Without getting too excited, nor eliciting same from partisans, I believe the Pilots were not aware the airframe was STALLED.
Much of what we see in the BEA data supports this. There were insufficient cues to provoke a STALL RECOVERY, unless one certifies that TOGA and PULL qualify. Know the machine? Eh, Carthusian?
Erm, without question, and that means exactly, what? This flight?
This entire thread is peppered with assumptions of superior skills to this crew, which I find frankly repulsive, and quite literally, unsupported.
There is a soft bottom line, of course. To me, continued questions and a resistance to knee jerk pronouncements, plus an unwillingness to eliminate even a remote possibility, is preferred.
airtren, Without THS in the ascent, wouldn't the STALL have precipitated a Break that could have been recognised? Instead of a slide to mush that deprived some critical cueing? Not to mention a sluggish drop of the nose when commanded with FNU THS?