I previously asked the following questions:
- If/when the plane kicked into Abnormal Law, what warning or message would have been visible or audible to the pilots?
- Why was there an ACARS message about the transition to Alternate Law, but no ACARS message about any other change in Law (e.g. Abnormal or Direct)?
mm43 directed me to
A340 / A330 Control: flight & laws but having read through that, I must be blind because I don't see the answers to my questions!
It seems that whether or not the plane was in Abnormal Law (and hence had no autotrim - making the THS "frozen" at 13 degrees unless manually adjusted) is important in understanding whether the pilots had a chance of pulling out of the stall once they started putting the nose down (after the captain returned to the cockpit).
So far, it sounds like we are
inferring that it was in Abnormal Law, owing to the AoA and speed crossing the specified thresholds, but can this be shown explicitly through a message or recording? And if not, why not? It may be an important point, so it would be nice to have certainty. There appears to be no ACARS message about any law other than Alternate - does that mean that Abnormal Law doesn't generate an ACARS message...?
The other question, which some others have touched on, is whether the pilots knew they were in manual trim mode. From the "flight & laws" link above, if in
Direct Law the pilots will see "USE MAN PITCH TRIM" on the PFD. Is that also the case in Abnormal Law (it doesn't explicitly say in that link)?