Being a shipping man and now being reliably informed that Autopilot is not Autopilot other than a meaningless word...
Again correct me if I'm wrong but as ye old pilot says the buck stops.
'It is actually very easy to get out of vortex ring… at least in the incipient stage when the juddering and yawing starts'
If the above is not a meaningless statement then why did this pair not follow what would appear to be very basic steps to recover.
You would expect a Fireman to know the fire triangle...
Or is that unfair as that is the opinion that will be cast by many non pilots