Originally Posted by
drummerguy
Another interesting fact, the a/p disconnected and the stick shaker activated at about 133 kts due to the ice incrament switch. Bugged ref speed was 118 kts. When the a/p disconnected and the stall warning, occured the airplane was well above its stall speed (probably somewhere around 91kts if my math is correct which is based on ref 118 being 1.3 vso). So what did happen and why did the airplane stall. The incorrect control inputs resulted in an accelarated stall which caused the airplane to stall at a faster speed than 91 kts. What is the reason for the incorrect inputs, I would guess confusion. Why the confusion, the captain had just over 100 hrs in type and all previous experience was in round dial airplanes (be1900 and sf340).
Renslow responded in a manner similar to what I have seen of people of his personality type and training/experience background (in the simulator and in real life). Something happened that startled him and he jumped at it and made some control inputs, and hoped he guessed right. Why would his first reaction be to haul back on the stick at the onset of the shaker? Because that is what he has as a rote response to a shaker because of the maintaining altitude training in stalls that Pinnacle/Colgan taught.
As far as why they didn't recognize the speed reduction, I would be willing to bet that due to both of their own poor rest in the preceding 24 hours (him sleeping in the crew lounge and her commuting in on a redeye sick- both due to financial burden rather than rest rules burden), that they were both probably just along for the ride and lost focus. They had a long delay in getting out which I've found sharply contributes to my fatigue level. Their lack of focus is also why it was such a startled reaction to the shaker.