...both the Flight Directors kept cutting out at intervals, so very probably they didn't have working artificial horizons either for long periods.
The Flight Director is a digital overlay on the ADI - non-presence of FD does *not* indicate that the AH component is not working.
Indeed, late on, the Captain told the PF to use the ISIS, the standby instruments - that's clear proof, to my mind, that they literally couldn't see 'which way was up' (or, very sadly, which way was DOWN) from the normal displays.
He says "Horizon - Standby Horizon", which could just as easily indicate that the two are in agreement and he is drawing their attention to that fact.
I believe that the spring-loaded, 'no feedback' sidestick was originally introduced purely as a weight-saving measure.
Not at all.
Monitoring what the other guy is actually doing is no problem with the traditional yoke or 'stick between the knees.'
Knocking the A/P out by bumping and getting foreign objects jammed in the traditional yoke or "stick between the knees" have caused accidents in the past too - it's not all one-sided.
Very much hope that Airbus review their whole 'design philosophy' about sticks etc. (especially the 'feedback' issue) as a result of this accident (plus others, like the Perpignan one). Might be a good idea to reconsider that decision, even if it does mean a few extra pounds of weight?
Of course, why not just throw away years of development and just make planes the Boeing way to satisfy a minority of pilots who can't deal with having the training wheels off? Yeesh...
@GerardC - that's fine but it's only one pilot's opinion. There are a fair number on this very forum who don't see the lack of backdrive as a problem because they have other methods that compensate for it. Also, as I've said more times than I care to recall, the A320 flight deck and controls layout didn't stop Sully!