5. Automation and cognition: maintaining coherence in the electronic cockpit

U.S. aviation authorities are particularly curious about how the Gulf Air pilots handled the A320's complex computer-operated control and navigation systems. The planes' software is designed to prevent even the most incompetent pilot from accidentally launching the plane into a fatal stall or dive. But records indicate that some Airbus crashes occurred when pilots misjudged the planes' limitations or made errors entering data into the A320's computer system. And because the system is so complicated, U.S. experts say, if something goes wrong only a mathematical genius could figure out the problem (Mark Hosenball, Newsweek, September 4, 2000).