Thank you sflaperons and C Bloggs - maybe we can get some sensible answers in this morass.
swh - I sincerely hope you are never involved in design, certification or operation of aircraft.
Please - we do NOT need to still be discussing the 'competency' of this crew. That is obvious. We do not need to be discussing the wiping of 10,000 hr Captain's noses either - it seems that designers and certificators believe they should be wiped. The question is why is the msr protection NOT there in one mode when it is there in others. I understand the current thinking on SOPs for these a/c is that A/T is to be used at all times. In that case it needs to work properly and to me, if I HAVE to use it, having HAL go to 'HOLD' with no msr when I close the throttles is not 'properly' - nor necessary.
This is NOT an attempt to pass any blame to manufacturers - the 'guilty parties' are obvious. If there is no good reason for the feature (and I have not seen one) it will be simple to correct it.