I'm surprised that the crew did not turn the system off since it would make more problems than needed for them (pax becoming more anxious, more questions, no answers for them, etc, etc)
To answer the question about no reverse thrust, I'm not too familiar with the A320, but (I thought the spoilers were deployed, but I may be mistaken) I have to take a different opinion then frantzy. If you've every heard of the story of airliners "backing" out of there gates if no tugs are available (on certain a/c) using reverse thrust, if the brakes are applied quickly, the tail will shoot down, hit the ground and force the nose up in the air. (Imagine, a plane to a rocket ship
) I believe that reverse thrust would relieve nosewheel pressure unless it would never be used. If the thrust direction was changed 180 degrees (reversed) then the high amount of drag (mostly caused by thrust but partly parasite) would relieve nosewheel pressure as it comes down. If it forced it further down [into the runway] that could cause damage to the nosewheel and strut. Not an expert on this, but it doesn't seem to be rocket science (No pun intended John M.
)
Jason