If memory serves me right, AA had during their upset recovery training placed an emphasis on the use of rudder. From the same fading memory banks, the FO had a habit of being 'ham fisted' (in lack of a better word) in his rudder handling. Combine the two with 3 or 4 full rudder reversals, as evidenced by the FDR and supposedly induced as a reaction to wake turbulence from a preceding heavy, and you have a plausible explanation why the VS failed.
Other scenarios are possible, but are unlikely to survive an encounter with Occam's Razor.
As for the idea of the skipper stopping it .... with feet on floor, and 3 rapid rudder movements which his sensory system is likely to have overwhelmingly felt rather than seen, I think it would require reaction times far in excess of what is humanly possible.
Last edited by SMT Member; 25th September 2013 at 15:32.