Quote:
Originally Posted by ChrisV
If the autopilot can steer, then the pilot can steer.
There's an interesting accident from a few decades ago where a propellor came off a plane and sliced through the bottom section of the hull. The damage pinched the mechanical cable from the pilots' steering columns initially rendering their controls almost inoperable. But the autopilot had a separate way of controlling the plane and so they were able to achieve some control by using it.
I think it was "Reeve Aleutian Airways Flight 8" but wikipedia doesn't have much information on it.
Edit: I was just posting that for interest, but I wonder if something similar isn't possible even in today's much more complicated planes. Like if there aren't some critical functions that are implemented separately for pilots and the autopilot where one could fail but the other couldn't.