Originally Posted by
Fl1ingfrog
If the 1st and 2nd officers of AF447 had understood P+A=Perf. they would certainly be here today.
Well like Godwin’s Law we end up here again, that said the above is almost certainly true, but....
The pilots were anxious and did not want to be flying in the conditions they found themselves. In turbulent sinking air they attempted to maintain altitude by overriding the auto pilot and pulling up which may have been stimulated by the audible warnings "pull up, pull up"; common in many large aircraft when the sink rate is outside certain parameters. A reference to the airspeed would have told them, in the first instance, all was well and at 34,000ft they had plenty of time to think first and then deal with any height loss.
You might want to read up on warning systems, the AF447 accident report and the CVR transcript again.
Now back to the thread.