Holding yoke or side stick all the way back for 3.5 minutes is not in any flight manual on how to fly an airplane even if you don't know why the airplane is out of control. These guys were poorly trained and were not qualified to be flying that airplane. The only qualified pilot was taking his rest break so when he got up there he had little time to figure out how they had gotten into their situation. How can airlines keep hiring pilots of this low capability to fly these wide body aircraft when they know the junior guys will be flying together with little experience?
We know it is illegal to make the captain stay in the cockpit at all times if the flight is over 8 hrs. Make them put two qualified captains on long range flights so at least one pilot knows how to fly if the automation fails. That is how we did it on my first airline job. My last one was like AF but the FO's were qualified high time pilots. Not like these noobys.