An incident in which pilots will inexplicably pull on their stick at cruise altitude, climb and be saved from a stall and dive to the ground* only by the airplane's protections is actually very very common.
Multiples occurences per year. My best estimate would be around 15-20 worldwide.
*When a crew comes to a point where their actions on the flight controls cause a transition from normal flight to stalling without them noticing this transition, they generally are unable to recognize and save the situation on their own.