Flying an airplane, automation or not automation, in the safest way possible requires exceptional skills. Flying an airplane from A to B with a statistically acceptable risk requires almost zero skills. Unfortunately there are not enough exceptionally skilled pilots around.People that should stay well clear from a cockpit, thanks to various converging and inexplicable contingencies , find themselves inside of it with no real merit or quality if not an apparently sufficient proficiency. Unfortunately lack of basic coordination, of psycho motive intelligence, can only be partly offset by luck and automation and when either of the two turns its back... A new generation of pilots with no skill has been produced by cadet programs whose selections process were based not strictly on pertinent aviation qualities but more on psychological profiling, potential employee loyalty , docility and ease of domestication , plus often a series of non aviation related educational parameters and last but not least ..connections.
Another even worst part of this generation of pilots just bought there way into the cockpit of an airliner without even paying their due in the incredible school that is general aviation. Automation cannot cope at times..
Last edited by cucuotto; 31st Jul 2013 at 20:43.