So much speculations and disinformation. The powers that be do not want the cat out of the bag. Copy this down as it will not last long on this thread.
The A320 plane in question had the rudder limiter problems for several days if not weeks prior to the incident. Like most Airbus products, lazy maintenance crew as well as the management sought the cheapest and fastest option! They reset the circuit breakers everytime the rudder limiter ECAM message came on...and they were successful in getting back to work.
The Captain had flown the aircraft previously where the problem cropped up and was logged. On the ground previously, the Captain had seen the ground maintenance engineer " magically " restored normal operations with the resetting of circuit breakers on the panel at the back his seat. Those were circuit breakers, not the overhead reset breakers.
So when the same ECAM message came about inflight on that tragic day, the first officer was put in control and he got off his seat and resetted the circuit breaker behind his seat. That triggered an a rudder control reaction causing the f/o to overcontrol with abrupt inputs to the side stick and rudder pedals.
The series of abrupt oscillations led to very very unusual pitch, roll attitudes because of unconscious inputs to the sidestick as the f/o overcontrolled with abrupt alternating control inputs very much like that of the f/o of the American Airlines A300 crash at New York in 2001.
The plane in unusual upset attitudes became unrecoverable by the time the skipper could get back to the seat.
This is being handled gingerly because the Air Asia maintenance practice come into question, Indonesia Aviation Maintenance oversight come into question, crew logging of squawks come into question, missing maintenance log pages AND FINALLY, THE AIRBUS PRODUCT...Airbus lovers are going to howl and bawl but the final question is product reliability because the rudder limiter thingy had been swept under the carpet for too long. Easy fixes had been in use for far too long...other operators were LUCKY FOR FAR TOO LONG. Air Asia was lucky for far too long until that fateful day.
At the behest of Airbus, the other cheapie A320 operators have kept their silence...all big money and to prevent investigators into digging into past maintenance practices. 'Nuff said. Copy this down. I won't come back to answer any puerile questions.
The Indonesian Aviation authorities need to pick up their game, otherwise nothing will change. The carrier in question's management, are chasing one thing, the lowest cost base. Proper detailed engineering puts this at risk.
Tiger Airways Australia good example. Pushed 10 A320 fleet in Australia hard, no time for proper maintenance. Big no no from CASA down there. Cost them a bit too.