The absolute last thought I'd have with a stall warning is to pull back! Unload the wing FIRST. This is pretty basic flying. Also, basic training is not panicking.
Then again, I have a couple of thousand hours of fast jet time.
Peekay, If we have pilots flying who when stressed, revert to that simplistic mode of thinking, then we have unqualified pilots flying aircraft! Period.
It's not easy (but possible) to beat thousands of years of evolution wiring certain behaviors into our brains.
Each of us like to think that we are above average and will not make the same mistakes, but in reality few of us have experienced real-life startle + upset + disorientation situations, outside of training environments.
Being a basic human reaction, this "hold the stick back until crash" phenomenon is not limited to the civilian world, but affect highly-trained military pilots as well.
E.g., the C-17 Globemaster crash at Elmendorf in 2010 during practice for an airshow. The commander-pilot, contrary to SOP, aggressively maneuvered the C-17 in a low-energy state and subsequently entered an accelerated stall.
With the stall warning blaring, the Angle of Attack Limiter System (ALS) activated. During the stall, the co-pilot and an onboard Safety Officer warned the pilot four separate times. The stick shaker was also activated.
The pilot attempted stall recovery by rolling the plane level and holding aft stick pressure. (Sound familiar?)
Aft stick pressure was maintained throughout the stall until the C-17 struck the ground, fully 12 seconds since the stall warning + stick-shaker activated.
Even without the startle factor (or even a stall), experienced pilots have failed to recover from spatial disorientation,
and even when they recognize the condition.
A recent example is the fatal USAF F-16CM crash into the Adriatic sea two years ago.
During a night training mission out of Aviano, wearing NVG, the F-16 pilot became disorientated at over 20,000ft (which was plenty for recovery). He was confused and did not apply any control input for 8 seconds. By that time the F-16 was in a high speed dive.
The pilot attempted to level the wings but ended up inverted. He then rolled right-side up, and pulled the nose towards the horizon to successfully recover.
With the F-16 no longer in danger of crashing, the pilot -- still spatially disoriented -- decided to eject at 7,000ft and nearly 600 kts, and was killed instantly.
This pilot was rated top 10% of his squadron officers, had received many commendations and had well over 2,000 fast jet hrs including over 400 combat hours. He was just selected to be a Flight Commander and slated to receive promotion to Major.
Yet he decided to eject out of a perfectly flyable plane at Mach 0.96, with lots of altitude to spare and in no danger of crashing.
It's a reminder that no matter how well trained a pilot may be, when he/she is spatially disoriented (as the AirAsia FO apparently was), anything can happen.