> This means the designers of the airplane, purposefully removed control from pilots and gave them no recourse or alternatives. While I prefer Boeing's approac

> This means the designers of the airplane, purposefully removed control from pilots and gave them no recourse or alternatives. While I prefer Boeing's approach to Airbus's, the above statement isn't true. Airbus aircraft do have an Alternate Control Law (less flight envelope protection) and Direct Control Law (no flight envelope protection). These are in addition to the Normal Law (full protection), which is similar to what you describe, as well as a mechanical backup. The aircraft is designed to automatically revert to more-manual control when sensors return unexpected values--and that's what happened to AF447. In that case, the computer recognized strange AoA readings, so it reverted from Normal Law to Alternate Law. The pilots, being insufficiently trained in the use of Alternate Law, stalled the plane into the ocean because they expected the plane to override them in the case of a stall. Pilots also have to option to manually revert to Alternate, Direct, or mechanical control by pulling the appropriate circuit breakers in the cockpit.