Damn, it seems like there's been a lot or air disasters recently. Has there been any comment on the cause of it?
There was only 1 other plane crash this year, which still makes planes very safe and reliable. Just think about it, most airports in the world have over 10 takeoffs every hour and out of these thousands of planes in air every day we have maybe one crash every 2 months. I read a lot about plane crashes and most are due to human error.
Just like cars, plane travel will become a lot safer when humans are taken out of the equation and only used for emergencies (mechanical problems).
Is that not how planes operate now? I assumed (perhaps incorrectly) that the pilots are mainly used for takeoffs and landings and the majority of the flight time is now spent on autopilot or to reroute around storms or turbulence.
Your assumption is correct. And even landings are often performed on autopilot in the larger airports with ILS CAT III. During the flight, the pilot will set the plane on autopilot and only adjust settings through the autopilot to change the course or altitude.
There was a disaster when the plane's autopilot was automatically switched off without the pilot being notified, when too much pressure was applied to the yoke.
Each plane crash is a tragedy, but speculation as to what happened in France are fruitless until the flight recorders are found and decoded.
Sincere condolences to the families...