Lonewolf_50, I'm sure you also remember from earlier discussions that the FOs had equivalent experience or better as compared to the Captain. All three were very experienced and capable. I'd not denigrate that in the least.
JD-EE, I'd be the last to denigrate the crew, I was defending the crew management to Thermaller. I was tempted to add to my response "and by the way, the FOs are not just potted plants" but had not recalled how experienced all three were on this particular crew. Thanks for reminding me.
That they were all experienced supports the point I was making to Thermaller about it being a valid practice to have two perfectly capable pilots on the flight deck, and the Captain at rest in certain phases, and then fresh for when the higher/highest risk evolutions are underway.
(That said, I was starting to entertain a scenario in which both had fallen asleep until the bouncing from the storm and the warnings for the iced pitots woke them up to pandemonium. But I don't think 15 minutes is a long enough time for BOTH of them to fall asleep at the same time unless there was a severe cabin air problem - say lack of O2 or some CO got into the mix. And even that does not work because at least one of them has an O2 mask on, I believe. So much for that concept.
If the crew on the flight deck had been having comms difficulties, the typical pilot goes into "problem solving mode" until he or she is satisfied that he's got that particular problem solved. That is another argument against "drowsy flight crew." That still leaves us guessing how the WX radar was or was not helping their SA in re the Wx approaching. But it does not argue against being in the middle of a course change (avoid storm) when the unstable air was encountered.
(I've even entertained the thought that the WX radar had somehow malfunctioned. ... But it would explain their flying peacefully into disaster.)
Greybeard's explanation was raised in one of the earlier threads, as I recall.
There have been reported cases of heavy icing on the radome causing the radar display to go all red, which won't trigger a fault.
In this case, we just don't know if a pilot was using the Wx radar at all.