Originally Posted by
FlightDetent
Please support with the list of accidents you have in mind. Indication how the conclusion is reached the flightdeck flew manually less than their regional average is appreciated.
It would be impossible to gather this statistic. But enough anecdotes from personal experience of watching the vast majority of flights over the years, plus discussions with pilots of culture at airlines all over the world, after a while paints a picture of how things are overall. And it doesn't take more than "their regional average," it's the regional average itself that is a problem.
One more idea. It is very likely that the US has the most hand-flying pilots in the world, as a group statistics. Why not have a list of N.American accidents and see how that goes.
Contrary to yours, my opinion is that people crash airplanes today not because they can't handle them, not because the tech breaks down down, but because the commander does not take the correct decisions. If true, manual flying is widely recognized as a task that increases mental saturation. The quote from S. Sullengberger's book about his gliding experience (see the blog post link by Alpine Flyer above) is revealing.
About the fact that today's pilots, again as a group, are less precise and less capable with their hand-flying - there's no argument i guess.
I disagree with your model of "the commander does not take the correct decisions." A "decision" implies that the person looks at the alternatives and consciously takes the path of one of them instead of the other... decided to do A vs. B. This picture does not mesh in any sensible way with people having made the "decisions" to attempt an idle-thrust goaround, or slow the plane 30+ knots below approach speed, or watch the airplane roll up into a steeper and steeper bank without doing anything about it, or watch it go further and further below the runway without doing anything about it. To say that the pilot incorrectly decided to do those things seems.... like a farcical description.
No, I would argue that none of those actions were based on "decisions" under any meaningful sense of the word. A was not consciously chosen over B. A (for Automation) was the
default, and esablished as such over thousands of hours of consistent operation. For any alternative B to happen, this default has to be overcome, which is extremely difficult when it takes the comfortable mental place of the final backstop of flight control manipulation.