Nothing really new was exposed, but some old familiar causes came back to haunt industry - A simple fault/issue turned into a disaster.
Ice was the root cause, however I haven't heard any more about the pitot tube in question? I know Air France changed the pitots on their fleet, as well as other operators, but why did the pitots freeze when the heaters were switched on?
Pilot error was a contributing factor, as were crew flight deck gradient, Capt had around 11000 hours and F/O's with around 6000 and 3000 from memory.
Still unanswered is why El Capitaino put F/O 2 in charge? The weather was bad but why F/O 2 in the R/H was in control and why F/O 1 in the L/H wasn't.
Also the circadian rhythm chestnut, accident occurred around 0200, again back of clock flying and the ability for crew to operate at 100% clarity has always been a challenge. I can't recall if that was a significant or even minor finding?
Also this is not the first accident to occur where a stall stick shaker function could have been more of an accurate warning to the crew. Perhaps if the A330 had a stick shaker function the crew would have then known that the instruments were or had been giving spurious readings and they would have pushed the nose down and punched the throttles?
I agree the crew could have, should have saved this one, they were the last line of defence, the last chance, however they didn't. Once the Capt realised exactly what was going on it was too late to save the ship, from memory the penny dropped when they were at about 4000 feet. No chance.
Perhaps this yet another example of 'tombstone technology'?
R.I.P