For the love of god ... as movable ballast, may I ask:
Are there any pilots left out there who actually know what they're doing?
"Oh, it's not the pilots' fault, there should be traffic lights at crossing points." How much brain power does it take to look out of the window when approaching a runway - whether cleared to cross or not? A great big 757 thundering towards you should give you a clue that you may need to stop!
"Oh, it's not the pilots' fault, the runways should be lit better than the taxiways then we poor pilots won't be confused and land on the wrong one".
"Oh it's not the pilots fault, the government should have sent fighter jets up to attract their attention and alert them to the fact that they'd missed the destination airport by 150 miles."
OK, rant over, but the question remains.
I hope that cathartic rant made you feel better. However, it is misplaced.
Flying is not 'safe'. The lack of fatal incidents is due to a slavish dedication and analysis of every accident to identify all the human, social, CRM and mechanical factors that led to it and try to avoid them in the future. (febrile rants like yours notwithstanding)
Every line in a pre-flight checklist is inked with the blood of innocents who died before.
A series of conducting wires under the tarmac at strategic intervals can magnetically deduce the exact location of every aircraft w/o need for radar or self-reporting.
Traffic lights..who needs em?
"Oh, it's not the pilots' fault, the runways should be lit better than the taxiways then we poor pilots won't be confused and land on the wrong one".
Shouldnt they be? (better lit I mean?)
"Oh it's not the pilots fault, the government should have sent fighter jets up to attract their attention and alert them to the fact that they'd missed the destination airport by 150 miles."
EVERYTHING can ultimately be charged to pilot error. Hero Sullengberger, perhaps according to your way of thinking, should have known he was in a Migratory Bird Route and been more situationally aware in the 1st place!
But the fact is, the engine shut down is an automatic Airbus protection mechanism (protect the engines - **** the pax!) and the NWA 150 mile excursion exposed flaws in the system as well. Pilots WILL fall asleep, pilots (AND copilots) WILL break regs, and become distracted, throwing it back at pilots saying its THEIR JOB and not making changes to the system will only lead to death, later