Airbus were told not to install the hal9000 series as it had homicidal tendencies but surplus discount must have been attractive.

"departed level flight" - What a great way of putting it. Comparable to my "deviation from standardised perambulation" last time I was "full of weekend cheer" I suppose. Shonky.

You *might* describe it as “large plane suddenly plummeting to earth for no apparent reason” problem , but since it didn't plummet to earth, that would be dumb. It didn't go arse over tit, either, so that would be dumb too. What it did do, from the sound of it, was throw the people in the rear seats into the roof, hard. Glad I wasn't there.