Originally Posted by
DozyWannabe
For the record, at present there is *no* evidence that the pilots were ever "confused" by what they were presented with
I'm not sure you can say that (and this one of the very few things you have said that I disagree with).
From the evidence:
The PNF at least very quickly realised what was going on, a matter of seconds after autopilot disengaged
- At 2 h 10 min 16, the PNF said "so, we’ve lost the speeds" then "alternate law […]".
No confusion there whatsoever, in fact the BEA are telling us that the FD acknowledged that they pretty much realised what the critical information was within seconds of the aircraft handing over control..
But later:
- At 2 h 12 min 02, the PF said "I don’t have any more indications", and the PNF said "we have no valid indications".
That, to me at least, indicates confusion. Either
1) There were no valid indications
or
2) They misunderstood, or were confused by, what they were being shown
My money is on 2)
Confusion of that nature can possibly be caused by
1) Aircraft limitations
2) Pilot limitations
3) Combination of the above
We don't know which of those it was, and the answer (if it can be found) is probably key to the reason why the pilot input was mainly nose up (fact) and the aircraft subsequently stalled into the ocean (fact)