Firstly, no criticism intended for this crew and CPT as we don't know all the facts yet.
However, (and I am trying to choose my words carefully here!) I know that when I am the Captain compared to the FO it "feels" different. The ultimate responsibility for safe operation rests with me. The FO(s) may well be more qualified and experienced than I am, just because one is Commander that doesn't mean I have all (or any) of the "answers".
What I am trying to say is that, for me, as the designated commander I will fight tooth and nail to keep me, my a/c and my passengers from meeting disaster. Please don't understand me - I am not saying that any FO wouldn't attempt to do the same but I am saying that, in extremis, it might make a difference although I am not saying this was necessarily the case here.
If I've ever seen carefully chosen words, here they are ;-)
Thanks. And yes, you may be right, the additional burden of "I am in charge, it's me who is responsible for those 228 souls" may make you think about options even harder. I don't know, few have ever been in that situation and live to tell.
N-TV, a German News TV has a clip that obviously completely reverses the course of events: the captain storms into the cockpit when it was already too late, shouting orders at the pilots flying and then the speed sensors iced up. DOH! That's what the public gets (
Hinweise zur Air-France-Unglücksursache: Pilot war offenbar nicht im Cockpit - n-tv.de)
We know that there's press people looking at this forum and if they do, they better get "the other side" which should be level headed, factual discussion. Whether or not the captain's presence in the cockpit would have made a difference is not determined, wether or not the proficiency level of the PF and PNF were directly contributing to the accident is not determined (at least not publicly known).
What we all know is: they were presented with a situation that they ultimately could not turn around and rescue.
That N-TV clip also interviews an unnamed expert who claims that there is no reason he can see to go into a sharp ascent in the situation and he attributes that to a loss of situational awareness / to confusion in the cockpit.
As we know from the Birgenair case, clogged up pitot and descending static pressure is a great setup for an AP to pitch up. Given the weather they were going through, a considerable drop of static pressure is not at all impossible.
There's a lot of utter bull**** being reported about this right now. I'm sure the aircraft manufacturer is rather happy to get off the hook.