AF Atlantic
Gentlemen & Ladies of course,
Having watched the story since the beginning, I think it is time a few salient points should be pointed out. I think I am qualified to comment having spend 5000 hours as P1 on 330's although I am now retired. I would therefore be happy to accept any corrections.
As I recall from the original ACARS transcripts, all pitot statics were iced up.
The effect of this disconnects the A/P and A/T without pilot input. The airspeed on both PFD's and STBY ASI would be useless and in total conflict to each other. 2 warnings follow, STALL STALL STALL(verbal) followed by immediately by the OVERSPEED warning (I think it is the "Cavalry Charge" bell).
Any sidestick input at this point would be extremely fraught (remember the autopilot is now off).
So, which one do you believe. It seems like the crew were trying to recover from an overspeed event and ended up stalling (throttles closed, pitched up).
The early analysis of the wx showed the flt to be transiting the ITCZ. I spent more hours transiting the Asian one to know that it is not to be taken lightly.
The question then begs-
was the crew aware of the weather approaching;
was the weather radar operating; was it being operated correctly- was the gain on/off, was the tilt down. The radar only shows water droplets not ice, so if it is level or up, nothing shows up at the temperatures one would be experiencing. As I always said to my trainees-: "you have to look at the bottom(of the CB) to understand what the tops might be like".
Given that I have not seen a full report I wont make further comment accept to say especially in the A320/330/340/380 family if in doubt of the warnings, physically sit on your hands until the conflict in your mind is resolved then maybe touch the sidestick.