MPN11,
From the standpoint of this Very Old Hairy, it touches a nerve. The initial fault was a failed ASI, caused by ice in the pitot tubes. You don't need an ASI. I flew my first 60 hrs without one, and felt no pain (I knew no better, and thought all aircraft could be flown like that).
AFAIK, the gyro instruments were working normally - so P3 (and P2 and P1) had an (artificial) horizon.
You put the nose on the horizon, and your wings level, and if the engines keep running, the bird will keep flying. Never mind anything else. We used to say "Never mind the Altitude - Fly Attitude !".
P3 vainly tried to chase the misreading altimeter with the results we know. Then (and this fills me with horror), it seems that the two Airbus sidesticks are
not mechanically coupled. It was dark. So P2 in the other seat could neither see nor feel what P3 was doing. By the time P1 came in, confusion was total (and possibly the aircraft was already stalled past recovery).
Your:
...[IMHO] caused not by failing to go back to basics, but not even knowing/recognising what the basics were...
I would say rather that they still knew the basics - but they had been "brainwashed" into putting them out of mind.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, isn't it. Pity it only works backwards. (We must both settle back into our armchairs now, harrumph, having explained everything to
our own complete satisfaction).
Danny.