The sad state of affairs is not the way airplanes are designed or flown but the desecration of the airline pilot and his/her profession "by the almighty buck" and industry leaders who value the business of business rather than the business of aviation. That is far greater a flight safety problem than automation ever will be.
PJ2 you and DC-ATE have more in common than you think because DC-ATE also decries the replacement of real airmanship with automation.
The problem is not automation per se. My concession to you PJ2 is that you are correct about the huge benefits automation has brought, but i believe it also comes with a serious risk of fail soft accidents.
That is to say accidents where the automated systems appear to have performed in every way normally but the aircraft has exhibited uncommanded and illogical actions leading to disasters.
Those who truly believe in the value of automation should be at the forefront of the call for investigation of EMP causing disasters.
When I worked for Air New Zealand It was depressing to note how often cell phones were left on by passengers both in the passenger cabin and in their baggage. Everybody seems to be ignoring the obvious question, were there any calls made to cell phones on these aircraft on approach, or even worse outward calls made by passengers ?
Nobody is bothering to investigate EMP disruption of digital aircraft systems.
Once we have investigated the issue and found no evidence, only then can we say it was not the cause, but in reality nobody gathered the evidence after BA038 and now again nobody is gathering the evidence of cell phone calls to or from this Turkish Airliner. Most cell phone companies only keep records of calls for 30 days. After that kiss goodbye to any chance of proving or disproving EMP. This non investigation of EMP is criminal.