Airbus is a great NEW technology in the hands of a OLD time pilots, pilots who were not scared of turning the autopilot off very unlike today’s (now everyone can fly) type of pilots who are ok as system/ cockpit managers but not aviators (sky managers) as used to be the case right up until fifteen years ago. The AF 447 tragedy is one proof of the point i’m making. Airline managements /accountants don’t understand this fact and are slowly but surely turning airline flying into a scary proposition. Command rejects from one Airline are finding Captains jobs in smaller budget airlines and are making flying dangerous. The cruise captain concept is flawed too. The un-stallable airplanes are only as good in the hands of well trained pilots with the aptitude for flying not so in the hands of (now everyone can fly) kind of pilots. Like in the old days if you could not handle the throttle and stick effectively nobody would allow you to even look at the left seat. CRM courses have become boring mumbo jumbo and just eyewash. AF 447 was avoidable. Senior pilots of the major airlines (only god can save the smaller operators) have a responsibility in so much as to warn their managements that flying is becoming safer only in theory. Cockpit managers are good until the bells start ringing in the cockpit when only pilots with the aptitude for throttle /stick may save the day.
Many airline managements are counting on the *hope* that tragedies such as these don't happen to them.
As we know the word *hope* does not exist in the flight safety manual.