Retired...re, "Wouldn't be another possibility that they froze in a "what's it doing now" mode or / and were trying to resolve the problem by pushing buttons instead of using the obvious, the SS? "
Yes, that is absolutely a possibility.
Here on the forum, we can quite reasonably assess "17 seconds" with no SS input as a very long time to respond but in such an environment the moment is fleeting indeed. Such turbulence also makes it nearly impossible to a) physically read the instruments and the various warnings, timed as they are, and b) to mentally "re-cognize" what's actually occurring, primarily with the pitch, vertical speed and altitude - the same phenomenon which would challenge the A330 crew to respond to the CLIMB-CLIMB TCAS RA in a timely way.
BTW, none of this applied/applies to AF447. The failure was benign - lots of messages and aural cautions/warnings but other than the potential distractions from momentary ECAM re-prioritizing the system failures as they occurred and the dozen or so single-chimes associated, the airplane itself was stable, and fine.
OK465, indeed, we could probably ask a few crews about this same phenomenon!...
Last edited by DonH; 4th Nov 2013 at 18:29.