Dozy, thanks. I missed that. We swapped seats on our Boeing course too. I just wonder how much practical time the bloke in the LHS had in that seat, given the predicament he rapidly found himself and his mate in. 4000-odd hours is not a lot when considering FL350 on autopilot 900hrs/year, hardly touching the stick and being in "wrong" seat, even given that they train in both. It would appear that the training they got wasn't all that flash.
Lomapaseo, in my book, skill is the most essential ingredient. You shouldn't need much knowledge to fly these things, either in or out of a stall. I do wonder about the wisdom of needing to remember to trim forward in this situation when you never do it at any other time (as far as I can make out, not being a bus driver).
Aeroplanes cannot recover themselves yet, but it seems managements the world over have let pilot's skills atrophy all the same.