Originally Posted by
xcitation
That said why would he not verbalize his action to increase flight level to his colleague when he initiated the zoom climb. My own view is that it was a conscious action and a failure to verbalize/communicate to PNF rather than a subconscious.
I'm not denying it's a possibility - but on the other hand, if the control input was an entirely conscious move to get to a higher FL, why did he not level out at a sensible point and instead continue to drag the aircraft up towards "coffin corner"?