Believe me, if you lost elevator control in a Pitts, the only thing to do is get the heck out of there as fast as you can, 'cos there's not a chance you are recovering from that.
It's clear he didn't lose it as he finally pulled out of it. At the speed he was recovering, even with full nose-up trim, you can't pull out of a dive like he did.
Another possibility is the dreaded control lock by foreign object. If something blocked the elevator after the snap, it could develop into something like what's seen on the video. With opposite rudder, engine to idle, and little speed, the plane could pull out of the dive, although always on the verge of stall.
Still, the fact he didn't reduce power until after trying to stop the snap (if he had noticed control lock, he would have cut power instantly), leads me to believe he just failed to make the 45º departure, got into a spin, and didn't have enough altitude to compensate for mistakes.
I recently flew Pitts S2B again after a lot of time on the Sukhoi 29 and man, that little thing sure has a mind of its own. Very tricky if you are not careful.
Daniel
