Reminds me of the Air France Flight 447 crash, where a unexpected manual mode leads to confusion and cognitive overload with no time to recover.
I don't think the Lion Air Pilots would've been able to recover at all, even if they didn't experience a cognitive overload.
> These steps were not in the manual, and the pilots had not been trained in them.
Source: OP
NNC 9.1 (non-normal checklist "Runaway Stablizer") here: http://jira.icesoft.org/secure/attachment/21680/qrh%20rev36%...