I think he's right, it might be the AOA vanes freezing in position that caused this accident. That emergency AWD was dated 9 Dec 2014. We certainly can't rule it out yet, before the forensic investigation. Even a temporary loss of control could have caused the crew to fly into a thunderstorm they were otherwise avoiding, leading to a catastrophic breakup of the airplane.
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An occurrence was reported where an Airbus A321 aeroplane encountered a blockage of two Angle Of Attack (AOA) probes during climb, leading to activation of the Alpha Protection (Alpha Prot) while the Mach number increased. The flight crew managed to regain full control and the flight landed uneventfully. When Alpha Prot is activated due to blocked AOA probes, the flight control laws order a continuous nose down pitch rate that, in a worst case scenario, cannot be stopped with backward sidestick inputs, even in the full backward position. If the Mach number increases during a nose down order, the AOA value of the Alpha Prot will continue to decrease. As a result, the flight control laws will continue to order a nose down pitch rate, even if the speed is above minimum selectable speed, known as VLS. This condition, if not corrected, could result in loss of control of the aeroplane.
If it is yet another repeat of the vanes incident, and the pane not knowing what to do next, the discussion about cockpit reliance on technology is going to be endless.
OAN news had someone on who said a little while ago that the bodies found were mostly naked, which shows that the plane either broke up in altitude, a bomb, or something in the air that caused a mid air breakup. The clothes are ripped off when the bodied fall at high speed.
There were lots of suitcases floating, lots of debris.
I found that information interesting about the naked bodies. They said it would be easy to tell if there were burns or other clues. If it broke up in mid air, it could have been due to heavy turbulence, which does not speak well for the AIRBUS.