I'm neither a newbie, nor a greybeard, but have only experienced Boeings, and admit to healthy distrust, due to my Luddite tendencies, of Airbus.
What astounds me is that this pilot held the stick back for three minutes, almost as if he'd lost hope, and that was all he could think to do. It smacks of someone continually pushing the lift button, harder and harder, even though the lift has been called.
I find it very difficult to believe that any pilot of my 737 would sit there, for three minutes, with the yoke in his stomach, the stick shaker rattling, and the altimeter unwinding. Boeings have their faults, and all automation has its traps, but this accident does nothing to quell my Luddite fears of Airbus.
It's all very well saying that you can fly an Airbus, it's just like any other aircraft, but it patently isn't. It's been designed to be flown through the autopilot, and seems to do that very well, and provide a lovely working environment. However, the downside is the pilot-machine interface. The sidestick and stationary thrust levers offer no tactile feedback to the pilot, as to what his aircraft is attempting to do, nor even any clue to his colleague when flying manually.
The Airbus sounds lovely on a normal at the office, but seems to turn into a nightmare when things go wrong, and the very things that make it work so well on a normal day, seem to make the pilots even less well equipped to deal with problems when they arise.
The pilots were not linked in. They were sat there scratching their heads, basically. All they had to do was fly the bloody thing, but it didn't seem to occur to them.