Middle of the book.
Reading so many opinions over the past year about this unfortunate crash, it seems to me that the majority are picking up the story in the middle of the book. Most comments begin after the airspeed, auto pilot and auto thrust disconnect. For me, that is not where the story begins. It begins when the crew enter the flight dispatch/operations office in Rio. These 3 pilots about to take a flight at night over the ocean must have been given a weather briefing, weather maps and had to know what type of weather to expect in the ITCZ. Next, they must have checked the fuel uplift for the flight including fuel to circumnavigate the bad weather. In the CVR there doesn't seem to be any mention of the weather by anyone, neither any plan to skirt the CBs. When the captain left the flight deck, did he say anything about the ITCZ ? As the aircraft reached TOC, was the radar checked and set for inflight operation in cruise?
You see, this is where the story begins. This is the beginning of the book. I will forever hold that this accident would never have happened if they had gone around the storm. That is where they screwed up royally. All the other stuff that has been discussed for the past year has nothing to do with what really caused this crash. They flew a perfectly good airplane into CBs that iced up the pitot tubes causing the loss of control. As for the heated pitot tubes, have you ever made the mistake of touching one on the ramp check? It will give you a really bad burn if the switch is in the on position. Don't forget that after lift-off they go to high power and get much hotter for flight.
I will say again for the 10th time, you don't fly an airplane into CBs when close to the coffin corner.
I only hope that everyone has learnt the lessons from this accident and will not repeat them.
Thanks..