How could an aircraft do what this one did with a massively aft cofg? My feeling is that as soon as the excessive pitch up, the crew had no options.
It doesn't have to be massively aft, the aft C of G limit for the 747 is 33% MAC if the shift (assuming it was a shift) caused it to only go back a few % beyond this the aircraft becomes unstable.
If an aft cg causes a pitch-up like that, there is is nothing that a pilot or flight dynamics that could induce a pitch down?
I disagree I believe the plane would behave in a similar manner if it is a load shift. The pilots may have had little effect, but aerodynamics will easily.