Black box flying
Many suppositions have been made about why these pilots didn't do the right thing.....but NOBODY, including the BEA has told us what they were looking at inside that black box( the cockpit) that stormy night...
Almost everyone has assumed that there were enough indications that gave the pilots the required info to make the right decision....when your cockpit is full of TV screens who can say what was being displayed /seen ...that even holds true for steam gauges...
And if half the displays say one thing and the other half say something opposite, which do you believe ....do you put more trust in airspeed than altimeters ?...
Now add to that the fact that there was the proverbial dark stormy night with no outside visual reference and probably ALOT of turbulence...
I think most of us who have do multiple SIM rides would agree that you can be led to make some erroneous choices when you lose all outside visual reference and maybe half your indicators (not that they have flags pop up ) but they don't agree with other info you're getting...
Add to that the fact that you've just had the aircraft change flight control modes/protections (ie aoa protect, auto trim etc) in the middle of this nightmarish 3 minute ride and I think we might lean toward a more questioning attitude of the designers who think they can cover every base with one of their control laws....