To all those who are calling for the tech crew to go to Bunnings buy a bag of cement and harden up, might want to remember that as it stands, the aircraft overruled or ignored the inputs by the pilot. As I understand it they were pitching back whilst the aircraft was pitching down toward the ocean and not responding to the control inputs. Other than an Airbus I am not sure of another aircraft that would do this to you with the autopilot disconnected. If that doesn't wake you up in the middle of the night with cold sweats I don't know what will.
This court case may also bring out into the public arena some of Airbus's thinking on their design philosophy.
Unfortunately we can no longer rely on airlines, manufacturers etc. to do the right thing - they seem to only respond to the threat of financial loss.
This unfortunately is very true. We also live in an era of weak regulators who do nothing until the horse has bolted. (or crashed)