Back in 2009, Vasquez created this image of what he thought a radar would show.
Source:
http://www.weathergraphics.com/tim/a...7-radarsim.jpg
If Vasquez's depiction is reasonably accurate, did AF447 try threading a needle?
BOAC, I agree that pitot icing was the precipitating cause of the upset (no pun). But proximity to a Cb with updrafts, and associated transport of liquid water into regions where it spontaneously forms ice crystals may have led to the pitot icing.