I have now read many statements that the correct action should have been "pitch and power" at cruise level. If this is really true can any of the knowledgeable posters explain to me why autopilot disconnect was so urgent when speeds started to become strange. Could it not have continued on by simply keeping pitch and power with some noisy kind of alarm to the pilots.
I wondered more or less the same. Although I can perhaps understand the logic of the automation handing over with unreliable data and the desire not to complicate its logic still further, is it not possible to provide a simple emergency cruise "autopilot" that could be manually engaged in such circumstances that simply keeps the wings level and pitch at 5 degrees.