[presto8]

Thanks for the great summary. I also read the full BEA report which was very informative.

Is there ever a situation in a commercial plane where a stall would be a good thing? My non-pilot brain is trying to figure out why the plane would allow a stall even in alternate law mode.

I'm sure the Airbus user interface designers know what they are doing, but wouldn't it be possible to make stall protection always enabled, and then add a failsafe requiring both pilots to press a button to override stall protection? Then they would both have to consciously do a physical act to enter this dangerous state.

[munin]

as far as I understand, "stall protection" is a feature of the autopilot knowing its current airspeed.

you can drive down the road without hitting things, right? what if you're blind?

[presto8]

The plane did have the air speed information, at least at the time it made the stall warnings. Starting at time 2h10m17s, the pitot tubes started working again, the air speed was available, and the Flight Director came back online [page 89 of BEA report]. That is why the plane was able to make the stall warning in the first place.

I also wonder if, once the FD was back online, could the pilots have just re-engaged the auto pilot and the plane would have fixed itself? This is just such a tragic accident when there was nothing at all wrong with the plane for most of the incident!