I'd like a citation of a study or some numbers that back up your claim, really I would. I'm strictly speaking about commercial aviation - not puttering around in a Cirrus with a parachute. Those aren't equitable comparisons.

Mostly because in recent times, pilot error has been the most frequent cause of crashes, to my knowledge, in Airbus planes. Whether that's being too stupid to avoid an active combat zone and get shot down, or turning off the wrong engine and causing a prop plane to crash in a recoverable situation (granted not an Airbus).

Basically, there are pilots flying in commercial aviation today that, practically speaking, are not qualified to be stick & yoke pilots but are commercial pilots because demand far outstrips supply in some parts of the world.

It wasn't too long ago in this country that planes were crashing all the damn time. Go here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_accidents_and... then sort by date and you can see the number of incidents in the US just evaporate.

Nobody is arguing against radar altimeter, weather radar, gyrocompass and artificial horizon.

I'm very doubtful that the actual autopilot has saved any lives. It's more likely to just allow captain to nap.

What about advanced systems - pilots?