Lost in Saigon Quote:
Short answer.... No
Heavy aircraft can experience a stall or "Mach Buffet" (stalling of the wing due to supersonic flow) at much lower altitudes than 41,000.
AF447 could have experienced some form low speed stall, Mach Buffet stall, or "Jet Upset" due to turbulence, but a proper recovery would not put the aircraft in an over-stress situation.
It is generally a poor recovery technique that causes the loss of an aircraft in these situations.
Applying proper recovery technique might not be possible if the aircraft was descending in conditions as severe as what caused the jet upset in the first place, say, down through the CBs they were flying above and around. On top of that, there's the issue of engine flameout due to aerodynamic blanketing, hail, fuel pump unporting, or component failure of auto-relight features, etc.
The fact is, most pilots train for unusual attitude recovery where the recovery is accomplished in benign conditions with all flight controls working normally, a full panel, not to mention the engines running and outside visual reference. Many places don't even give "jet upset" training...i.e. loss of aerodynamic control at high altitude.
And a real-world jet upset, let alone sever or extreme turbulence involving all the forces, cannot be rendered or trained well in a simulator because the test pilots during certification don't even put the aircraft through those paces.