation logic.
It does not matter whether one or two autopilots were engaged and whether autothrust was and whether it was an autoland or not. It also does not matter whether the radalt had failed or simply gave a wrong reading.
The bottom line is that *no* onboard system should rely on one metric or instrument alone without it being cross-checked against others and if there is any significant discrepancy between sources of information, this should be flagged to pilots and *no* relevant automation should be provided.
That goes for altitude, airspeed and position (at least) and probably many other parameters.
Yes it is AVIATE, NAVIGATE, COMMUNICATE, but it also is CHECK. CHECK. AND CHECK AGAIN. That goes for humans as well as systems.
A number of instruments can provide cross-checks for altitude and whether or not idle throttles or retard or whatever mode that leads to decrease in speed and alt is appropriate. Use them!
Get your act together Boeing, or do you want to lose the first Dreamliner due to a faulty gauge and a couple of confused pilots on a bad day?