woodvale,
You may not post often, but good post when you do !
My personal suspicion is that this will all pan out to have been a cockpit light on /Capt snoozing/read the papers/wx radar brightness dim/ don't understand tilt or gain so try to fly over it / CB encounter , followed by loss of control, either partially or not at all excacerbated by frozen pitots & Airbus gubbins.
But, the problem in any case,I fear, originated with US ,gentlemen, the pilots.
Hope not, but I fear it will be so.