With AF447 I never understood why they didn't remember they had 33,000' underneath them and use it. Shoving the nose down was not going to be so hazardous
I can readily understand how they got into trouble. Their whole career apart from CPL training was spent on button pushing the automatic pilot. In addition neither pilot had manually flown the aircraft in IMC at high altitude cruise either in the simulator or in the real aircraft. It took only one unexpected event (autopilot disconnected while in IMC at high altitude) to start the chain of events that culminated in a crash into the ocean.
My guess is that with MPL graduates with almost no real hands-on flying experience apart from VFR light training singles, taking their place on flight decks as second in command of big jet transports, we should expect the occasionally statistically improbable event like AF 447; whether fatal or not. Whatever that event may be, it is highly probable to involve IMC conditions, combined with lack of manual basic instrument flying ability on the part of the handling pilot.