The way he put it, as long as you have a human pilot on board, no matter how bad the catastrophy, and when all the logical possibilities have been exhausted, the human pilot will keep trying.
This is why I see a transition over a long period of time down to one pilot, then to ground control making human decisions but do not discount eventually the possible evolution of UAV passenger flight.
We would have to see major advancement of environmental sensory and the logic needed as a result to replace human inputs completely but it is possible.
One other thought, this speaks of society in a whole. liability... Every day people make more incorrect decisions as a result of variables in their decision making abilities due to liability.