Captain chose to ignore the procedure advised by the ECAM instructions, and, instead, left his seat and reset the circuit breaker of the entire FAC,
[140][145] unintentionally disengaging multiple flight control systems, which would have to be turned on by the pilots after the circuit breakers are reset.
[146] This circuit breaker is not on the list of circuit breakers that are allowed to be reset in flight,
[37]:106
[l] and disabling both FACs placed the aircraft in
alternate law mode, disengaging the autopilot and stopping the automatic stall protection and bank angle protection.