Originally Posted by
Cool Guys
No one is seriously saying AF447 would not have happened in a Boeing.
You say that, but in the "dark" days of the old AF447 mega-thread, I remember seeing that opinion advanced - usually in complete seriousness - at least once every two or three pages.
However, many experienced pilots here have explained how a yoke may have helped the pilots achieve a better outcome. Let them have their opinion – jeez
I'm not stopping anyone from having an opinion! Though I would question how many of the experienced pilots advancing that opinion have actually flown a FBW Airbus. As you state, three or four incidents aren't really enough to draw a scientifically significant conclusion from. What is noteworthy in an anecdotal sense is that in the time since the Airbus FBW types were introduced and became widespread, there have been more LOC accidents of this type on airliners with yokes than those with sidesticks.
In theory, the connected yokes should provide an extra cue in the visual and tactile channels, but in practice it doesn't seem to make a great deal of difference.
What this means is that no matter what anyone's personal feelings are on the matter, both designs are - as near as we can tell - pretty damned safe, and that the various pros and cons of each are immaterial in real terms.