Originally Posted by
Pugilistic Animus
I`d like to see automatics handle s situation like the A380 Uncontained engine failure
Gretchenfrage's sarcasm aside, the Captain of that flight wrote a very thorough and enlightening book on the subject which explains exactly what the thought processes of his team were and why they handled the situation the way they did. PPRuNe rules forbid me from linking to it, but it can be found quite easily on Amazon by entering the flight number (which also happens to be the book's title).
I can say that Back Seat Driver is essentially absolutely correct, and the time spent working through the ECAM was entirely justified in terms of the crew making certain just which systems they had left. Also that said Captain was previously First Officer on the 707 and 747 Classic, which makes GF's assertion that the guy was one of "today's followers of automatics" not only incorrect, but frankly insulting.
In fact the Captain states that his initial instinct was to turn back ASAP, but that his crew persuaded him not to do so until their damage was fully assessed. He concedes quite willingly that they were correct to do so.