Asiana had the Autothrottles ON. Boeing told everyone, that with autothrottles ON, you would be speed protected...the plane wouldn't overspeed, and it wouldn't stall. Turns out Boeing's information to us was incorrect.
Asiana had the Autothrottles armed but in 'HOLD' mode.
Boeing did NOT 'tell everyone, that with autothrottles ON, you would be speed protected...the plane(sic) wouldn't overspeed, and it wouldn't stall.'
The way the autothrottle system functions has always been well known. It offers protection in certain modes but not all.
It seems to me, from all the utterly pointless speculation on previous pages, that many people think a technical solution should be found to prevent what they think happened in this accident. Firstly, they have no concrete information on what happened and, secondly, it is impossible to design systems such that poor training, poor systems understanding, poor execution of a manouevre, or a combination of all those things, will prevent accidents.
I flew the B777 for 6 years. I am currently an instructor on both B777 and B787s. They are fine aeroplanes. Unfortunately, they cannot ever be designed to be foolproof in the hands of the poorly trained or marginally proficient.
In the airline world today training is cut to an absolute minimum because of cost. It is my view there are many pilots flying who can pass a skills test but when something unusual happens then a positive outcome is not assured.
I have my own ideas what happened at Dubai but I do not feel the urge to waste time and effort pontificating about the unknown.