Letter: Flight safety

The 2009 crash of an Air France Airbus in a tropical storm over the Atlantic casts doubt on the safety of the fly-by-wire system if computers controlling the cockpit fail (your report, 28 May).

While a degree of automation is inevitable, the whole interface between pilots and such systems should be re-examined in the light of the performance by cabin crew that night.

Used to simulators and automated flight controls, young pilots trained by civilian airlines appear to lack the skills and experience to cope when their screens go blank.

Certainly the French pilots compared badly with veteran Captain Sullenberger, ex-US Air Force, who coolly landed his crippled plane on the Hudson River earlier that year.

There must be a more physically-aware, hands-on approach and tellingly, after the AF447 accident, Air France pilots were given extra training in coping with speed-sensor failures.

(Dr) John Cameron

Howard Place

St Andrews