Hi PJ2. Again I must salute your patience and wisdom. I do think, though, that in reiterating the proper procedures we can be distracted by just how emergent was the crisis, helped not in the least by the apparent thick skulled behaviour of the pilots, which we both acknowledge. We have the same target, but I think we approach the understanding from different perspectives. Your words describe "best case, best practice." Here, clearly, such was not the case, not with the information we have to hand. I cannot know why the PF started to handle the a/c so quickly, but he did, and right or wrong, I think he had a motive, one he thought was sound. That he should not do that is patent, as we know, again your patience trumps my volatility. I do not have the experience you have, so it may be easier for me to achieve confusion than even our PF. My sense of the cockpit is that there were two opinions on board, that of the PF, whose behaviour we know was incorrect, and the PM, whose only mistake appears to have been that he allowed the PF's opinion to prevail.
Throughout this three year long thread the evolution appears to be that the pilots were not up to it, and the a/c was wasted due to precipitous and unfounded actions. It has been far too long since anyone has written what these three pilots were up against. We cannot be at all sure that the conditions extant at the twenty seconds before and after were conducive to standard action, imo.
grateful to you