backup?
It seems odd that loss of the pitots should cause the whole system to become unworkable. Is there any sort of backup, eg inertial? I know there are three pitots, but if one can be overwhelmed by ice, then all can, and so three are no better than one. And if the FDR knows the pitch attitude, the angle of attack, and the rate of descent, why don't the pilots? The airplane seems to have had plenty of forward speed: 10,000 fpm vertical = 99 knots, with a flight path angle of -25 degrees (40 aoa - 15 pitch) suggests a TAS of 99/sin(25) or 234 kt (is this right? -- somebody help me out here) and it was responsive to roll inputs. I completely understand and sympathize with pilot confusion and mental paralysis, having experienced it myself, but it seems as if there are big issues here of information presentation and human/system interface, notably the counterintuitive behavior of the stall warning. We know, and the FDR seems to have known, that the airplane was stalled; why wasn't there a nice firm female voice telling the crew so the whole time?