[Paal Gulli]

"With modern technology, you would think they could make the automatic pilot detect the lack of oxygen and descend to 5000 feet or so."

HEY! That's a GREAT idea ...

... unless you're over Colorado, because its mean elevation is 6800 feet.

In fact, six US states have a mean elevation of 5000 feet or higher. And 22 US states have mountain peaks in excess of 5000 feet high. So maybe we should just better leave that decision to the pilots.

[proxy_user]

Well, with GPS they will know how far down it is to the ground. They can descend to a safe altitude for the area.