others have spoken of the instinctive reaction to pull back on the stick. This may have a bearing on what happened in the cockpit. Here is where training and standard procedures are vital. As to why this crew did not follow the latter - this is what I mean by the realms of psychology and human reaction. The transcript released by the BEA is instructive.
If you go back to CVR there is something related to basic flight training how do we understand what flight controls do,how the wing works stall/spin awareness, AoA .
PF said he is not getting the speed with TOGA thrust and here it is teaching POWER for SPEED idea...
Later when he was told about Altitude he said he had FULL SS back. To him the PITCH controls Altitude
Another point, if you go back to CVR when the aircraft rolled to the right he said he had SS to the left. Again he did t get the result he wanted and there is a reason for that too.
Another one somebody said there was confusion on the flight deck .CPT said you are descending he was looking at the Altimeter where else but PF did t see it he was looking at PITCH ATTITUDE i would say thinking my SS is back nose high pitch i must be climbing. This matches 30 -40 deg AoA you can even tell by pitch attitude and high RoD. Where the airlane points and where the airplane is going there is your AoA.
At the end like many who give to their instincts and have wrong idea how thing works in flying end up like in this case again FULL STICK BACK PARTIAL OR FULL POWER.
You can have all protections you want like AB but the best one is if you have it in your head..It is basic training how it is done today pay and we ll make you a pilot in 6 months..Just check out some FTOs see their program and this kid i d say been trough one of them..