Would any of the experts please answer some dumb questions for me.
1. How exactly does the NTSB know that the PF pulled the yoke full back and held it there?
Yes, I know they have the DFDR - but what on the DFDR trace shows that the pilot pulled and held the yoke full back? Is it the position of the elevator as recorded or is it something else that tells them that? If so, what precisely?
2. How can you equate the level of a pilot's pay to an accident? Are highly paid pilots (there aren't many any more) less prone to accidents because of their pay scale? Are you really talking about pay, or are you equating low pay to inexperience?
3. What standard are you using to determine the flight crew's "experience"?
a. Is it flight hours?
b. Is it time in service (longevity)?
c. Is it time in 'type'?
d. Is it a combination of all of the above?
e. Is it something else?
I ask these questions because it appears, to me, that a lot of 'conclusions' adverse to the crew are being made, quite willingly it seems, based mainly on a series of premature comments from a particular NTSB official rather than on hard evidence.
If this pilot is going to be condemned for having made a gross error in airmanship by moving the controls in the opposite direction to what should have been done, don't you think that it should first be proven beyond all doubt? Based on what I've seen and read so far, I don't think that it has.