A New York Times article on recent mishaps posits that instinctive reactions to pending emergencies may actually make the problem worse.  After noting the memorable feeling of stalling an aircraft:

What is harder to remember, in the heat of the moment, is the proper way to regain control of the aircraft…

“You have to overcome what your instinct tells you to do,” said Mr. [Jean-Pierre] Otelli, whose book “Pilot Errors, Volume 5” was the first to publish the unedited transcript of the Flight 447 cockpit voice recordings.

For the hundreds of pilots Read more