Originally Posted by
737Jock
With loadfactors changing, engines spooling up, wind changing... the flight control computers might simply not have had enough time to reach valpha max (before crashing).
Valphamax is a minimum airspeed requirement, and the aircraft never dipped below it prior to impact according to HN39's analysis.
Therefore some lawyer decided to write may be reached.
Lawyers don't write manuals.
I love how there's always this assumption of skullduggery in the case of this event, when the general drift of this thread indicates that there probably wasn't any.
For the record, going back to my post #26 - "may be reached" comes from the FCTM for the A330, not the A320. The A320 doc is worded thus:
If the PF then pulls the sidestick full aft, a maximum AOA (approximately corresponding to CL Max) is commanded.
The wording there suggests that it is commanded, but nothing at all about whether (or how quickly) it will be achieved.
I think you are right that the important factor was time, but it had more to do with the belated realisation of the danger they were in (as a result of an approach which was in itself belatedly improvised and, for want of a better word, botched) and the late application of TOGA thrust than it did any issue with the computers.