It almost sounds like those guys dont fly the Airbus?
“There is no doubt there was a loss of control, but the Airbus system is not supposed to let this happen,” said Mr Arnoux.
What part of dropping out of Autopilot, entering Alternate /Direct Law and saying' si longtemps, suckers! vous ętes sur votre propre!' did they NOT read in the manual?
http://www.a330jam.com/documents/fltlaws.pdf
Obviously it was pilot error, since, if they had called in sick it wouldnt have happened (said with mostly a straight face)
p.s. @ aguadalte: I know! by 'pass' I meant, I hope you handled it well and didnt prang the sim, or if you did, not as much as the others