I'm at risk of sounding like Mr Angry here, but I am reading a lot of excuses for some pretty rubbish piloting skills.
Most of the controls on that panel are within 10cm of the rudder trim. The two controls in question are a different size and shape.
If you haven't a clue where the switches are by feel, go sit in the cockpit for hours and practice the muscle memory.
If you don't know where the switches are, look. It's not as if he was doing night AAR or anything busy.
If he wasn't looking at the panel, then why wasn't he looking at the instruments?
29 seconds IS a long time.
Coupled with AF447, I would love to know why incompetence of this level isn't being spotted earlier (e.g. in the sim)