I think there is some misunderstanding of the information in the BEA report pertaining to the FACs. It is being suggested that the FACs failed, but when I read the following;
At 15 h 36 min 47 s, when the airplane was stable at flight level 120, the Captain asked “you want alternate law” and the New Zealand pilot answered “okay alternate law”.
At 15 h 37 min 08 s, the autopilot was disengaged. Nine seconds later, the callout « FAC 1, and FAC 2 is coming now »
I read it as saying that they purposely selected the FACs to OFF in order to get into alternate law. As I have never flown the test flight profile, I don't know if this is part of the test or not, but when I asked someone who has done it, he stated that turning the FACs off was not part of the test requirement.