From what I understand, the Pilots were the ones who induced the Alternate law and likely the out of control situation by STUPIDLY performing undocumented reset procedures while in the air. Had they not done that, they wouldn't have found themselves in that situation. Airbus a/c are flyable at the most degraded law, which is direct law. It won't be pretty, or easy, but it's very doable with a little bit of aviating. They didn't even get to that point. Without getting too technical, Alternate law is a simple degradation of some of the protections unique to Airbus. Without those, it's like flying any other FBW aircraft. Any sane pilot would NEVER EVER perform a computer reset procedure that isn't sanctioned for airborne operations. The fact that the Captain saw a mechanic perform a reset procedure on the ground, did not give HIM license to perform the same, while in the air.
All airplanes have problems. Please don't try to create unnecessary fear of Airbus products.
I haven't read the report yet but having a LONG flight coming up on HA, I'll have to grab the PDF to read.
Personally-as a huge Airbus fan-I cannot STAND the Airbus fear/bashing that happens sometimes. As azj said-all airplanes have problems.
The single greatest thing I ever heard my beloved Fifi called was "A THINKING man's airplane" and oh how true that statement is. I've spent the better part of 7 years studying Airbus philosophy/laws/logic etc. Basically soaking up everything I can get my hands on to read/watch/learn about Airbus and I will always defend/debate for Fifi!
First off-It seems these guys forgot the old adage AVIATE NAVIGATE COMMUNICATE!
The pressure apparently got so great that the THINKING went out the window along with the CRM, the aviating and the common sense. May I point you all to the QF32 incident as a great example of working the issue AND handling the Airbus systems and philosophy the PROPER way-all the while AVIATING FIRST-Now granted there were 4-5 pilots working the problems on QF32 vs the 2 on air Asia and the 3 on AF.
On a technical note-I wonder If either ever got kicked into Mechanical Backup. IIRC to get from mechanical backup back into direct law-I believe (and anyone who knows can correct me here) you need only to get two of the computers back on line to get Direct Law back? My point is these guys were in "oh [shooot] mode" yanking breakers they shouldn't have been yanking because they were desperate to get back to their version of "normal law" so to speak.