During the course of these threads, I've often wondered if mobilizing the passengers would have worked - given available time. It would of course have meant a lot of loose passengers, their lives being put into immediate jeopardy, but the thought of bellowing over the PA to get as many hefty people to the rear teases at my more serious thought processes.
I've planned it with jammed elevator, but everything was calm and there were only 20 sob.
Aerobatic jet transport aircraft? Well, I'm not very proud of this, but in a BAC 1-11, having had a finger thrust across my face with 'MIND THAT!!!' I rolled to the right with I suppose the energy derived from surprise/shock. We'd taken with a pinch of salt BAC's trainer's 'It'll roll as fast as a Lightning' but the thing was passing 95 degrees in not much more than a second. (cruising at FL 80) The spoiler would actuate on the Up aileron side. There were engineers on board but no passengers. There is no doubt the aircraft would have been on its back in less than 3 seconds. During training, I'd been strongly encouraged to try the rate of roll. Several times. It seems that without the fear factor, it was good, but comparatively staid. For a couple of years, I'd had no idea what it was really capable of.
Given the speed of the ET, the g force would have been horrible -2g change before the geometric force was added. But when it was getting to a last-ditch battle, I think there was just a chance it would have worked.
On the first crash, the aircraft took that sudden excursion into a steep climb anyway. I'm still not certain how that came about, though there was a large increase in fuel flow just prior. We do know it wasn't rolled . . . don't we?