I'm struggling to understand how you came to this conclusion. I urge you to read the official report from the BEA (which is parroted in the Wikipedia article).

I'm struggling to understand how you came to this conclusion. I urge you to read the official report from the BEA (which is parroted in the Wikipedia article). The report clearly paints a very different picture, that of two highly credentialed imbeciles in the cockpit that bungled the response to a routine minor emergency and deviated from procedure (the captain was asleep with the younger copilot and a relief pilot at the controls). They subsequently forgot how to fly an airplane without automation (or never learned how), and made a series of unbelievable errors. The captain burst into the cockpit with just enough time to realize what had happened and curse them out in French (they were beyond the point of recovery and realized their fate) and the rest is history. From the Wikipedia article: On 17 April 2023, Airbus and Air France were both acquitted of manslaughter.