Oh, and if they were so distracted that they didn’t hear traffic control and other planes trying to contact them, and they were off their charted destination... this could have been a mid air collision waiting to happen.
Maybe pilots are TOO reliant on auto-pilot.
Or not.
If they were on autopilot, they would not have overflown their destination by 150 miles.
Nor would they have been maintaining 35,000 feet. Descent usually begins a half hour before touchdown, and the autopilot is programmed for this too.
Of course, they could have programmed the autopilot to overshoot their destination, but how likely is that?