Well said! AirRabbit.
Let's not forget that the ones that really should be held responsible are the Airline CEO's!! These people ultimately make the decision how much manual raw data flying is allowed on the line. They all look at this at a money perspective. Most of them have absolutely no faith in their flight crews. If they would have it absolutely 100% their way, then no "pilot" would be allowed to touch any of the controls on the flight deck. They would do everything automatically, from T.O to Landing. They play a statistical game, eg, complete statistical risk management. They put their faith/MONEY in the reliability statistics of automatic systems! If a pilot is used to regular manual raw data flying regardless of which airplane he/she flies, then it becomes a routine experience and manual flying is not considered an extra workload since it all comes natural. You automatically look at all your instruments in your scan, you feel as a one package with the airplane, it all comes natural. Anything that would be out of the ordinary will be picked up immediately. This Asiana crash and AF 447 are a direct result of Airline CEO's policies! If an airline pilot is no longer capable of manually flying an airplane as a result of Airline automation policies, it is not the fault of the pilot. He/she is restricted to how much manual flying is allowed. A lot of airline pilots incl. myself were used to manual flying and we had a high level of manual flight skills because we didn't sometimes have not even a flight director!! Forget about an autopilot. Manual flight wasn't a workload! It came all natural, because you were used to it. Then all of a sudden you get a job with another airline with strong automation policies and all of a sudden you're been told that raw data flying is a safety risk and 'dangerous'. You think what the heck are these people thinking! But you keep quiet in order to not jeopardize your job, before you know it since you are not been given the opportunity to learn to fly your new airplane your manual flying you had slowly become a thing of the past. You operate your airplane everyday but you actually have never flown it.
Between the Airline CEO's and their MONEY!! and the Airplane manufacturers wanting their MONEY!! They design their new airplanes to the tastes of the Airline CEO's which means as automatically as possible. Does all this automation really contributes to safety as the CEO's all think? Yes, the airplanes have become a lot safer over time but their automatic systems make them to complicated sometimes for human brain. Especially when you combine this with fatigue. KEEP THESE AIRPLANES SIMPLE PLEASE!!! For me a basic mode non-precision approach is easier than a managed/VNAV mode approach. Too many automation options to think about, it takes your brain power away especially when you're tired.
My solution: we have arrived beyond a point of no return, trying to retrain pilots how to manually fly an airplane will require an onslaught on the training resources of airline training departments which most airlines don't have and mostly are unwilling to fund since it is a lot cheaper to play the statitical game. Yes, pilots make mistakes, but no one talks about how many times the pilot has saved the day and has prevented accidents because the automation messed up.
My message to the Airline CEO's: It's mostly your fault if your pilots seriously lack manual flying skills because you restrict them with your policies. Retrain them in raw data flying, as soon as they have shown to have recovered sufficient raw data manual flying skills, give them the freedom to regularly manual fly on the line. Taking fatigue issues into consideration.