Now everyone has seen the Air Crash Investigation episode with Tarom 371
so I guess the mistery is over and done with.
to recap:
1. aircraft has a built-in malfunctioning autothrottle on eng1 reducing
power to idle after takeoff
known procedure to overcome this is holding the thrust lever in position for a while and then all is well
2. PIC is incapacitated due to unknown and sudden critical condition
3. F/O surprised by incapacitated PIC and reduced thrust on eng 1 at the same time.
recovery impossible due to low altitude and aircraft upset condition.