"after all, when it all goes pear shaped, the last item one might desire, in a very critical point in time, is a pilot who might say...'oh gosh, I wonder what the QRH has to say?"
411A,
You'll be pleased to hear that at BA we train Aviate, Navigate, Communicate as the initial response to any threat...only when it's safe to do so do we train reference to ECAM/EICAS/QRH.
So, at that critical point in time, I would hope none of our pilots are thinking of the QRH. That has it's time though.
Pete reacted in the way he had been trained, glad he's back aboard.