Major Pacific Rim carriers are looking for skippers with 500 PIC hours on type for the big jets! So they have hordes of " adventurers " knocking on their doors with " parker penned " hours or from " airline pilot mills " that have sprouted up in recent years. Minimum sim training, mimimum sectors on line training. Lo and behold you have el capitanos with 4 shiny bars on big shiny jets.
I had been augment crew to some of these newbies and some have no clue as to how to operate a modern weather radar properly! Flying through the equator through ITCZs invariably becomes a free roller coaster ride.
Avoid, avoid, avoid. Not detracting Sully from his superb handing in the Hudson River thingy, it would have been sublimely great had he been able to avoid hitting the birdies. It would have been no headlines if the Air Transat A330 superglider crew nipped the fuel leak in the bud and diverted safely without the drama. Then again, they live to receive accolades.
These AF447 crew unfortunately did not live. Had they made it through and nursed their crippled plane ( I would suspect some damage after the hair raising plunge ) to a landing somewhere they would have been amply rewarded with publicity and possibly some French aeronautical awards.
To all out there, if you think your airlines have trained their pilots sufficiently for the most complex failures you are sadly mistaken or kidding yourselves. In the corporate, commercial environment accidents like these are at best " acceptable " damage ( one in 10 million chance, or one in 100 million chance ratinale ). Anything you hear about safety from airline higher ups are nothing but posturing, outright lies and utter baloney.