suggesting that exasperation accompanied by a few mild expletives was the strongest emotion felt by those on board in the seconds before they died seems rather unlikely.
Absolutely
Dave, I think the majority of pax these days are experienced enough with air travel to be aware that things are not proceeding normally, not gone back to the report, but sitting there for some minutes on a roller coaster ride with pitch and airspeed excursions is going to raise stress levels.
My dictionary defines “pain” as,
Noun – highly unpleasant physical sensation caused by illness or injury
Verb – cause mental or physical pain to
Knowing you’re about to die a violent death is going to bring about mental pain I would suggest, to the point of losing some bodily functions – heart attack, bowels, urinary, brought about by stress, in fact you don't even need the knowledge of pending death to bring about those results, sufficient stress is enough.
Willow 
for your contributions, thank you.