Nice to see you back
ssg, is that now your nr. 15 persona?
First off there isn't a 200 hour pilot that would pass an ATP flight test with the FAA.
The practical test flight is not a real hard thing to do, is it? It can be done during a normal OPC check in the simulator, something even our new 75 hour MPL wonders can do without a problem. The oral exam is really another thing though as we do not train for that, same as US pilots usually do not train for a 14 part, 3 day written exam.
However it is correct that no 200 hours wonder can take a FAA ATP test as you need 1500 hours for that, however not 1500 hours of training, just plain 1500 hours of no special training value. By the way, 200 hour wonders do not get an ATP, they do get a CPL and after 1500 hours many of which have to be done to certain standards they will get an ATP. Back in my days we actually did get a national ATPL at 200 hours, however that was restricted to SIC only and needed 2.200 hours of SIC airline flying to get upgraded into a full ATPL (by which time JAA came around and i just got the JAA ATPL instead). Airline flying means to pass a full blown simulator check to full ATP standards every 6 months though.
The real scary stuff, as A37575 correctly mentions, is bad training, bad selection, bad standards. Quite often seen in regions with somewhat dodgy oversight. Yes, the report of the egypt air is chilling, as is the animation of aeroflot 821 (crash in perm). And to switch on automatic if in doubt goes against anything i was trained for, if in doubt reduce the level of automation, if that means flying raw data manual that is nice as you know exactly what you are doing and how the aircraft responds to that. Bad training might train to rather increase the level of automation, which does not help at all as it removes the pilot farther from the aircraft. However any competent pilot should not be only proficient in flying manual, raw data, he has to be able to use all aspects of automation as well.