I am proud to be reader on this Forum where knowledgeable and trained people give their insight to the tragedy of France 447. I've tried to learn from the posts but admit that I'm not able to comprehend much of the terminology nor the reasonings that have been offered.

While I get the guist of the tragic mayhem and can clearly see how the pilots so totally missed the colossal problem, through their lack of communication and understanding, I think that this is unforgivable. (I'm not refereing to the pilots themselves although their lack of expertise is sad beyond belief).

And I may appear to be very ignorant but considering the circumstances, I think that the Captain bears the brunt of responsibility. The conditions were such that he should have known to stay on the deck ~ regardless of his fatigue? ~ he should have anticipated that his experience/training would be an invaluable tool to his crew during an out-of-the-ordinary flight where weather conditions were at their worst. They might have been able to avoid, the worstbumps and airpockets and lightning, the automatic switch off of the auto-pilot, the captain might have been able to talk the junior pilots through, delegating what each of them should be doing ~ AND WHEN. Rather than seating himself behind the left seat!!! ~ his position as captain of the ship, his training should have kicked in and his calculation of the situation should have been sharp.

I liken it to the acting surgeon who leaves the OR after a semi normal operation but the patients "vitals" are quite off. The surgeon who says: " finish it for me ~ I'll be back to check later"; who expects that his/her assistants will deal with it ~ but something terrible goes wrong and the patient dies. For the sake of a little rest. All things being equal, I'd say why not? But things weren't equal ~ not in the OR nor in the cockpit 0f 447.

God Bless all the vitims, their families and friends, all of the pilots; their errors were human errors. We can be responsible for disasters but we must be forgiven. We learn so much if we can be compassionate.