Some of you may remember the crash of an ATR-72 at Roselawn in the USA some years ago. The NTSB investigator, Greg Feith, and his team did a remarkable job of figuring out the cause of this accident. In general terms, the accident was caused by ice flowback on the wings, and in some circumstances, could cause the aircraft to become a brick. It came down to a design flaw in the ATR.
Ironically, at a 1996 ISASI conference in Auckland of all places, the Yanks and the Frogs staged a very public argument about who was to blame. The frogs of course, denied that there could ever be a design flaw with their aircraft.
IMHO, the French accident investigators were unreasonable in this case.
This leads me to be very sceptical about ANY investigation carried out by the French. I'm sure they have some fantastic people, but if they let political or financial interests come before air safety, then the basis of any report is clearly compromised.
Just my 2c worth. Hopefully this accident investigation will come to some worthwhile conclusions.