I think one piece of information you’re missing is that they also had cockpit warnings that the sensors were malfunctioning, and the pilot side controls were stuck on stick-shake the whole ride.
So add in the part where you can’t actually trust what your instruments are telling you, and the plane is flying like a demon has possessed it.
In the moment you are wondering, is the plane stalling? Is my airspeed actually what is being displayed? Why is trim not responding? My heart is beating 200bpm. Is that whooshing the blood in my ears or the wind?
The answers to these questions is obvious in hindsight. In that moment the flight had entered mortal peril. The question is not why didn’t the pilots recover from mortal peril with perfect hindsight. The question is how did this flight get into mortal peril in the first place?
So add in the part where you can’t actually trust what your instruments are telling you, and the plane is flying like a demon has possessed it.
In the moment you are wondering, is the plane stalling? Is my airspeed actually what is being displayed? Why is trim not responding? My heart is beating 200bpm. Is that whooshing the blood in my ears or the wind?
The answers to these questions is obvious in hindsight. In that moment the flight had entered mortal peril. The question is not why didn’t the pilots recover from mortal peril with perfect hindsight. The question is how did this flight get into mortal peril in the first place?