1
The fact that private/non-scheduled commercial planes keep falling out of the sky is why I stopped my track toward being an airline pilot. It's just too risky until you reach the pinnacle of real commercial flight.
1. Correct that she was likely not the flying pilot since she was working the radios. She was probably working the weather radar though...
2. Flying into the core of a t-storm is the very definition of pilot error
3. When you have extreme icing, all semblance of control is gone. You are officially a rock that vaguely resembles a plane. Banking that steep is likely caused by asymmetrical loss of lift. One wing had less lift so it dropped lower and induced a steep bank.
Have you ever had a bottle of water in the freezer and when you pull it out it is still liquid, but when you bang it on the counter, crystals almost instantly form? That is super-cooler water. It is below freezing but still liquid because the molecules are undisturbed. When a plane flies into those droplets, they instantly turn to ice. Next to an onboard fire at altitude, this is about the worst thing that can happen during a normal flight. She said they had precip and the temp was way below freezing. Then they turned toward more precip. Done deal.
Always very unsettling to hear the last moments before high speed dirt