Here's what I don't fully grasp (and won't until the FDR is recovered): the Captain had time on a F16. My understanding is that the F16 sidestick does not give feedback and moves very little. And obviously the F16 is a FBW aircraft as well. I would think this captain would have had one of the best shots at recovering the aircraft, if it was indeed upset by wx as is suspected. He should have also been very familiar with stall regimes at least on the F16 and I would suspect would have at least tried a few things in the sim.
Thoughts?