auto-throttle

Main diference between flying normal fly controls and a moving auto-throttle and airbus fly-by-wire: -Airbus throttle levers don´t move while the auto-thrust is changing the power setting.

Wandering off course is the same as forgetting your auto-throttle disables at a certain altitude in this regard.

When a mistake happens is normal to disconnect the autopilot and/or auto-throttle and take over on manual.

That may be a combination of different auto-pilot modes combined with auto-throttle modes.

A moving auto-throttle let´s you know what the engines are doing through your hands, without having to look at a tiny indicator at the instruments.

Also it let´s you override the auto-throttle briefly because you need more power or less power at a given moment, without having to disconnect it.

It's true that the flight was probably doomed the moment the autopilot was turned off, but it's not because the auto-throttle was in the wrong mode.

And there's a reason auto-throttle provides protection.

Once you disconnect the Autopilot and/or auto-throttle you must be first of all flying the plane on it´s envelope then navigating and last combating an emergency (if there is one).

But what seems clear is that the moment that the pilot turned off auto-pilot, the flight was doomed to crash as the auto-throttle was not in the right mode for landing.

> But what seems clear is that the moment that the pilot turned off auto-pilot, the flight was doomed to crash as the auto-throttle was not in the right mode for landing.

-Fourth, it´s common to do mistakes with the flight modes while on final approach, both with airbus and Boeing, there are several descend and ascend modes, speed modes, and auto-throttle modes.