Originally Posted by HazelNuts39
The difference is in pulling the sidestick back - Bechet at the same instant and Asseline 3 seconds later. So Bechet was still in pitch control law when he pulled the stick back while Asseline was in alpha-prot.
There was also a difference in the way the sidestick was pulled back - Bechet in one quick move and Asseline more hesitating.
Asseline is well aware of this hesitation, and in his book (in his timeline of the accident in the first chapter) he volunteers an explanation (my translation):
"The mental image I had made for the fly by falls apart. Instinctively, in the fraction of a second, I move the thrust levers to idle (*), then to full thrust. I maintain level flight by visual reference. The forest approaches. Still no thrust. [...] I must not pull the stick all the way back too soon, for, if the thrust doesn't come, we'd only fall from a greater height."
(*) Because, as he recalls the events, he had already added some thrust six seconds earlier, when levelling off after the descent.
Nevertheless, Bechet would still have hit the trees if he had not been in a simulator.
Asseline should be relieved to hear that.