wouldn't imagine it'd be any fun having both AP's drop at cruise speed.
Yes indeed. There are some here who will dismiss the issue of no AP, and will lax lyrical about flying the 76 without any AFCS in the early days, and it can of course be done without too much difficulty, starting from the hover and progressively accelerating and gaining the feel etc. However, to my mind, the stability characteristics are such that if you suddenly lose stabilisation unexpectedly at 145 kts I think it would be quite an unpleasant experience and would need real skill to get back under control. It would certainly immediately depart from straight and level flight in a big way (as described by the pax).
Edited to add that I just heard from a friend that works there and he said: "They initially lost all EFIS and both AP while IMC. UA recovery"
I would say that the account from the pax was entirely accurate! That would have been a horrible few moments.....