wiggy:
but wasn't a failure to retard possibly the prime reason behind the Airbus going off the end at Congonas last year?
Yes, in a way it was. But it was a very strange accident. They closed (and reversed) the left engine, but left the other one with climb power.
It wasn't a A/T auto-retard failure as far as I know. It was pilot error when they failed to close power on one engine. Contributing factors: Very short runway which was wet. No, wet is not the correct word, more like flooded.
-Bob-