A 400 hr cadet placed in the situation that that young First Officer was, could have easily but not necessarily acted the same way. I have met a couple of these young blokes enthusiastic, intelligent, keen to learn, and have not a bleedin clue. And why would they. At four hundred hours most pilots should be paddock bashing, learning how to stay alive, not responsible for 200 pax plus. These awful findings could be here in this country, if this stupid trend continues.
Teresa I know what you're trying to say, but your argument doesn't make sense. Just to play devil's advocate for a moment, one of the Air France guys had 6500 hours, the other had 2900 hours. So it could happen to anyone here in Aus right now, even without a 400 hour cadet on the flight deck. They had almost 9500 hours between them and it still counted for nothing - they still couldn't stop it from crashing.