Are older experienced pilots, who don't trust the fly by wire computer, more dangerous than

[Savannahmann]

18. The problem is that the pilots spend the time trying to fix the computer.

Look at this incident.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Transat_Flight_236

The pilots were warned of unequal fuel in the tanks. They consulted the manual, and it said to have the computer equal out the fuel. No big deal. They had no reason to suspect a fuel leak. In the old days, the pilot would have looked at the instruments and the first question would have been. "Why is there less fuel in the right wing than the left?"

A fuel leak would have been the suspected culprit in ten seconds, perhaps as much as twenty. But precious time was lost while the pilots tried to manage the computer, instead of managing the plane.

These were both experienced pilots, and has spent many thousands of hours watching the computer fly the plane. When something went wrong, they waited for the computer or the manual or someone else to tell them what it meant. By the time they figured out what was happening, it was nearly too late. Once they were aware of the problem, they did a hell of a job getting the plane down with everyone alive. But in the old days they would have shunted the fuel out of the tank much sooner, suspecting a problem like a fuel leak and flown on one engine while they worked to get down in an emergency situation. Landing on one engine is not easy, but it is a lot easier than landing with no engines.