Good point on the MEL. Just looked it up and the MEL states that dispatch with A/P, F/D and A/T inop. are authorised unless ETOPS, RVSM or low viz however faced with this situation would AS and co accept a reasoning of “this is not the time…” and have the airplane grounded in some airport around the not so developed world.
A fellow Gulf carrier lost lives because the pilot became disorientated in manually flying the aircraft, before stating the obvious that would he have used automatics the incident would not have happened, just three days ago the A/P disengaged in a brand new A/C and for some unexplained reason would not re-engage until 15 minutes later. Should an incident as this mean a potential hull loss, what if it happened on a dark night flying into some outpost, as we do. On the 330 that lost an engine the A/T would NOT re-engage, what then is it acceptable to believe that safety should be compromised because the driver was not up to speed.
We as the “PILOTS” are the last line of defence against catastrophe and as such this line depends on well skilled and professional operators. We are licensed not to a commercial entity but a government authority who mandates a minimum level of competency. As far as the argument regarding economics, ask gulf air if they would have accepted 16kg’s extra fuel burn per approach in lieu of a disaster such as they faced.