But I would say the recovery action when the airspeed started to decay would better have been to press IAS and beep it up a bit. Says HC
I couldn't agree more (I'm not quite the Luddite I sometimes like to profess) so why did they not? Why did two rated and presumably competant pilots fail to maintain situational awareness? Could it be because the 'act of piloting' has become too automated? All the skills which you have identified do not belong in separate boxes. They are all required, all the time. It used to be called Airmanship and when things were less automated (Seaking HAR 3) manual skills were in use nearly all the time (and I trust still will be when Bristow take over SAR with their nice new S92's). Perhaps current teaching methods and routine NS operations with all singing AP's have eroded this concept leading to compartmentalism and a needless and tragic accident?