This is where I believe the Air France way of doing things is fundamentally flawed. Most other airlines have a distinct chain of command, Captain > Senior First Officer > Junior First Officer. In this case the older, more experienced first officer should have been "In Charge" while the Captain was resting. [This would not prevent the Junior FO controlling the flight and making tactical decisions but may have encouraged the Senior FO to be more assertive when things were not going so well.]
This may have resulted in a better outcome !
maybe, maybe not.
AF pilot unions have always refused the "
distinct chain of command, Captain > Senior First Officer > Junior First Officer" as this would mean less trained/less qualified (read : less paid) "
junior F/O".
The underlying idea being : total qualification of the crew is better with one captain and two fully qualified F/O's.
Now, of course, the two F/O's being "equal" means CRM problems can arise as we see here.
Obviously the PNF had a, slightly, better understanding of the mess, but at no time he ordered "my plane" (at the time, F/O's did not get any LHS-flying training).
One last comment, the older/more experienced F/O is not
always the best choice for PIC.
Never flown with aging, not very concerned F/O's ?