First, the "stick shaker" shakes the "control yoke" (the equivalent of the pilot's steering wheel) to warn the pilot.
And, the documents show, Captain Renslow did exactly the wrong thing; he pulled back on the control yoke, to raise the nose, rather than pushing forward to lower it.
Nicholas Carr: The Q400 [aircraft] was well into its approach to the Buffalo airport, its landing gear down, its wing flaps out, when the pilot's control yoke began to shudder noisily, a signal that the plane was losing lift and risked going into an aerodynamic stall.
On the 777 that crashed, a low-airspeed warning called a stick shaker, which literally shakes the control yoke that the pilots hold in their hands, activated shortly before the crash, but it came too late for the crew to react successfully.
Instead of a conventional control yoke, the flight deck features side-stick controls, six main displays, and the Electronic Flight Instrument System (EFIS), which covers navigation and flight displays, as well as the Electronic Centralised Aircraft Monitor (ECAM).
In 1969, when the Comet 4's design was modified by Hawker Siddeley to become the basis for the Nimrod, the cockpit layout was completely redesigned and bore little resemblance to its predecessors except for the control yoke.
