Oh for goodness sake people. This thread long ago became a parody of itself and is now about to disappear up its own proverbial.
Ralph Cramden, your post takes the biscuit.
I have hand flown into most major US airports and a good number in the rest of the world inluding ORD, LGA, LAX, DFW, MIA, JFK, SFO, well you get the picture. Perfectly normal in my day. You were 100% in the loop and connected to your A/C.
erm, yea, for most of us this remains true. We're still poling it down to the ground on those stormy nights when the autopilot gives up, and most of the rest of the time too. Those of us who fly into the more interesting places (and close to the UK that includes the Greek islands) are more than familiar with NDB's, circling to minimums etc.
So we take one unfortunate accident about which we know relatively little, and from this conclude that most airline pilots can no longer fly and simply push buttons.
In the words of our American cousins, do me a favour will ya?
