AF447 is often used as the prime example by people that are expressing an opinion on the topic of deteriorating flying skills. The fact of the matter is that the aircraft was flown into the water by an overwhelmed first officer in the context of lost situational awareness, multiple system failures/indications, heavy buffeting from the weather (as well as the stall), zero external horizon with limited time to take meaningful corrective action that could save the aircraft.
Like any accident the final impact was a culmination of a chain of events with multiple lost opportunities and should be considered to be a total system failure that started with the temporary inconsistency in airspeed indications. Apart from this the final report puts heavy emphasis on persistent errors made by the crew (inappropriate control inputs that destabilized the flight path, failure to recognise approach to stall, etc., etc.).
Personally for me this this accident was all about complete loss of situational awareness and nothing to do with whether or not the pilots could hand fly the aircraft or not. Again my personal view is that the weight of emphasis placed on crew error by the final report is clearly unfair.
I wonder how well some of us would have dealt with the same chain of events. The luck of the 228 passengers and crew ran out that dark night over the South Atlantic.
Last edited by fastmover123; 17th Apr 2015 at 08:01.