I have to say this leaves me with a niggling doubt. Just the troubling thought of innocent people going to the slaughter always makes me want to look again, and again.
Is there telemetry from the levers themselves--or just the result of those movements?
We've all been stunned by the sink through the (ideal) glide-slope, but what if several small corrections had been applied, would they be recorded before the resultant parameters changed (same question, I know) as opposed to the time the TOGA command was given?
It just seems so impossible to believe these reasonably experienced pilots would fail to apply power under these circumstances - just sitting there waiting for a mechanism to do the job for them.
Who's right? Is there any chance their statement is true?