Lion Air crash sheds light on cockpit automation's dark side

As Boeing was developing its latest version of the 737 airliner, it discovered the design was slightly more prone to a loss of control. So the company added a computer-driven safety feature -- one that is now a focus of the investigation into a fatal crash last month near Indonesia. If preliminary findings are borne out, the Oct 29 crash of the Lion Air 737 Max 8 may end up being one of a number of cases in which the cockpit automation that’s made flying safer also had the unintended consequence of confusing pilots and contributing to tragedy. “There’s no question that automation has been a tremendous boon to safety in commercial aviation,” said a former chief accident investigator for the FAA. “At the same time, there have been many accidents where automation was cited as a factor.” <br/>