Original Post by Concours77: My continued thesis is that the aircraft came to grief because the recovery was foreclosed by immediate and exaggerated handling, which was in most cases the reverse of what was indicated to the pilots.
That an aircraft can come to grief from sub standard instrumentation and seemingly random handling is cause for a concern perhaps more in depth than a data sheet?
On Airbus A-330 & A-340 aircraft, there were somewhere between a dozen or eighteen incidents at high cruise altitude where pitot tubes became clogged with ice crystals and A/Ps and A/Ts disconnected leaving those crews in the same position as the crew in AF447. In each instance, with the exception of AF447, the flight crews were able to address the situation correctly and flew on landing safely. Their key to success was recognition of the problem and instituting a plan to counter the abnormal problem they were handed. Each successful crew functioned well as a team.
In the AF447 situation, the crew never figured out what the problem was, didn't function well as a team, never developed a plan to counter their experience after A/P & A/T disconnect and never referred to available instructions had they had a clue of the problem at hand. Airbus designs aircraft that can be safely flown by pilots that understand the FBW systems and are astute in recognition of changes in flight control systems from normal to alternate (not normal). So given what transpired after the AF447 episode started, the non-recognition of the problem and how the crew responded, there was no recovery possible in the remaining time allotted. The aircraft responded to sensor information and pilot input as it was intended to do. As I have said before, there is a wealth of discussion and information contained in previous threads beyond the more recent postings in this Thread. It would be worth your while to explore the many items that have been discussed in detail. Here is one example coming from an Airbus pilot:
The difference between the crash and a crew who knows what's going on and how to deal with the situation more elegantly ...
AF 447 Thread No. 10
Refer to Post # 576
You can get to Thread No. 10 by going to the first post in this Thread No. 12