Automation= wonderful when used correctly
There are only two possibilities for why an altimeter would be relentlessly unwinding down (to sea level in this case). Your nose is pointed too far down or too far up (you are in a STALL!)
Unfortunately these guys were so massively confused by the automation that was "half working and half not", that they were reduced to the equivalent of a bowel of Jello. This theoretically could happen to ANYONE BTW, who is in disbelief/denial about what is going on around them.
As a low time pilot I lost my A/S indication because | neglected to turn my pitot heat on in what became IMC conditions. I was familiar enough with this particular light piston twin to sort out an approach in fairly solid IMC conditions with power and attitude alone. This was before GPS so I asked the radar controller to monitor my ground speed. I was/am a flight instructor so it was just applying what I taught.
Later in life for a while I was an instructor at Flight Safety on the Challenger jet but was still not too comfortable with it's FMS because I hadn't been properly trained to use it; so given a night circling approach scenario in the Sim. I chose NOT to use it and hand fly the approach instead. It certainly felt a lot more stressful than watching someone who DID know how to use the FMS properly for much of the approach (they screwed up the landing though), but at least I recognized my limitations and felt more "connected" during the approach doing it in a way I knew and understood (hand flying).
So I guess my point is you MUST know all the intricacies of the automation OR... somehow keep your cool and be prepared to manually do the flying if necessary.