For those not familiar with Airbus abnormal law:
An abnormal attitude law in pitch and roll is provided if the aircraft is in flight and in any of
these conditions :
– Pitch attitude > 50◦ nose up or 30◦ nose down
– Bank angle > 125 ◦
– Angle of attack > 30◦ or < - 10◦
– Speed > 440 kt or < 60 kt
– Mach > 0.96 or < 0.1
The law in pitch is the alternate law without protection (except load factor protection) and
without auto trim. In roll it is a full authority direct law with yaw alternate.
After recovery, the flight controls laws are:
in pitch : alternate law
in roll : direct law with yaw alternate law
So it could have been in abnormal law due to the airspeed indications. If this is the case then lack of elevator authority due to the THS position would probably have been self induced due to the stick back being held. However, once airspeed indications had been restored the aircraft would no longer have been in abnormal law and auto trim would (probably) have been restored along (eventually) with elevator authority.