Disclaimer: I've never been in an AirBus cockpit or simulator. I'm just a retired airline pilot.
FlexibleResponse - Don't give up so easily.
I have no idea why AF447 "did not switch to Abnormal Attitude Law", especially since the BEA release appears to indicate that the parameters that should cause this were in fact exceeded. So, if it didn't - why not? Was this just one more failure of the infallible computers to act as expected?
If on the other hand it did go into Abnormal Attitude Law, was there a failure of the sytem to record that fact? How do we know if it failed to go or merely failed to record that it did?
If the computers behaved as programmed, then why did the THS reach 13 deg NU and stay there for the remainder of the event?
The assumed answer is: The pilots continued to apply and hold full or near-full NU control stick. Why? Because they "didn't know it was stalled"?
As a simpleton, I don't buy it. It doesn't matter whether they knew it was stalled or they didn't. They certainly knew they were descending at a rapid rate, whether or not they had accurate IAS or no IAS at all.
If they (or PF) were continuously applying NU control input - and it obviously was not changing the situation - would they just sit there and not try something (anything) different - such as opposite (ND) control input? My concept of "logic" just doesn't seem to be working in this tale of tragedy.
Did they also lose all attitude references, altimeters and VS indicators as well? It appears they did not. They couldn't observe an apparent 16 deg nose up attitude? They somehow believed that would keep them in level flight and not cause a significant loss of airspeed (even if they couldn't read the airspeed tapes)?
I mean, according to what we are told, they were in level flight - cruising. They lost airspeed indication - for whatever reason(s). Their AP/AT disconnected. Would that change the a/c attitude all by itself. Why?
Is there something in the systems that would cause the THS to move towards NU, or for that matter ND (before the AP disconnected) as a consequence of the loss of reliable airspeed data? [I am not suggesting it did - just asking if it could].
Based on what I've read so far, there's a huge fly in the ointment somewhere that none of us seems to fully understand. It doesn't compute! <pun intended>
At some point I hope we get enough information to reasonably understand what might have ocurred on that fateful night.; why two fully qualified pilots were apparently unable to maintain level flight in a fully functional aircraft that has lost no more than the input from its pitot tubes (if that is in fact proven beyond doubt). Why it would seemingly "zoom up" some 3000 ft without them noticing or doing anything to prevent/correct/stop it? It just doesn't make sense to me and I'm not ready to crucify them until we know much more.
Meanwhile, me thinks this aircraft was somehow
automated out of existence.