Air France 447 crash report: pilots ‘lacked training’ to deal with stall warnings
An earlier report into the crash revealed that the more experienced pilot was off-duty at the time and taking a rest-break outside the cockpit, leaving the two, less-experienced co-pilots in charge.
The report also confirmed the BEA’s initial findings that defective air speed detectors – or ‘pitot tubes’– led to inconsistent air speed readings and the autopilot to disengage.
When stall warnings sounded, the flight crew, forced to fly the plane manually, did not follow text-book procedures and pointed the plane’s nose upwards, instead of downwards, putting the plane into an irrecoverable stall, an earlier report concluded
If memory serves, there is a specific psychological effect in emergency situations that causes, or leads people to focus on minutiae while ignoring the bigger picture. An emergency during which multiple alarms are sounding creates circumstances leading to atypical, or unexpected behaviour by pilots. I think that no amount of training can overcome the hardwired limitations of the human brain. Evolutionarily, we re still dealing with cognitive abilities that are well behind the speeds at which things happen in our daily lives. We process data at a far slower clip than they are received in many every day situations, such as driving. Imagine being in the cockpit of an A330 at 37,000 feet dealing with multiple alarms in a state of mortal fear.