ttex600: In the Airbus I fly, the only concrete information I can see from my seat is the horizon in front of the windscreens. EVERYTHING else is computer/electronically generated. Please remember that when you question the actions of three pilots who were faced with: dark skies, thunderstorms, unreliable instruments, turbulence, no visible external cues, myriad ongoing nuisance warnings, .............. This was NOT an accident caused by a single factor!(IMHO) The final finding will likely indict everything from aircraft systems and philosophy to government oversight to airline training philosophy. In the mean time, let's not waste the opportunity to change things for the better by taking the easy way out and blaming the dead guys.
Getting back to the fact that pitot tube failure/blockage was the initial cause, I have temporarily lost both ASI's during atmospheric research until clear of clouds in a DC-8 due to the amount of water encountered inflight. The result? I'm still here. The airplane didn't fall out of the sky. The only 'law' we had was pitch/power (with moveable power levers, BTW)...and the autopilot will not trip off (if on) due to lack of airspeed. No auto-throttle and the FD is usually off. Amazing stuff, eh? Given AF447's experience, I wouldn't want to do the same research in a Scarebus.
As 411 used to say: "Them's the facts."