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That was because the pilots were not aware that the autopilot had been disabled.

Pulling on the yoke 26 times, as hard as you possibly can, is a bit different.

Oooof. Well the real lesson there is that unqualified people (especially children) shouldn't be in the cockpit of an airliner at all. Autopilot can't be made smart enough to determine if the person operating the controls actually knows what they're doing, and thus to follow/ignore them as appropriate.

I mean, pick your poison. Either the humans are more reliable or the computers are. Either way is subject to some level of fallibility.

The wikipedia article calls out that the compounding sequence of issues started when autopilot was silently disabled, so the human system was in control when the pilots did not intend it to be.

I think the critical issue in both cases is that the wrong system was in control against the pilots wishes.

So, the pilots can pick my poison based on their training and best judgement (and maybe not put their children in control?).

That was interesting and horrific.