I blame the airline and its training department for this accident.
First, I'm guessing you mean that you blame them for not training the pilots and engineers to recognize a TOWS failure and not for failing to teach the pilots to properly go through the checklists and on how to lower the flaps, right? I think we can safely assume that any training facility in the first world would've made clear over and over the importance of checklists and the proper way to lower the flaps. The pilots complying with the training once it's over is another question. Spanair has been operating for 20 years and this was their first accident.
Second, I guess you mean them "in general", as most airlines and most training facilities in the world wouldn't probably have included a specific mention of the RAT probe heater problem having to do with a TOWS failure on an MD80. So you actually blame "most airline's training departments" in the world, right?
If your main objections are with the training, I'd like to raise the question of whose responsability the training is. A pilot is suppossed to have a license, like an architect or a doctor have a degree, that certifies he has enough knowledge to safely perform his job. Experience and additional training usually comes to the expense and will of the professional in question, not the people employing them.
If I want a safe building, I go to a good architect. If I want good health care, I go to a good doctor. I don't usually pay him to obtain the extra training in the next couple of years so that then he can work for me.
Any architect can build a simple house. Any doctor can diagnose a simple disease. Any pilot knows how to lower flaps and follow checklists.
Nothing prevented these pilots from taking extra classes, assisting to extra courses given out by Boeing on engineering, reading books and manuals, etc. They weren't required to do them, but if they thought their work conditions would've improved and their own lifes were at stake, why didn't they do it?
Pilots are now going to raise hell saying that they shouldn't be paying from their own pockets and on their own time for training that raises the safety of the airline operation. Try telling that to a doctor or an architect (or a police officer or mechanic or any other profession with some direct responsability on the life of clients or their own).
No doubts the airlines understand the need on certain industries of frequent refreshes and extra training, and that's why Spanair had twice the number of them required in the west. But that wasn't enough to stop their pilots from making the basic mistake of lowering the flaps.
And sure they failed to recognize the RAT/TOWS relation and probably very few (if any) training facilities in the world would've made that clear to the pilots/engineers, but in other cases such as MAP the RAT heater wasn't even noticed, as the problem is really only obvious in very specific conditions (checking RAT reading on hot weather after the power is applied to the systems for a while allowing the temperature to raise more than logical).
While better training to recognize TOWS/RAT relations may have saved this particular case (but not MAP's), it wouldn't have done anything if the temperature or taxi time in MAD would've been lower.
Better checklists with an additional TOWS test MAY have saved the day if the TOWS was inop already at the time of the test, though. I concur the airline/manufacturer could've done a better job at training to recognize systems failures through better manuals, better SOPs, requesting more checks, etc.
I've said it before. Better training never hurts, but I also think that it's each pilot's responsability to learn as much as he can about the machine he is driving past the point of "reasonable performance" that he obtains together with his license.
We all know that there are doctors that have graduated with straight A's and have taken many extra courses and have large experience, and doctors that have graduated with straight D's and spend all of their time playing golf.
Same with pilots. They are both suppossed to know how to do their jobs well enough not to make basic mistakes, like forgetting the flaps or not monitoring the heart rate. But the "Doctor House" could certainly save more lives that the "Doctor Partytime".
But even Dr. House makes a mistake every now and them and, if luck doesn't strike that day, ends the life of someone prematuraly. And he is the best on his field.