I don’t know, the passengers must have felt they were just in rough storm turbulents if they were never notified of pending doom.
At 16 degrees, they must have had a fear of hitting the water because they weren’t sure of their altitude. I wonder how far into the four minutes it was when fear struck or did they think they were still high in the sky?
I can only imagine someone had to notice the backup altimeter not showing a climb.
I suspect they were confused by the slow airspeed indications, which seem odd considering pilots are trained from day one to understand the symptoms and take proper actions.
Combine slow airspeed indicators, a nose high attitude, and full throttles and a pilot could think they just had to be climbing regardless of the altimeter, instead of thinking they might be in a stall and that altimeter is correct.
I always start by assuming the altimeter and attitude indicator are correct but the air speed indicator might be incorrect due to the pitot being frozen or clogged by debris or a bug. Also, the GPS system will give ground speed even if indicated airspeed is suspect. I mean, if the GPS says I’m flying at 450kts ground speed I can’t help believe that is well beyond stall speed and good enough to keep flying with the proper attitude. Toss in power settings and attitude indications and a pilot could fly just fine.