I still vote for the pilots being to blame. The entire point of having pilots in the loop is that they are supposed to sort out the confusing and unexpected. That includes the inputs from your own human failings such as misperception and adrenaline.
Are the techniques to handle unknown/complex/confusing situations understood?
Yes, and it's bloody simple in this case - power, attitude, trim
Are they still taught?
It looks like the answer to this is no, or at least not well enough to be remembered when it counts.
A few hours in the sim will not fix it, but better flight training will. I'm guessing here, as it's 20 years since I last taught commercial pilots, but 50 more hours of hands-on handling and instructing in airmanship should do it. The other point is that a proportion (higher than at present) needs to be taught by hard-nosed grumpy old gits who've seen it all, rather than 19 year olds with 251 hours who are hours building towards a commuter airliner job. But these older guys won't work for peanuts, so the system produces monkeys.
Last edited by Fox3WheresMyBanana; 6th Jul 2012 at 09:59.