> I'd like to see some statistics on the opposing hypothesis : How good are humans, really, when encountering unexpected situations? Do they compare better with automated systems in general?

This is already out there. You can go research how Airbus and their automation works in practice.

You can also listen to air traffic control recordings to get an idea of what types of emergencies exist and how often they happen. I'm sure the FAA has records you can look at. :)

Now that apply that to something 3 orders of magnitude more complex.