ightcrew did not have a clearly visible natural horizon because of darkness and clouds above and below the airplane, and the airplane most likely encountered instrument meteorological conditions soon after descending through 13,500 feet and remained in instrument meteorological conditions until just before impacting terrain.The accident airplane was in VMC (visual meteorological conditions) above a cloud layer when the flightcrew began the stall series. However, based on weather satellite data and almanac information, the Safety Board concluded that the flightcrew did not have a clearly visible natural horizon because of darkness and clouds above and below the airplane, and that the airplane most likely encountered IMC (instrument meteorological conditions) soon after descending through 13,500 feet and remained in IMC until just before impacting terrain. Because they were in minimum clearance from the clouds as soon as they initiated the stall maneuver, the flight crew was forced to rely on instrument references for the stall recovery. Although equipped with a electronic flight instrument (EFIS) display which displays an artificial horizon, the Safety Board, believes and I concur, the natural horizon may have provided a more rapid orientation for the flightcrew and prevented this accident.14. The flightcrews exposure to a low fidelity reproduction of the DC-8s stall characteristics in the ABX DC-8 flight training simulator was a factor in the pilot flying holding aft (stall-inducing) control column inputs when the airplane began to pitch down and roll.In the ABX DC-8 simulator, when slowed to below the airspeed of stick shaker activation, the simulator developed a stable, nose-high, wings-level descent, with no tendency to pitch down in a stall break. In contrast, according to Douglas and ABX manuals and the FDR data from the accident flight, the actual DC-8 airplanes stall characteristics include a pronounced stall break. Further...
