Originally Posted by
cordwainer
So am I understanding correctly that the plane would have had to spin around and head forward briefly in order to flip into its final orientation? If so, isn't this quite possible given the marshy ground (possible hydroplaning allowing it to spin around more easily), plus the multiple explosions noted by witnesses prior to the later tail explosion?
Yes, this might have happened. I discussed how it might have bounced forward in my document. In some fashion it had to be pointing forward. Point being, this means the CAB assertion that it slid backward is wrong, and until that is recognized it's impossible to grapple with the puzzle. Again, this is not a moral judgment about the CAB but a statement of fact. There's something wrong in how the CAB reported it.
This is not about gleefully pointing out that the CAB investigators were a bunch of idiots. There is a major error in this minor aspect of the investigation, and it raises a puzzle. So the questions are: How did the plane get into that position? What else (if anything) did the CAB get wrong?
If you reverse-engineer the plane's arrival at the final site, you start to see a very different impact scenario.