There is no easy button for flying an airplane.

People assume that with technology comes safety. To a point this is true. What people don’t think about is that with technology comes more workload - albeit a different kind of workload.

When airliners had a side saddle you had three trained professionals doing their job to make sure the aircraft arrived safely. When technology moved in to replace the thrid crew member, the flight engineer, all his work was diveded between the two remaining crew members. Not only his work but his knowledge. Plus the added knowledge bank required to operate the technology implemented to make it possible — and “easier” — for the remaining two crewmembers to do the engineer’s job.

So, the point?

The point is that no matter how much technology we move into the cockpit there will always be an associated workload and a chance for humans (in the cockpit or out) to screw up. When there are screw ups, bad things happen.

Like I said, there is no easy button for aviation.