Thanks for the detailed response
L337 .
Given that all the other flights had to alter their course to avoid the weather then I think it is safe to assume that AF447 would have had to do the same thing at some point.
What is odd that from the limited data we have it appears that AF447 made no manouvering upto the point of the incident. This is remarkable given the path of the a/c when overlayed on the various satellite images.
Data points:
no pre-flight extra fuel
no known voice comms of course/altitude alterations
no known requests for extra optional weather info
no course alterations when entering the immediate vacinity of the CB cluster
Could weather avoidance manouvers have omitted for some reason and if so why?
Clearly the pitot's iced and it quickly went from bad to far worse. Other flights had experienced the pitot problem and delicately flown via N1 and attitude until the pitots cleared. Clearly there is still a piece(s) missing, a nasty updraft / losing a control surface due to inaccurate IAS / or something else to upset the a/c whilst flying with limited instruments in ALT LAW. Whatever it was it happened extremely fast to prevent any "we're down" message from the crew or from passengers via satellite phone.
Having read that the US are giving up the search, I hope that the French g'ment does whatever it takes to recover the FDR/CVR. If we can find the Titanic then we can find F-GZCP. Just because the pingers have failed the data is still there in all liklihood.
We do not want a repeat of this incident. The French g'ment needs to consider that if a similar incident happens in 12 months then they could regret not having done more this time around especially if it turns out to be an easily corrected fault.