I gave up reading this thread thinking everything had been discussed to death and that the primacy of the pilots in the accident had been fully understood. Unfortunately it refuses to die. All evidence and information points to a temporary malfunction which was compounded and turned into an accident by an inadequate response from the flight crew. This links into what I believe are relevant cultural issues at Air France particularly in the area of crew training. It also ties in with human reactions to unexpected situations and failures of CRM and lack of use of SOPs. But it is a human issue not a mechanical issue. As PJ2 has mentioned (nice to see you back by the way) this is not an issue with flaps or spoilers at all or with availability of information.