Lightbulbs,
From the ATSB media conference (off their website):
About 2 minutes after the initial fault, ADIRU 1 generated very high, random and incorrect values for the aircrafts angle of attack.
These very high, random and incorrect values of the angle attack led to the flight control computers commanding a nose-down aircraft movement, which resulted in the aircraft pitching down to a maximum of about 8.5 degrees, the triggering of a Flight Control Primary Computer pitch fault.
The crew's timely response led to the recovery of the aircraft trajectory within seconds. During the recovery the maximum altitude loss was 650 ft.
The Digital Flight Data Recorder data show that ADIRU 1 continued to generate random spikes and a second nose-down aircraft movement was encountered later on, but with less significant values in terms of aircraft's trajectory.
All I'll say to your comment that:
The automatics in this event appear to have acted correctly and very quickly.
is... absolute nonsense! The automatics made a concerted attempt to maim/kill everybody on board that A330 by bunting the aircraft not once but twice, so violently that people ended up with their heads
breaking the overhead lockers!
