Algy;
Thanks for the link. I think the accident is relevant to the present discussion in the sense that taking over manually and flying the airplane was then and remains today a prime, professional requirement.
If a pilot can't do that with his or her airplane, that is a serious training and standards matter. The A330 (and all the rest) are eminently, easily flyable in manual flight. It wasn't an emergency and the "safe conduct of flight" was not at risk.
The problems only occur when one out-thinks the design and that is again an understanding/training matter, not an automation matter.
The Bangalore accident was not an "automation" accident though mode confusion contributed. All that was necessary was to push the thrust levers fully forward and actually fly the airplane which is their job. All that was necessary in the AF447 accident was to maintain pitch and power settings. The airplane was fine moments before the loss of airspeed indication, and such loss means nothing to the actual airplane itself...it was still flying, still had power and was in stable flight.
The "Idle, Open Descent" issue here was fixed twenty years ago. I used to teach it and the "mode reversion" process during line-indoc training on the A320.
PJ2