PJ2,
A great explanation, but a wasted effort I think.
This thread has degraded completely and become a contest between those with a long held fixation on finding fault with FBW/Automation/Airbus in general and those that come here without the slightest bit of practical knowledge and post their commentary based on their in depth experience working in scrapping yards or IT departments or what have you. It's even gone so far down hill that I see someone has recently posited that it all may have come down to to X-Rays emitted by a Solar Proton Event and someone else suggests that it's the result of an uncontained engine failure apparently resulting in a failure of the entire aircraft structure. Throw in the previous suggestion that a meteor did it and it all becomes just too much!
What I hope that the many who read this thread looking for facts, informed insight and considered speculation will have realized is that, with the exception of a few noble efforts such as PJ2's, the thread has been taken over by individuals who for the most part don't know one end of an A330 from the other but seem intent on sleuthing their way to an answer to this accident that fits their preconceived notions about the aircraft. With so few facts available and just enough "clues" trickling in to power any form of fantastic supposition they are having a field day.
There is a valuable discussion that we could be having about the few things we do know, the implications they suggest about what this flight might have experienced and how those with experience have overcome similar circumstances in the past. We're not having that discussion and those who've followed enough PPRuNe threads will recognize that most of those who have contributed knowledgably in the past are absent from this thread. The reason for this is that it's become basically impossible to carry on any degree of informed discussion when it gets lost under the random speculations of anyone capable of registering a user name, or becomes fodder for the various "Captains" and other self-annointed experts who sieze upon any crumb of actual technical knowledge as a lever to forward their own pet theory about how the automatics, fly-by-wire, composites or just the French in general are responsible for this accident and the ensuing cover-up which they presume is under way.
There was a time when PPRuNe was a valuable venue for discussion of professional issues, particularly when events such as AF447 occurred. Unfortunately that time has passed, and the informed discussion is now more likely to occur elsewhere.
ELAC
With apologies to our hosts who I know are trying their best.