The issue with an Airbus is that if the auto pilot is on it can really get screwed up fast. Not sure how the comparators work on that aircraft.
You forgot the first BS story that France tried to use to explain the crash - lightning strike.
“The most likely thing is that the plane was hit by lightning,” Air France’s director of communications, Francois Brouse said, the Times reports. “The plane was in a stormy area with strong turbulence,” he said. Search crews have been dispatched to look for wreckage by air and water, but the plane remains missing. “It’s certainly no longer in the air now,” said Pierre-Henri Gourgeon, the airline’s CEO. “It would have run out of fuel.”