Originally Posted by
bubbers44
They just needed the real pilot up there at that time who would have handled it but he was taking his rest break.
Bubs - they were all real pilots. For one thing the much-maligned PF was a highly-qualified sailplane pilot and would probably have had more handflying experience than his peers (albeit at relatively low levels). The PNF was clearly concerned at the start of the sequence, but seemed to be overcome with indecision as time progressed. When the Captain arrived, even he couldn't make head or tail of what was going on until it was too late.
No pilot who had a clue what he was doing would pull the nose up over 20 degrees at that altitude and not know he was going to stall.
As I've said many times, the old "no pilot would X" claim is something of a convenient excuse, because if the circumstances conspire in certain ways, then even the best and most experienced pilots can make horrific mistakes (e.g. taking off without clearance, retracting high-lift devices too soon, attempting a landing in a thunderstorm that exceeds minima etc.). As we covered in the original threads in Tech Log, the circumstance here seems to have been a startle response that got out of hand - combined with a lack of high-altitude manual handling training and a lack of recurrent stall recovery practice.