[driftdiver]

seconds?

The graphic in post 10 shows 4 minutes. Any fall from 35,000 feet takes time. Unless you are in a powered decent the 4 minute time frame is fairly conservative.

[ConservativeWarrior]

The graphic in post 10 shows 4 minutes. Any fall from 35,000 feet takes time.

That's true, but even if it took 4 minutes from first alarm to impact, that doesn't mean they had 4 minutes to recover. There's a point where things are too far gone to correct, no matter how much altitude you have. The degree to which that was true in this case is unclear it seems.

What I don't understand is why there aren't backup pitot tubes on airliners, concealed and out of the icing conditions until needed. Sort of like the RATs that pop out of the fuselage to supply emergency power generation. Why not have one or more pitot tubes concealed from the elements that can be deployed when the others have failed?