Interesting article. I think the use of the word panicking was perhaps a little exaggeration, perhaps stressed may have been more accurate.
What came over was that Gongol's experience and background made him decide to act as support (rather than attempt to exert any sort of control over the situation) and thereby gave the co-pilot an immense pyschological boost. It is all very well saying the co-pilot is qualified and trained for the scenario which unfolded but even after command training the first time you are let loose in sole command of an airliner it is a pretty intense albeit very rewarding experience.
So for the co-pilot to be dumped in the deep end would have been extremely demanding. Sounds to me like she would have managed without any help at all but was lucky to have experienced moral and practical support to deal with the incident.
Good to hear that the captain survived and it sound like all involved deserve credit for a job well done.