Originally Posted by EGMA
Agreed, but on this night that would only account for a 100' error (if I've done the sums right). Altimeter erroneously set maybe, otherwise we may need to look elsewhere.
Point well made, I didn't check any numbers - just the concept. Here's another hypothesis: How easy is it to misread the altimeters in an A310? I've never been on its flight deck. But I know of an incident in my former airline [B-707] where a crew misread the altimeters and descended to 410 ft instead of 4100 ft. At night, over water.
You don't hit anything at 410 ft, but a similar error could prove to be scary if not disastrous. A lot could depend on how you react when/if you catch the error.
Aonther question: Do the auto throttles move on the A310? Could they have been in flight-idle descending - A/THR OFF - leveled (AP - ON), were distracted, and simply failed to notice decaying airspeed and add power until the shaker went off disconnecting the AP. Where would the stab trim be in that scenario and would they have enough elevator authority to avoid the actual stall when TOGA was applied? Just speculation - my knowledge of this a/c is zero - but its happened before on a different type. If I remember correctly, that crew stalled the aircraft twice before eventually recovering.