"Another problem concerns the new automatic systems which are coming into service with newer aircraft and being added to older aircraft.
"Flightcrews become more reliant on the functioning of sophisticated avionics system, and their associated automation to fly the airplane. This is increasingly so as the reliability of such equipment improves. Basic control of the aircraft and supervision of the flight’s progress by instrument indications diminish as other more pressing tasks in the cockpit attract attention because of the overreliance on such automatic equipment.
"Pilots’ testimony indicated that dependence on the reliability and capability of the autopilot is actually greater than anticipated in its early design and its certification. This is particularly true in the cruise phase of flight."
I'll let you chaps work out how long ago that was written.
Those words come from an NTSB report dated 14 June 1973. The subject is the crash, on the preceding 29 December, of Eastern Airlines Flight 401 in the Florida Everglades. That was the L-1011 aboard which the entire crew was busy troubleshooting an indicator light problem while the airplane - with the autopilot inadvertantly disengaged - spiralled slowly down into the swamp.
From:
http://n631s.********.com/2009/10/au...mplacency.html