One top pilot on A.net tells me he has no idea of what runway length is left, (or gone),
This is stupefying. Just plug in some numbers and accept the answer, no matter how unreasonable. Putting in a wrong number might be a simple mistake, but in this case, the consequences were deadly. It reminds me of an accounting professor, after cautioning her students to make sure the answers were
reasonable, was asked how to know what's reasonable. Were the EPR results reasonable? Clearly not.
Computers are great aids, but "Garbage in, garbage out."