You say that «the angle of attack was extreme», but are you sure about that? Bear in mind that AoA is not equal to pitch. As the engines were producing a lot of thrust, the AoA might as well have been relatively low once positive climb was established.
From the diagrams I see online [1] it's difficult to know either way because the wind direction plays a part in the AoA. It could have been more or could have been less than I felt it was, but for certain the pitch was much higher than normal flying.
