Originally Posted by
RetiredF4
They clearly demonstrated, that they were not able to handfly this aircraft in this particular situation. And they clearly demonstrated, that they could not cope with the loss of some part of automation.
The rest of your post is well put. I'd like to add a slightly different emphasis to your clear identification of some root causes:
in a class of aircraft and on a mission where crew coordination and CRM are required fundamentals, a profound lack of same was in evidence from early in the event on this flight deck. Beyond hand flying difficulties, it seems from the evidence available that possession and use of an instrument scan (another fundamental requirement of flying in that class of aircraft on that mission) was beyond at least one of the pilots on the flight deck.
Scan problems and poor hand flying are related to one another. The concern this accident raises in my mind is linked to the standing complaint about "Children of the Magenta line:" how pervasive is the skill limitation exposed by this particular
crew?
Not common, or very common?
I don't know if that is an answerable question given the size of the industry and how practices may vary from carrier to carrier. It's an answer worth pursuing, IMO.