Horrified
As a very part time passenger and model plane pilot, I have followed this threads with interest. The CVR and FDR data is horrifying - I would have thought that professional pilots would have behaved very differently in such a situation. I could imagine myself as thrown into that situation and doing no worse than the PF did - perhaps better when it came to stick inputs. That is scary.
On a recent flight I noticed the issue mentioned in a couple of comments - that is the loss of sense of aircraft orientation. I could have sworn the plane was level but when I looked out saw thet the wings were banked and the plane was turnning left. I can only imagine how hard it must have been for these pilots to sense what the plane was actually doing withouit any horizon on a pitch black night, with what appeared to be unreliable instrumentation.
I guess that is when training and professionalism is meant to take over...