Originally Posted by
Mesabah
Neither crew member recognized the stall, and their inputs were consistent with confusion, and sudden reaction. This actually happens more than it should in this business. The Q-Alpha system clearly warns pilots in spoken language of an approaching low energy state. The aircraft would have been barking at them to increase power several seconds before the shaker activation.
Again, ample warning was given. In fact, because of the selectable stall speed input on the Dash 8, early warning was given, with a greater-than-normal cushion of AoA and airspeed prior to the stall; the crew had adequate notice: enough so that crew who were doing their jobs could have and would have reacted with plenty of time to not only avert a stall but entirely avoid a departure from controlled flight.
This was NOT a lack of cockpit data. This was NOT a lack of warning. This was NOT a lack of reaction time. This was NOT an insufficient margin of energy, AoA, or any other metric regarding lift reserve or capability. This was simply a matter of incompetence.
The aircraft manufacturer could have had flashing windows the color of the rainbow with peach, kiwi bubblegum, and Fantastic Fatfinger Freddy Pink thrown in for good measure, and it wouldn't have mattered. And it didn't matter. It didn't matter that aerodynamic buffeting occurred, that the stick shaker occurred, that the pusher occurred, that cockpit instrument indication warned of the stall, or the fact that the crew had calculated the speeds and knew them and had briefed them, because despite the plethora of warning in the cockpit from visual to tactile to airframe buffet, the crew still failed to act, still failed to increase power adequately, still failed to reduce AoA, still failed to do the most basic requirement and tenet of airmanship:
Fly the damn airplane.
Adding gee-which gizmos, light, reserve lift indicators, PLI's, and all the other wonder gimmicks for the modern cockpit wouldn't have made one iota of difference when the crew didn't do their most basic, core job. Fly the damn airplane.