balsa - we did this topic to death on a previous Habsheim thread, but the view is that had the a/c been a 'traditional' non-fbw type then the trees might well have been cleared with the extra degree or two of 'alpha', but conversely if the crew had over-rotated in their anxiety they could well have stalled and possibly dropped a wing which would almost certainly have caused far greater loss of life. The jury, as they say, remains out.