but I would think it requires significant sustained force on an object of that kind of mass...
For that kind of mass, the aircraft has that kind of wings and vertical stabilizer...
Remember, the aircraft encountered weather with ice pellets.
See Figure 26 of final report. In only 2 seconds, after AP disconnect, the roll angle passes from 0 to 8.4 while roll input remained neutral. Next 15 seconds, PF continuously corrected the right tendency of the aircraft, 4 times, 2 times at left limit stop.
In the same figure, it is interesting to notice the AOA for "STALL STALL". Robert might saw 270 kts and asked "What is that?"
A pathetic tv reconstruction uses "What is that?" to emphasize the "idiot" scenario
Air Crash Investigation S12E13 - Vanished (Air France Flight 447) - YouTube