A lot of the focus (not surprisingly !) has been on the engine manufacturer (RR). However, there were some issues listed in the comments to the crikey.com article:
1 Bus #2 is supposedly automatically powered by Bus #1 in the event of Engine #2 failure – didn’t happen.
2 Buses #3 & #4 will supposedly power Bus #2 in the event that the auto transfer from Bus #1 fails – didn’t happen.
3 After some time the RAT deployed for no apparent reason, locking out (as a load-shedding function) some still functioning services
etc.
Can anyone comment on the accuracy of these issues ? If true I would have thought that the malfunctioning of backup systems would be a serious issue that Airbus would have to address pretty quickly. I don't imagine that the A380s would be grounded (after all, the 737 was allowed to fly after several fatal "rudder hard-over" events), but they seem quite serious to me.
As an OLD electrical engineer who has worked on control system software I know how hard it is to get software right, and I just don't like the way all aircraft (and cars, and phones, and..) are getting way too complicated, so that when something does go wrong the effects are often unpredictable and unexpected.