Hi tubby,
Originally Posted by tubby linton
Thank you for posting this. IMO, it changes everything.
Their source is the BEA and I presume that it is a very serious matter if the BEA informed them at this stage of "no switching to abnormal attitude"= no trace of it in the DFDR. Those technical informations are too precise for being another "rumor".
It means that autotrim was available all the way down.
It means also that:
a) either they never really pushed the stick in order to recover as the THS did not move back.
b) The THS was jammed (but they should be able to say it).
Consequently, a) being much more probable, it would also mean that they never acknowlegded the real situation (being stalled).
My opinion is that one may make a serious mistake (bad reflex, etc.) but it doesn't fit with 3 pilots confronted to a situation lasting four and half minutes.
I'm pretty convinced now that there was an unknown factor involving instruments that fooled the PF, hence more specifically the Right Hand Seat which is feeded by ADIRU2. Also, by deduction, the pilot flying was David Robert, 37, with 6,547 flying hrs including 4,479 on type. He was by far the more experienced A330 jockey on the deck and was PF from take-off. His reaction was immediate, he was not asleep, and he should have been fooled by something.