pulling back on the yoke during the stall
on the matter of why the AF 447 Crew as well as the Buffalo crash Crew desperately and incessantly pulled back on their yoke in a stall rather than simply jamming the yoke forward as they should have and as one is taught in the primary aspect of flight training, I offer this to ponder:
During my initial training, I was taught to recover from the stall by pushing forward on the yoke. Back then, in the "practice area" in the good old Skyhawk, you weren't "busted" for losing some altitude in order to recover from the stall. The objective was simply to recover before hitting the ground, of course minimizing the altitude loss, but that was secondary in consideration to breaking the stall. But throughout my decades of advanced initial and recurrent training, in order to comply with "training objectives" or "practical test standards" or pedantic check airmen and examiners, I was admonished not to lose a single foot of altitude during a simulated stall, for fear of "busting the ride". Certainly if I am on short final or immediately after departure, not losing a single foot in a stall would be of the essence. But when one is at altitude, then I would rather lose a few thousand feet if necessary and break the stall rather than hopelessly yank back on the yoke in the desperate hope that I might somehow maintain my altitude with application of power alone.
We are thus creating pilots who in real scenarios revert to simulator mentality of desperately trying not to lose a single foot, or achieving some other arbitrary standard of measurement rather than simply use up some of the ample altitude they have and trade it for airspeed in order to egress from the stall and recover. The objective has become "don't lose a single foot" during the check ride and don't dare "bust an altitude" in real life, rather than reinforcing what should be the real objective, which is to stay alive at all costs, and in the process, try to minimize damage to equipment if that is possible.
Just my thoughts. In any case, though there has been much success in increasing safety due to automation, the pendulum needs to swing back the other way a little, and allow pilot involvement in the art of flying airplanes once again. It's essential, because as we all know, that when the s**t hits the fan, then the Autopilot and Autoland and computers by the dozen are of very little help.