"John Alger" wrote...

The A-320 which crashed into the trees in France was performing a
fly-by demonstration, by a line pilot, not an Airbus test or demo
pilot. The profile was to fly by at 500 feet. The aircraft was below
100 feet. This is significant to the incident (and not just because
that is where we find trees). In the Airbus the computers have a group
of flight control protections collectively known as "Laws". In Normal
Law there is a low-speed, high AOA protection known as Alpha-Floor.
Alpha-Floor is reached somewhere below Vls (the lowest speed the
aircraft will fly with autopilot/autothrust on and sidestick in
neutral), and prior to Alpha-Max (maximum AOA). At Alpha-Floor the
autothrust commands TOGA power, and regardless of how much you pull
back on the sidestick, the aircraft will not decelerate below
Alpha-Max. It will just mush along at TOGA power until it runs out of
gas or the pilot lowers the nose to accelerate.

The problem is, Alpha-Floor is not available between 100' and
touchdown - otherwise you could never land! The pilot was expecting
Alpha-Floor, but being too low, it did not happen. By the time he
realized his error, he applied power, but it was too late. You can, in
fact, hear the engines spooling up just prior to his impact with the
trees in the video we show in class.

From what you say here, it does not appear autothrottle was engaged (which also
correlates with other descriptions I've read) -- apparently, the pilot manually
moved the throttles from idle to Max. Is this true?

Is Alpha-Max the stall AOA, or something less? Is there any "emergency
override" that will engage the autothrottle when approaching Alpha-Max?