Originally Posted by
TJHarwood
For all the improvements in safety, particularly in relation to collisions and CFIT (as you say), I would be surprised if this incident (a temporary UAS issue) would have brought down an airliner 25 years ago in the same conditions (whether Concorde/A300/TriStar/DC10/B747, to cover the then range of major manufacturers).
As you said, it brought down a 727 42 years ago or so - remember that all the designs you list went into service around 40 years ago. 25 years ago, the TriStar and DC-10 were being replaced by B767s and MD-11s. (And yes, that even makes me, who knows what "Indie" music is, feel old! I don't think I intended to direct that comment at WW, by the way, I think I just threw it out there apropos of nothing).
The West Caribbean MD-80 was an older airframe design with newer avionics. It amuses me that a lot of the Airbus bashers don't seem to be aware that an old design, with yokes, stalled into the ground from cruise altitude, and not only that - unlike the Airbus, the autopilot *did* play a part in trimming the airframe towards the stall, although in that case it was due to being overweight (with engine anti-ice on). Also in that case, the PNF noticed they were in a stall, said so to the Captain and was roundly ignored - possibly because the Captain had become fixated on the EPR gauges and assumed a flameout. Also in that case, the Captain (who failed to recognise the stall), also spent the entire descent hauling back on the control column (which again, the PNF could see, but did not feel able to do anything other than give advice). This Captain was no rookie, but it was alleged that because of West Caribbean's financial problems (a result of which was that the pilots had not been paid for 6 months(!)), he had been forced to take on a second job as a bartender and this probably affected his ability to take the required rest.