As the aircraft continued west, it descended below and was getting dangerously close to the mountains. The lower altitude and thicker air caused the Cabin Altitude alert to turn itself off at a couple of points at this time, before resuming for the rest of the flight. The captain briefly ordered maximum engine power to attempt to get the aircraft to climb to avoid the mountains, and engine power was added abruptly at 6:48 p.m. before being reduced back to near idle, then at 6:49 p.m. it was ordered raised again. This greatly excited the phugoid motion, and the aircraft pitched up, before pitching back down after power was reduced. When power was added again, the aircraft rapidly pitched up to 40° at 6:49:30 p.m., briefly stalling at . The captain immediately ordered maximum power at 6:49:40 p.m. as the stick shaker sounded ("Ah, no good... Stall. Max power. Max power. Max power."). The aircraft's airspeed increased as it was brought into an unsteady climb. Possibly as a measure to prevent a recurrence of stalling, due to the lowered airspeed caused by the drag of the landing gear, the crew quickly discussed lowering the flaps. Without hydraulics, the captain expressed that this wouldn't work, but the flight engineer pointed out this could be done via an alternate electrical system. At 6:51 p.m., the Captain lowered the flaps 5 units as an additional attempt to exert control over the stricken jet. During the period from 6:49:03 – 6:52:11, Japan Air Tokyo attempted to call the aircraft via the selective-calling radio system. During the entire three-minute period, the SELCAL alarm continued to ring according to the CVR recordings, the pilots most likely ignoring it due to the difficulty they were experiencing at the time.