Regional Jet 900 (CRJ900)
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Distraction; Situational Awareness
Deviation - Speed All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter Loss Of Aircraft Control
Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Flight Crew Became Reoriented; Flight Crew Regained Aircraft Control
Aircraft; Human Factors; Weather
Enroute to BOS at FL370; weight 75;000 LBS; minimum drag .72 Mach. There was weather paralleling our flight SIGMETs and moving 270 degrees at 40 KTS. The weather was curving northeast to BOS we heard some reroutes going on so I pulled out the enroute charts and started to look at routes and listen to HIWAS on the VOR frequencies. The First Officer was flying and also had some approach plates out. As I remember the First Officer was adjusting power and we were at .79 Mach when suddenly the autopilot kicked off. I thought at first it was the yaw damper. I looked and saw red approaching the airspeed tape speed; and the Flight Director was showing a climb.  Just then the First Officer pushed the yoke down about 3 or 4 degrees and pushed power up to TOGA. I called ATC and asked for lower about 4 thousand feet.  We were cleared to FL330 at about FL358. The First Officer had recovered so I asked for FL350 and was cleared to FL350. I asked if there was any traffic near us and ATC said there was at FL310 and no problem for us.    I believe some of this was because I had flown with this First Officer previously and he was a Captain on CRJ-200 for a few years. I felt very comfortable riding with an experienced pilot; but he had just finished OE and had been off for a month; so I was aware of his experience. I guess I became very complacent and I know better; we all make mistakes. I believe the Swiss Cheese Syndrome is very true; we had a threat; and nobody caught it. In the past I have flown with distracted first officers and asked if they wanted me to fly and would bring them back to the job at hand this time I was the distracted one; but thanks to our superb training we have trained in high altitude stalls and we both reacted to our training for recovery.
CRJ-900 Captain reports an underspeed condition at FL370 resulting in autopilot disconnect and loss of 1;200 FT before the flying First Officer can add thrust and recover. The Captain was occupied with weather and planning a possible reroute.