all airliners should have a big yellow guarded switch that when turned on immediately turns them back into an aircraft.
And how many advocates of this "switch" have reward and considered the Voyager (~A330) upset report?
Specifically (cannot cut'n'paste so para phrased):
Pitching down... Capt considered switching off ADIRUS to get Direct Law ... had they been switched off, overspeed/pitch protections would have been disabled ... Panel assessed certified 365KIAS limit would have been exceeded by significant margin .. potentially leading to significant damage to the aircraft
Summary stated:
.. without excellent technology of A330 flight control laws... outcome could have been different ... realistic potential for loss of aircraft and 198 of our people.
I think we need to keep the AoA probes incident in context. 1 occurrence (others allude to a few more?) in thousands of A320 type FBW aircraft over decades of service. Any "voting" system of 3 sensors with 2 faulty will be difficult to incorporate, and an element of "lessons learned" will apply. There is no need, IMO, for the "big yellow switch", and the likely outcome for this (and other) sensor problems will be software validating their inputs e.g. in this case, a constant AoA value over a period of time, and altering pitch / IAS / 'g' loading becomes "unlikely". That will again be difficult to code without creating further hazards, but possible.
The "big yellow switch", I suspect for the very few occasions it is required, would be overused, and sometimes inappropriately and accidents as a result. Think how many GPWS warnings ignored with impact shortly after? Regrettably, whilst technology is not infallible, humans are more so
