When someone can tell me with a straight face that the 440 passengers and 29 crew members of QF32[1] would still be alive without the heroes they had up front that day.
That was a fascinating read, although I must play devil's advocate and ask what prevents a ground crew from taking over a commercial airliner remotely in case of distress? None of what this flight crew did necessitated their physical presence onboard, only their decision-making and operation of the existing aircraft controls.
Given that the plane was on battery power when it landed, a ground crew may not have still had contact and control of the aircraft. In the case of the "Gimli Glider" mentioned below, there was a total power failure due to fuel exhaustion and IIRC the pilots had to crank down the nosewheel by hand.
What about passengers that were killed due to human error?