I think it must have been very confusing to rapidly transition from a quiet cockpit to one with multiple distracting flashing and aural alarms, simultaneous contradictory loud annunciations and inconsistent instrument readings.
In the face of all drummed-in belief in the peerless automations, to discard all these, go to Direct or Mechanical Law, zero the trim and fly a standard EPR, uncage and follow the standby Attitude Indicator & Altimeter and all this very quickly would demand a special kind of cool and experience.