Rising Risks
I am no Pilot!
Concerning the AF 447 accident and any other airliner accident I have one deep sorrow:
If a technical malfunction or bad design raises any risk during the flight of an airliner, accident investigations will point to it.
If a pilot error leads to an accident the investigations will dedect it.
But what will happe if the risk of an accident just was raised because of some (implicit) strategic decission like: do not divert too erly! Go as straight as possible!
I think it will be very very difficult to find out, whether the choosen route was too risky or extremly risky.
I am not a frequent flyer but I am flying once a month because of my profession and I feel much more at ease in the plane than in the taxi going to the airport. And I am sure, that technically week parts and human bad habits of pilots, if such things exist, will be found out - sooner or later - . But I wonder if a bad trend in saving flight costs can be found out!