@rudderrudderrat
I didn't say it was. You need to check the difference between Alt 1 and Alt 2. In this case they had Alt 2 + airspeed instrument failure, which pretty much nullifies stall protection. In any Alternate Law mode, the protections can be overridden if the stick input is firm enough and held for long enough. In short - in anything other than Normal Law, do not hold the stick back expecting the protections to have your back.
@engine-eer
Hi - cheers, but that's not what I'm saying. I don't know what he did (outside of the points in time mentioned in the BEA "note"), and neither does anyone else on this thread that I know of. I'm deliberately keeping any speculation to myself as much as I am able, because then I'd be no more useful to the thread than people who are saying that it must have been the pilots, the computer or even the weather. All I am saying is that the systems behave in such-and-such a manner if they are operating properly (i.e. as specified and designed).