That is the post I was hoping for... can I ask what platform your scenario took place in, Airbus or Boeing, or something different altogether? 20% successful recovery is a horrifyingly low rate. But it's what I've been thinking all along, and during my professional flying I've always felt we weren't being trained adequately by being briefed on what was going to fail (well, plus minus we knew). But throwing such a basic instrument malfunction into the equation is eminently important, because surprisingly perhaps the automatics are doing a terrible job at helping identify what's going on. Quite to the contrary, all sorts of "false alarms" are distracting from the real problem.
When it could be so simple: A cross check between three independent systems: IRS, GPS, and ADC (i.e. the static/pitot input) could simply run a continuous check on whether the altitude and speed agree within some large margin of error. And when they don't simply state: PITOT/STATIC DISAGREE. Very simple, and a really good hint at what might be happening...