High altitude Stall
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Curious and curiouser. Maybe they thought they were fighting a downdraft - engines roaring and stick full back? - not noticing stall because they were below 60kts?
I would find it hard to ignore the PFD down in the barber pole, or the pitch above 15 degrees. I would think that if an updraft were encountered, the first reaction would be for the airplane to pitch down to maintain selected altitude (if in level flight). Then as airspeed increased to MMO, it would automatically pitch up to keep from exceeding MMO (by 6 knots). If the pitch required to do that exceeds limitations, auto pilot drops off and it is all yours. What happens when updraft peeters out? Speed would disappear in a hurry at a super high angle of attack. High altitude stall follows and recovery would take a lot of altitude while falling through a very active thunderstorm. This is one scenario where I would like a button to push the airplane into alternate law.