Originally Posted by
KRviator
I wouldn't entirely classify the Amsterdam 737 accident as the crews fault. The primary cause was a faulty radar altimeter that provided an erroneous signal to the autothrottle that retarded the thrust levers. The crew manually advanced the thrust levers, but because he didn't disengage the autothrottle, the computer again retarded the thrust levers.
You could also include China Airlines 006 in that, after an engine rollback, they failed to monitor their airspeed, resulting an a departure from controlled flight. Again, an underlying issue occurred, mode confusion was not the primary reason.
I disagree. The only reason we still have pilots is for when **** hits the fan, anything else can be automated. The radar altimeter failed and that led to the auto thrust to go to idle. The FO pushed the throttle up, let go, it went back to idle, and for the next 100 seconds all 3 of them sat there while the thrust was at idle, and the speed dropped to 83kts, 40kts below Vref.
Same for the China airlines flight. They just sat there, never used rudder trim, let the speed drop until the autopilot gave up, and barely made it out alive.
If we can’t handle stuff like this we don’t deserve to get paid to fly.