I have posted here before because I like to get answers from experts
about aviation. I have been interested in the media reporting on the
Air France Flight 447 crash. More to the point, I'm curious if you
all think they are missing a bigger story.

The Airbus planes employ something called fly-by-wire technology. As
I understand it, that means the actuators that move the control
surfaces of the aircraft are triggered solely by electrical wiring.
They don't rely on a hydrolic system to move the surfaces based on the
moves of the control stick.

So as I'm hearing about flight 447, the thought crosses my mind that
if lightning hit the plane just right, would it be possible for that
to send the wrong signals to the control actuators? Perhaps pushing
them in different directions and locking them there as the electric
connections failed due to the lightning strike? Or at the very least
severing the electric connections by frying the wires and making it
impossible for the crew to control the airplane. I know it has
redundant systems and lots of insulation on the wires, but it seems to
me that such an all-electric system makes a problem like this possible
where a hydrolic system does not.

I keep hearing aviation experts saying that a lightning strike
wouldn't bring down a plane of this size. I also seem to recall NASA
declaring that foam strikes wouldn't damage the shuttle enough to
cause it to break up on re-entry. I'm just wondering if fly-by-wire
has an undocumented (or unannounced) fatal flaw.

What do you think?