The numbers?
Sorry, I am a statistician so perhaps I am biased but I am horrified that no-one has provided statistics as to how often the KILLER ITEMS would happen without warning systems. If they really are KILLER ITEMS I would expect you all to know the percentages, just as any poker player would.
As an earlier poster mentioned there is a very real risk that the human brain has adjusted to the fact that some system is watching their back, much along the lines that wearing seat belts make us drive faster and revert to acceptable levels of risk. (See also cycling and headgear)
So, Berndt and colleagues, what is the list of top10 killers and what would they be without automated warning systems? I guess this is available based on the flight data that is routinely uploaded for flights that do not end in tragedy.
In something as mundane as bottling beer, it takes an average of 17 near misses to have a real accident, but if no-one counts the near misses then they are unlikely to avoid the real thing.
In all of these threads we are missing context of what is expected and what is a surprise. Why not calculate how many emergency descents we expect to have in the first 6mths of the year and ban anyone creating a thread about it until we exceed the threshhold.
ATC could play back every flight-track history and calculate the chances of a positive level bust at any place or time. Compounding this with the chances of an agrevating negative level bust would tell us how often we can expect a midair collision. That way we would know what was "normal" and we could discuss only the events that surprised us.
So, what are the figures for your business, PLEASE tell me that you are more on the ball than your average bottling plant!
I think that a proper analysis of the times that all but one hole lined up in the swiss cheese is more worthwhile than examining the inevitable jackpots when it all came together. After all, better that we all learn to identify N-1 holes than we all say "it could not happen to me" on getting it all lined up.
Yours, SLF