This was posted by fantom. I believe this to be one of the most reasoned posts in this whole thread.
He is the most capable operator of the bus I have ever seen. He is also one of the best training captains, if not the best, our company ever had. It is a great shame that he now just walks his dog!
K.I.S.S.
Why can't it just be simple? All these technical issues are very interesting but are you drilling too deep? I'm not argueing for/against the AB philosophy (for which I am the No 1 supporter; I just love the 320/330), only trying to come to terms with what actually happened.
They lost the pitots and, therefore, airspeed tapes. They had not experienced this before (I have never had a go at this at high level in the sim or the A/c). The PF chose to accept he was overspeeding and pulled the nose up. The auto-trim responded and wound in the nose-up trim. That's what it does. PF is now three minutes from crashing and the captain (probably wisely) didn't exchange seats with either of them (who knows what the turb was at the time?).
Lots of NU trim, at night, no airspeed tapes and three minutes to go.
Would you have done better?
Having spent years watching crews in the sim sorting out problems and noting the time it has taken them, three and a half minutes is not a lot.