The Bowling Ball Again
I continue to get the feeling from this conversation that at least some pilots feel that a stall warning requires instantaneous action to prevent a major upset. When I mentioned this earlier, someone, I forget who, reassured me that flying a Bus in AF442's situation was NOT like trying to balance on a bowling ball. Is there not time to assess the situation and take deliberate response vs. instantaneous reaction? Would they not have had time to determine whether a stall warning was legitimate? What's the rush? If, unlike the Colgan and Turkish crews, the AF crew was not asleep, would not a thoughtful assessment of the situation be the prudent course?
Also, are angle of attack data not derived from a vane (or whatever) independent of the pitot/static, ADIRU, gyro, and inertial systems? Would not a glance at an independent AoA readout be the way to verify or validate a stall warning while in cruise. Is there such a readout?