This is the 'work place' of the flight crew of an A330-200. Nothing to do with a Boeing 747-200 one, but, in the end, dealing with much more sophisticated systems.

The trick is that, in modern airliners, most of the processes are usually hidden  to the crew, being the cockpit layout a lot cleaner than in old airliners.

If you need to know, or if a malfunction appears, you can have at hand all the information you need.

I've progressed a lot through BEA's Final Report (I'm midway or so at the moment), but, for the time being, I cannot get out of my mind some basic facts:

1.-  Flight departed Rio do Janeiro/Galeao airport at about 0020 UTC.

2.-  At 0210 UTC, the Autopilot (AP) and Autothrust (A/THR) disengaged, flying at FL350 (they couldn't climb higher due to the TAT outside, higher than expected)

3.-  The reasons for the disengagement were the lack of accurate airspeed readings from at least 2 pitot probes of 3 available, probably due to accumulation of crystal ice. The airspeed reading failure lasted less than 2 minutes (the time the pitots de-icing system took to deal with the ice crystals).

4.-  Four minutes later the aircraft, working perfectly, crashed into the ocean surface..., killing almost 300 people...

Sorry. I cannot understand...

Love you all

TWRman