He held back stick...... What could go wrong, he flies an Airbus?
He's in ALTERNATE LAW, what could go wrong, he is Alpha protected?
Wicked speed, insane descent, He'll wait for the a/c to "raise" the nose.
What else could be wrong, it can't be STALLED.
He had it figured, wrong, but figured. His idea of recovery was to allow the a/c to recover, as it always does.
Ultimately, all three figured to PULL was the call. ALL THREE.
It happened another way? Funny thing, Airbus pilots aren't quite as harsh on these three, wonder why? They know something we don't?
I think you hit the nail right on it's head.
You can't expect a crew to handle an emergency situation in which they have not been trained.
An Airbus can't stall (well, actually they can, but you know what I'm talking about). Airbus crew do not train stall recovery. It's possible these guys more or less grew up on Airbus aircraft, and the last stall training they had was many years ago?
I've never flown Airbus aircraft, but I've seen many demonstrations where the pilots fly the aircraft with the stick max aft to show what it's capable of.
So why are we surprised the pilots tried to recover with this procedure?
Last time I trained high level deep stall (in the sim) on the 737, it took some 10000+ ft to recover. It's not just "close the thrust levers and pitch forward--> recover". You need to push hard and use trim, then wait, wait, wait (and prey you have enough altitude), then hopefully you start to fly before you hit the ground.
These guys had a multitude of other problems as well. I just hope I never have to face a similar situation myself.