Concours77
Stimulus, Response. No Stimulus, no Response. That is the role time plays in the emotion called fear.
I'm not sure if we are on the same page, Concours. Do you now agree that an extreme fear response can occur virtually instantly or do you hold a viewpoint that it takes a significant amount of time to develop? From my own experiences, it can hit you like a hammer blow.
I am pleased to see that you are attempting to look at the AF447 event from the the "inside" view rather than as a judgemental external viewer. I think we will be able to do some thought experiments to validate/invalidate your concept.
From my personal experience again, any time an aircraft
does not appear to be following your control inputs for reasons that you do not understand or cannot control, it will immediately trigger a strong physiological fear response in the pilot flying.. By fear response, I am referring to the typical fight or flight reactions.
I would like others who have also encountered this situation to either confirm or refute this observation so as to confirm if it is inherent to general pilot behavior. I would not expect every pilot to necessarily have had such experiences, however.