PJ2,
Yes, I might have mentioned that all the SESMA and maintenance-monitoring data is acquired from the QAR in the avionics bay near the cockpit. On BA short-haul, the QAR cassette is changed every 24 hrs, normally at base; not sure what happens on long-haul.
It does seem unfortunate when crash-resistant DFDRs record only the legal minimum of data, but I don't know how the JARs compare with FARs. As for AF447, 1300 parameters sounds impressive, but one also hopes all the differing sample rates will prove to be enough for this investigation.
If AF447 impacted nose-up, I wonder if there could still be a chance of finding an intact QAR cassette...