Peter

I think you are taking the phrase "angry" to an extreme. It is not that
I am sitting here pounding my fist on the table and crying for revenge.
I am angry that the pilots were so careless and took so many innocent
lives with them. No, it was not a deliberate attempt, that would be
murder or terrorism. This was a mistake due to carelessness and
negligence. If no one had died, we can call it a simple careless
mistake and leave it at that. When 50 people die, I call it gross
negligence. I am not a lawyer, so may be there is a deeper meaning to
"gross" than what I am aware of.

Yes, most aircraft accidents are due to human error. Aircraft is a
machine built by humans. When it fails how could it not be human error?
The difference is, some errors are simple and clear and be traced to
one or two individuals, while other errors are more complex,
intertwined and involves many thousands of people. We often equate the
former as human error and the latter as policy failures. But
ultimately humans are responsbile for all our errors.

Perhaps I am being naiive, but I have experienced fatigue due to lack
of sleep and long flights in IMC. When that happens, I make a
deliberate attempt to check, double check and triple check everything.
When I know I am vulnerable, I take the obvious steps to prevent a
mishap. That is why I sometimes take a commercial flight if I am unfit
to fly myself. I would never expect the person sitting in the cockpit
to me more unfit than I am.

I don't buy the argument that it was dark so it was hard to see.

Perhaps you should avoid flying when it's dark then. You don't seem to have
the proper respect for the reality of the situation.

That is a pretty cheap shot. Night flying is harsher than day, but not
because you can't see the end of the runway. Certain things are easier
to see at night than day, and runway lights is one of them, especially
when you are lined with it. Other things are harder to see at night,
like clouds, emergency landing sites and small print on charts. But
those are not what we are talking about here.