Five New Zealanders died in the crash off the southern coast of France on November 27, four from the airline and one from the Civil Aviation Authority.
Initial findings by French authorities revealed the test flight before the aircraft was to be handed back to Air New Zealand had been shortened.
The aircraft had been on a two-year lease to Germany's XL Airlines and had been repainted in Air New Zealand colours in preparation for the hand over.
Two German pilots were flying it while an Air New Zealand pilot, Brian Horrell, was performing flight deck checks.
This led to the crew taking the aircraft through manoeuvres at low level, instead of at altitude as originally planned, the Bureau d'Enquetes et d'Analyses (BEA) report said.
The nearly new aircraft crashed nose-first into the sea, when the crew lost control on its final approach to Perpignan, BEA said.
The violence of the impact destroyed the aircraft and none of those on board could have survived, BEA said in the report.
The German pilots had not been publicly named.
The last New Zealand body was recovered only last month.
Air New Zealand staff killed were Mr Horrell, 52, Murray White, 37, an Auckland engineer, Michael Gyles, 49, and Noel Marsh, 35, both from Christchurch.
Civil Aviation Authority inspector Jeremy Cook, 58, from Wellington was the other New Zealand victim.
The report revealed several witnesses saw the Airbus during its final approach.
It said the aircraft was in level flight but some witnesses said they were surprised at the sound of the noise of loud engine acceleration.
"A few seconds after the increase in engine rpm (revolutions per minute) all the witnesses saw the airplane suddenly adopt a pitch-up attitude that they estimated as being between 60 and 90 degrees," the report said.
"The majority of the witnesses saw the airplane disappear behind a cloud layer. The noise generated by the engines was still constant and regular.
"The airplane reappeared after a few seconds with a very steep nose-down angle. During the descent, the airplane pitch seemed to increase and the airplane struck the surface of the sea."
The investigators said the flight voice recorder and the flight data recorder all produced information about the final moments.
During the final approach the crew was talking to the approach controller at the airfield.
After reducing speed during manoeuvres the controller asked the crew its intentions.
"The co-pilot answered that they wanted to make a go-around and continue towards Frankfurt," the report said.
About 98 seconds before the crash, the captain stabilised the aircraft at 3000ft. Within 35 seconds the speed dropped from 136 knots to 99 knots and the stall warning sounded.
Power was applied to the engines. The speed continued to drop to 92.5 knots then began to increase.
"The airplane started to roll slightly to the left, then to the right. The captain countered these movements."
About 50 seconds before the crash the bank (side-to-side) angle of the aircraft was 50 degrees to the right. Four seconds later the stall warning stopped and the bank angle was 40 degrees to the left.
In the next second the pitch (up and down movement nose-to-tail) and altitude began to increase but during the climb the stall warning sounded a second time.
About 21 seconds before the crash the aircraft was at 3800ft, the pitch was 57 degrees but the speed was below 40 knots.
The stall warning stopped but sounded again five seconds later, 14 seconds before the impact.
The aircraft then banked to the right up to 97 degrees and its pitch reached 42 degrees nose down, the report said.
The captain tried to recover it and nearly seven seconds before the impact the stall warning stopped.
The report said the last "recorded values" had the aircraft with a nose down pitch of 14 degrees a bank angle of 15 degrees to the right, a speed of 263 knots and an altitude of 340ft.
"Less than a second later the airplane crashed into the sea." the report said.
