Ah, another rerun of the Boeing/Airbus debate.......
The points about optimised max energy recovery made above are true, but a red herring. I can't think of any failed CFIT recoveries which would have been helped by FBW (no doubt will be proved wrong).
The real safety issue is that of accidents caused by mode confusion or lack of understanding of the system limitations, of which the FBW Airbus have suffered several. The fact is that FBW allows a much bigger range of subtle and just plain different modes whether in coupled or 'manual' flight.
i.e. as we all know these a/c are just plain different.
This in itself should not be a problem so long as ADEQUATE TRAINING IS GIVEN to relearn some of the fundamentals which are changed. Some of the FBW accidents suggest that this was not the case. Of course, if you're selling these machines you don't want to suggest they require more training so it is left to the responsible operators to recognise the fact.
Just my two penn'orth.
PS I've not flown any Airbus, and admit to not particularly wishing to. I still think, though, that the foregoing is fair comment.
