T & T, you've made what I feel are the most informative comments yet on this thread.
I agree with you, why does the aircraft have to be designed this way? Why should a wind gust near the runway be allowed to "trick" the computer into thinking that the AOA is higher than it actually is? I can't imagine as a pilot making a decision to go around at 200 ft or less, applying TOGA power and then trying to hold a pitch attitude suitable for climb out, only to have the airplane decide on its own that a pitch attitude into the runway is better (thus overriding my judgement), at full power no less!!! Man, my speech would be unrepeatable for an hour after an incident like that.
I'm glad that the condition was repeatable in the sim so it can be corrected. But this leads me to think that a gung-ho approach to computerizing every function on an airliner for the sake of claiming to the be most "technologically advanced", can come at a price. These types of systems are new and in some ways untested as this incident proves.
From my experience with computer systems, anytime you choose to automate a process which has enough complexity so that a human being is required to both monitor and exercise judgement over that process, then you'd better think through that automation very carefully. You're proposing no less than to automate human judgement. Automation is good at assisting human judgement in that it can help to prevent common human mistakes and it can react quickly to situations that don't require much analysis, but to override human judgement when many factors have to be considered and many possible choices are available, is sheer folly for the computer automater.
In this case the computer "judged" wrong, and overrode the judgement of the pilot in what could have lead to a tragic outcome. Thankfully in this case it didn't.
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Safe flying to you...
[This message has been edited by Flight Safety (edited 30 May 2001).]