For those who think that the protections are gentle or gradual and that time is available... Thats especially for you dozywannabe. I just received some more info regarding the incident from my company:
In the recent event, all three probes became frozen and the aircraft erroneously detected an ‘incorrect angle of attack’ scenario which triggers Alpha Prot. As the AOA probes are frozen Alpha Floor will not be activated as the triggering AOA limit is not reached . As designed, the aircraft protection activated and a nose down input was introduced.
Unfortunately, as the probes were frozen (and continually sensing the incorrect alpha), the AOA did not reduce and the flight controls continued to demand a pitch nose down. Within 10 seconds, the aircraft had achieved 12 degrees nose down pitch and a rate of descent of 9400 fpm.
Aft sidestick input had no effect and the aircraft continued to pitch nose down.
And had that A330 been fitted with BUSS:
• Back Up Speed Scale (BUSS), which is fitted onto newer aircraft relies upon AoA inputs. It must not be used, so DO NOT switch off more than 2 ADR’s.
Switching off those 3 ADR's could have been a major problem, making things worse. So there goes the theory that they followed an established procedure.
These guys were badly caught out by the FBW protection in a rapidly developing situation.
Luckily they managed to get everything under control. But if there was ever an argument for a button to deactivate normal law, this is it.