It is unfair, especially for pilots, to not only put the blame with such certainty on the crew of a doomed aircraft, but contribute it to panic as well. There are so many variables in a complex situation and every pilot knows that everything is ultimately his/her reponsibility and others' mistakes can make life very difficult indeed.
Pilots too are humans with similar emotions and character traits. However, before flying a large transport airplane, they go through many years of training, many hours of simulator and actual flying in smaller planes, and for every of those hours, many more spent in ground school training, briefings and debriefings. Training is constant and examinations are frequent in medicals, emergency procedures, check rides, line training, dangerous goods transport, winter ops, etc. so that handling emergencies become second nature, just like taking a shower-one never wonders afterwards if in fact one did wash one's right arm!
As a result, not only previously occured emergencies, but also similar ones or completely new ones will be handled based on the same thought process and cool. Treat the aircraft like the simulator and the simulator like the aircraft, as ironic as it may sound, may actually be a good approach to guarantee maximum benefit in training and cool and calm in the real thing. During the course of these trainings, if there was any panic in any one, it would be taken out or they will not survive such demanding career. Secondly, often in these situations there's no time to panic as one is busy going through various drills, checklists, briefings, radio calls, etc.