New
#1
This is complicated.. I find it hard to lay blame on the pilots, but: An aircraft of this type, there's a lot going on, and so you have a checklist. When doing this, they should have lowered the flaps, adjusted trim, etc etc, regardless of the warning, however; over time Pilots do get used to the aircraft's systems aiding them, and they may in fact have "depended" on the warning to tell them. It's very hard to judge, but ultimately, I would blame both the pilots and the system. It's hard to imagine why they would not set the flaps, you simply don't have enough lift to take off, certainly in an aircraft of that size and type.
Although it certainly is possible they simply didn't lower the flaps, for whatever reason, and the lack of a warning caused the accident. It happens, not often in Jets though.
There's a reason you have a crew, not just one pilot. It's incredible to me the captain and co-pilot "both" made the same mistake, at the same time. The co-pilot runs down the list, and calls it out, it's either set, or not, and you don't need a "warning" to see the flaps, or other systems are not where they should be, it's just a fail safe. Amazing really.
I've never even come close to a mistake of this kind, so it's hard for me to imagine they simply forgot, but it's possible.
I'm very interested in exactly how this malware worked, and how it infected the aircraft's systems.