How in God's name can both pilots in a low authority gradient flight deck suddenly become so disorientated
I could be asking the same pointless questions like for example how in God's name 2 professional pilots end up taking off in a fully loaded 747 at night in perfect weather from a taxiway instead of a runway?. How in a hell is it possible? But it did happen and it was not a deliberate act, it was a crew error. Your "how in God's name.. so disoriented" is responsible for over 1600 fatalities in last 10 years, roughly 42% of all commercial airlines fatalities when accident was classified as LOC-I (Loss-of-Control-In-Flight) and many of them happened at night or dusk/dawn soon after takeoff, during go-arounds or approaches. If you don't understand this basic fact you really don't understand human factors in aviation. I suggest you go back in history and re-create some of those accidents where things can go very rapidly from climbing to -15000 fpm.