On the night of March 22, I was following live ATC feeds when Air Canada Express Flight 8646 dropped off the radar at LaGuardia. A CRJ-900LR, registration C-GNJZ, operated by Jazz Aviation, had struck a Port Authority ARFF fire truck while landing on Runway 4 at 11:45 PM. Both pilots — First Officer Antoine Forest, 30, and Captain MacKenzie Gunther, 38 — were killed. Forty-one others were hospitalised.

I’ve spent most of my flying time in General Aviation (GA), where the connection between the pilot and the machine is direct. In a small plane, you feel the thermals through the yoke, you hear the engine’s rhythm change with the mixture, and you are constantly adjusting for the environment.

It is a stark contrast to the world of heavy commercial jets. In those cockpits, it’s often said the autopilot handles the flight surfaces for 99% of the journey. In that environment, the pilot has evolved into a Systems Manager—monitoring the automation rather than hand-flying the aircraft.