I think that he was pulling up to go around--he didn't have enouh altitude to push the nose down to pick up speed------------I have watched the video on CNN dozens of times----------

This was a case of a first time instructor/check pilot working with a more jumior captain doing a visual approach that might be probably the 2 or 3 most difficult in the world to do----------(and a lot of that is because at SFO the 28 L & R runways are so close together plus the traffic into/out of Oakland is in the same general area over the bay---

In this case, I would bet that no matter what mode the flight guidance system was configurated, the auto throttles were turned off because the auto throttles would of brought the engines up to maintain the targeted airspeed for the approach-------

Both these guys had lots of time on the air bus which is so fully automated that a pilot almost can't do anything but lock the cockpit door------