Originally Posted by Rainboe
I am sure the JAL pilots used thrust to try and counter the phugoids without success.
As I recall, they got pretty close to mastering it, but unfortunately their location meant that they ran out of time and altitude before they had figured it out completely.
The fact that they kept it aloft for around 30 minutes, despite the fact that this was pre-UAL232 (the incident that proved that thrust control was possible), that for the first 15 minutes or so they were high enough to suffer hypoxia, plus they never fully understood just how badly damaged their aircraft was, suggests to me that they could have done it in more fortuitous circumstances.