deSitter; Very simply, were there no accidents before computers were introduced into aviation?
The impeccable reliability of safety-critical computing has most likely lulled people into a false sense of security. Many accidents just wouldn't happen if there were a sober acknowledgment and balanced processing of the general risks associated with flight.
Mankind continues to push the flight envelope further, soon we will be routinely flying manned sub-orbital craft around the planet, which in itself is hardly a bad thing. Computers have enabled progess. But are passengers really aware (at a concious level) that they are paying to travel at near 800km/hr at -50C temperatures, through potentially hazardous weather, and in the dark?
AF could have eliminated the hazardous weather, and darkness risk factors, sacrificing schedules and incurring the cost of an AOG. A few days late, but so what? Passengers would still be alive?! Is it mankind's impatience, his disregard for the fury of the environment, is this our real culprit?