[cyberferret]

Basic rudimentary 'stick and rudder' flying skills was a big factor in AF447's crash. All old school pilots know that when you aircraft is in a nose high stall condition, you never keep pulling back on the stick, but instead push it forwards to lower the nose and get the wings flying again.

The fact that the co-pilot in question kept holding the stick to the back stops was the main reason that the aircraft wallowed into the sea. Weirdly, he did let go of the stick for a brief few seconds, which was the only time during the harrowing descent that the aircraft started to behave normally, but then he pulled it back and held it back right up until impact.

Yep, the aircraft could have ignored these inputs, but the inputs are counter to what any reasonably skilled pilot would have done. (Note: Different to the MAX crashes where pulling back on the stick under speed IS the accepted way to stop a descent.)

[jacquesgt]

Part of the issue may have been that the plane had slowed down so much that the stall warning stopped (it disengages below a certain airspeed apparently). When he stopped pulling up, the plane sped up and the stall warning started again. Pull up again, plane slows down, stall warning stops.

[ricardobeat]

I wonder if something about this system was changed after that incident - why not keep sounding the stall alarm if the plane ends up outside the flight/sensor envelope? Can’t you assume that it didn’t magically cross the stall zone back into normal flight?

[foldr]

No, because an equally (probably more) likely scenario is that the relevant sensors are giving bad readings.

[Animats]

Basic rudimentary 'stick and rudder' flying skills was a big factor in AF447's crash. All old school pilots know that when you aircraft is in a nose high stall condition, you never keep pulling back on the stick, but instead push it forwards to lower the nose and get the wings flying again.

Except on an Airbus. If the plane is in "normal law", it won't go into a stall condition. Here's the Airbus training video.[1] Note, by the way, that the automatic recovery includes going to full throttle. The throttle levers don't move, though. Unlike Boeing, where the levers are moved by the computers and the pilot can overpower that. In the 737 Max, though, it's worse, because the engines are mounted too high and full thrust pushes the nose down. So "full power and back off on the stick" will not work.

[1] https://youtu.be/G161aMYCzbQ?t=100

[jamesharding]

The engines in the MAX are still producing thrust below the centre of mass of the plane...how would this produce a nose down pitch at TOGA thrust?

[Animats]

Sorry, backwards.

[foldr]

>The fact that the co-pilot in question kept holding the stick to the back stops was the main reason that the aircraft wallowed into the sea. Weirdly, he did let go of the stick for a brief few seconds, which was the only time during the harrowing descent that the aircraft started to behave normally, but then he pulled it back and held it back right up until impact.

This description isn't consistent with what's in the accident report. Where are you sourcing it from?