All of us who fly for a living, or even just for pleasure, will eventually, experience a moment when tiredness, confusion, distraction, fear or any other human factor degrades our ability. Nevertheless, when that happens, it is all the more crucial that we fall back on our basic training of pitch and power. No matter how complex the aircraft - and an Airbus can be flown in its basic law like any other - those are our means of survival. This is just another example of a crew getting distracted by unexpected events and failing to do just that. My company, and I'm sure many others, are now revisiting basic upset recovery in the sim. These guys had everything they needed before them to tell them what the aircraft was doing, from attitude to groundspeed (available on the MCDU and independent of any pitot/static combination) The only thing they didn't have was the ability for one of them to see at a glance that the other guy was doing. That it the one major fault of the Airbus. Maybe the other guy's sidestick position should be shown on the PD.