regarding stalls:
yes I meant altitude and not attitude...though wings level does help.
I am constantly reminded that the Wright Brothers still know more than the FAA.
They knew enough to take off and land into the wind. (they moved from ohio to north carolina to do this and the FAA still allows tail wind operations at Chicago Midway, but don't get me started on that one)
To decrease AOA when stalling.
And to avoid Wind Flurries ( their words for what we know now as windshear)
by the way, is it possible that the CRJ in question was some how over loaded and the pilots didn't know the true weight.
you see, at night, "empty" one would expect the plane to be more sprightly in performance than fully loaded.
oh well,
jon