The higher the aircraft gets, the thinner the air, and the more power required to quickly add altitude at that point. Most aircraft have a slowly stepped cli

The higher the aircraft gets, the thinner the air, and the more power required to quickly add altitude at that point. Most aircraft have a slowly stepped climb and descent managed through ATC that gives them plenty of horizontal miles to change their altitude, so they can more gradually adjust in normal flight without having to use max power. These pilots fell 4,400 feet, I'm sure they wanted to quickly recover to avoid any further problems with other flights in the area.