Hi,
There also would have been heavy buffeting. Given that they were flying at night in a storm, the passengers would have had no outside references to know what was happening, and would not have known they were falling. A clue would have been the change in cabin pressure, but how many passengers would connect that with rapid descent?
Maybe all this is right ...
But passengers also have ears to listen ... and I am than most (at least those who were not asleep or woke up) will have noticed changes in engine speed .. and it will have more of a worry about .. even if they did not know that the plane was heading towards the sea
Moreover, I wonder what that could be displayed on the seats screens .....