Looks like PF disorientated, and PNF was either the same or ...well it's not to criticise the dead, but for some reason the PNF failed to take over, who knows why?
Somatogravic illusions (such as the pitch-up illusion) are proven in a US Navy study to affect both pilots simultaneously and that's why it's such a dangerous illusion. If the conditions are there, it will manifest itself equally to both. As a mass illusion, it's a ready-made explanation of why pilots never rescue each other from such situations.
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The USN has lost scores of airplanes accelerating off cat-shots. The catapult's acceleration is very powerful and the phenomenon has caused there to be built-in safeguards in modern carrier-borne aircraft.