Originally Posted by
dubbleyew eight
in the case of the air france flight I have often wondered if the aircraft didn't accrete a few tons of ice on the fuselage. if the pilot flying was convinced that the tailplane was stalled then pulling up elevator, which would reduce the elevator angle of attack, would be an entirely logical move to try to get it flying again.
Pulling up elevator
increases elevator/HS angle of attack.
Pulling back in the case of ICTS is to prevent or resist aerodynamic overbalance of unpowered elevators which is unlikely to be necessary with powered flying controls.
If the tail plane had stalled on AF447 they would have suffered a large nose down pitch moment and the elevator would be effectively ineffective (!) and wouldn't have been able to maintain such a nose up attitude.