As new aircraft and avionics become more sophisticated and capable, a pilot's learning curve becomes more complicated. Understanding how and why things work the way they do is a critical part of our training and study. Brian Sagi's article beginning on page 12, "Automation Misbehavior," explores some of the ramifications and remedial actions pilots should know when their equipment malfunctions. But according to the NTSB, that's not what happened in the accident we're about to probe. Of course, it's rather easy and perhaps appropriate to blame human error when something goes tragically wrong with an airplane that seemingly was performing as designed. It's not the first time and it won't be the last that undiscovered or obliterated evidence resulted in defaulting to blaming the humans for a bad outcome. But this accident should serve as an attention-getter for those of us who might be a little behind in learning about the sophisticated equipment in our panels, even if it's been there a while and is seemingly well-understood.
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