All jokes aside, it is a serious incident where several inspections failed to pick up the presence of the covers.
Have heard from a fairly reliable source that no Flightcrew were observed conducting a pre-flight walk around.
Also, the ground handling agents apparently installed Boeing pitot covers instead of Airbus pitot covers. Apparently the Airbus covers are designed to disintegrate when the Probe heat is turned on.
Finally, the decision was made to continue even though they did not have accurate airspeed indications and once airborne, Airbus being Airbus, the screens all went blank because the ADIRU’s couldn’t work out what was going on.
It’s amazing that they even got it back on the ground in one piece, albeit with a heavy landing.