This is why I was asking about gyroscopes in the planes in enough locations to accurately tell a pilot "hey, I know your airspeed reads very low and the stall alarm is going off but you're not stalling. Lock the throttles and hold the plane level until the airspeed returns."
It almost seems like something else should be added to the training curriculum and routinely tested that hardens pilots nerves and prepares them for some of the most stressful situations they could ever encounter such as before grunts go off to combat.
[1]http://www.technologyreview.com/view/424125/flight-447s-fata...
If you are interested to learn about "too much automation" problem there is a very good (and funny) talk given 15+ years ago:
And I wouldn't call pilots incompetent. I am an instrument rated pilot myself and flying on instruments in a lousy weather at night is hard by itself. Add an unexpected and unexplained failure on top of it and you have a situation that can simply "overload" your brain. There are good lessons from this tragedy and Air France adjusted its training program almost immediately after the crash details have been uncovered.
The sad thing is you can hear the cockpit alarm say STALL STALL STALL and the pilots never even acknowledge it.