Airbus php
Having some decent experience on 737 and A320 on the LHS I don't quite understand the point of this discussion about hand-flying vs. safety. Accidents happen because some stupid pilots ignore world-wide SOPs, don't practice CRM and come in High&Hot with a deep landing on a short wet runway.
Nothing to do with hand-flying.
I would respectfully suggest that in your complacency, you are but one step away from a serious incident/accident. There are many situations where skillful hand-flying is necessary. And they always come just when you don't expect it.
As an observation (hint to trainers), very little sim-work is done at high altitude, and pilots are often surprised at how different the aircraft feels at altitude. It can be very twitchy to hand fly. For example, this f/o completely lost control in the cruise, and the situation was only restored when the captain reappeared from the toilet, with trousers still around ankles.
Air India co-pilot caused passenger jet to plummet 7,000ft by accident | Mail Online
And this is not an isolated incident. I have flown with several f/os who were capable of the same, and the technique was to only go to the toilet when there was no turbulence and no waypoints ahead.
Regards the Air France crew, their actions were unforgivable, as any competent Cessna pilot would have had more immediate reactions to a stall. However, if no training had been given for high altitude stalls, the crew may have been surprised by the aircraft's reactions. With a high altitude, slow speed, partially stalled tail surfaces and underslung engines at full power, a jet can need considerable force to lower the nose. Rather than the nose dropping in the stall, it wants to pitch up, while the aircraft mushes downwards at a high rate of descent. (Not sure how this translates into sidestick pressures, with direct law engaged.) It can be easier to reduce power, to recover from the stall, as the nose will more readily lower.
Clearly, the air France pilots did not understand the symptoms of a high altitude stall, and thus the situation they were in.
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