I have to start by giving my condolences to everyone affected by this most unfortunate accident.
I believe I have a slightly different view from other people that commented as I'm both a licensed pilot ( fATPL ) and lucky enough to have an Eng. degree and a separate career (my main occupation).
I, as most of you, pursued the cockpit career out of passion, but the current employment situation in many airlines is just ridiculous and isn't compatible with it being my professional occupation. Sure, you might still have good conditions and be treated accordingly at some legacies, some smaller/exec operators but that seems the exception nowadays. Paying for training? Low salaries? Bad roster? Lack of appropriate holidays? Relocation as/when needed? Freelance work without managing owns finances? One contract fits all without unions to fight unacceptable terms? It's just plain ludicrous.
The industry just reminds me of this
boiling frog anecdote
I had a very sad discussion with a European lcc last year about their T&Cs, when the time came to sign the contract. Obviously they didn't budge as the line was long and someone else is always in line to take a vacant place. Fortunately I don't have to accept that and gracefully declined.
Unfortunately everyone already committed to the job has to stick with it and do the best they can, which means enduring the pressures and stupidities described by Vortex, and accept the existing terms. After all, everyone's got to make a living. But for new joiners? How is this considered acceptable? It's probably the only industry technically complex and with high responsibility where this is happening. Sad, very sad....
These people paid the ultimate price and deserve all the respect we can give them so I won't even attempt to speculate on what happened those final minutes. The FDR and CVR were found and look readable so hopefully they'll return good data and more lessons can be learnt and changes implemented from this. But... and there's always a but, there is certainly greater factors at play. If you have a company that has your back when you diverge for safety reasons, if you are allowed to use your better judgement as a crew, if your health and well being are taken into account when you're assigned work, situations like these would be avoided. If not for other reasons, at least because you wouldn't be there in the first place.
I leave a question for the NG pilots out there. Do you ever revert to flying raw data, manual controls and manual throttle on critical situations where you are not in sync with the automation?
There's a lot of discussion here about what mode becomes what after which input depending on a window setting, etc.. That requires a lot of flow diagrams in your head on a time where mental capacity is lacking. If you're not coping, can you just pitch, power, flap settings and execute the missed app as published/briefed/instructed?
Do SOPs restrict plain old manual flight according to a chart and only then reprogram whatever automation is useful once you have mental capacity back?
The FDs are based on automation and if G/A reverts to manual throttle and manual controls then it's meant to be flown manually. Shouldn't you follow your manual flight, or at a maximum have some guidance from the FD but always with a pinch of Salt and not fully trusting it regardless of whether it shows you the brown or the blue? The same can be said about manual controls with A/T active and so on.
It seems to me that these mixed manual and automated procedures just cause more problems than what they solve once our SA and mental ability becomes reduced.
I've had instructors to whom the FDs were to be followed at all times, others that disconnected it during manual flight to avoid such confusions. This during basic training, MCCs, JOCs, NG Sim training (non TR). I really don't function well unless it's full auto or full manual. Would really like to know the opinion of NG line pilots on that.