Of course they are - in most situations, and this is one of the things that makes commercial aviation so safe. Except when something very unexpected happens (e

Of course they are - in most situations, and this is one of the things that makes commercial aviation so safe. Except when something very unexpected happens (e.g. not all sensor malfunctions can be distinguished from a reading that's outside of the usual range, yet plausible); in such situations, automatics disengage and people need to step in. In other words, you can only get so many reliability nines and still be profitable for mass transport (as opposed to, for example, Space Shuttle).