The current view of “Children …” is not necessarily aiding the industry’s quest for safety improvement.
AFAIR the original ‘Children of the magenta line’ quote is attributed to Don Bateman, the Father and Mentor of GPWS/EGPWS. The context was that of pilots blindly following computed navigation solutions - the magenta flight plan route, without further thought.
The famed video clip is one particular airline’s view of the need to revert to manual flight control, often overlooked as complex situations evolve. This is similar to many manufacturers’ recommendations to reassess the level of automation, use a lower level, or disengage the autos.
The underlying issue, which the video and much of the discussion overlooks, is how does the pilot become aware of the need to change, how does a crew achieve an understanding of the situation and then decide to change. What are the key factors, the processes, and thus what training and guidance is provided to aid this judgement.
This discussion and previous threads have toyed with A vs B, or the symptoms encountered in modern day operations, and as much of this involves automation, allocates a causal effect, but fails to identify the deep seated reasons for incidents and accidents.
Recommending more manual flight practice etc, may only be throwing a wet blanket over the problem. The underlying cause could erupt elsewhere and with greater effect. Most of the problem situations require the use of automation, areas where the human cannot, or is not allowed to operate. More manual flight practice might aid recovery from the very rare abnormal situations, but not the normal situations involving automation and human aspects which deteriorate to incident scenarios.
The operators (we the pilots) probably have the greater value information as to the real ‘cause’, but in the majority have failed to think about this, or if known, been unable to communicate the issue. We tend to confuse factors of events or outcome with cause.
One particular aspect could relate to how automation is perceived; it’s not human and thus will not fly or behave like a human. Yet much of the ‘quick-fix’ training focuses on comparing the human and computer.
A rage against the machine might only represent our frustration of not understanding.
We have a very powerful and useful set of tools; we have to understand their purpose, capabilities (particularly the limitations), and the optimum methods of use. Following the magenta line is generally very safe and helpful, but we need to know when this might not be so, and then change what we think and do.