I believe you are hot on the trail here. A pilot, not a Nintendo player in a uniform, would have handled this incident and thought nothing of it, just another day in they office.
” a series of complex steps “
in english Flip 2 switches
but if you did not know about the switches it would be hard to turn off the rouge AI.
I had a Cadillac cts that had the traction control turn off switch inside the glovebox. (I know this only cause I read the manual) I never used it during the time I owned the car, but I was aware that it existed.