If you think about what could have been done to prevent this accident, rather than about whether the crew were competent/incompetent or whatever, it seems as though if they had had available the information that we have from the FDR, ie alpha, airspeed and descent angle, they would have recognized the problem immediately and recovered. But that info was not provided evidently because the system designers considered this scenario impossible. But three identical pitots known to be able to be overwhelmed by ice are not triply redundant; they are a single point of failure. The airplane -- any airplane whose systems rely so heavily on airspeed -- needs a truly alternate airspeed source, a full-time angle of attack indicator, and a stall warning that does not go to sleep and then wake up at inopportune moments.
Last edited by Garrison; 29th May 2011 at 15:45.