Originally Posted by
ironbutt57
the debris field is possibly large because it apparently dove straight in from around 6000'...and hit the bottom....
I wouldn't consider 100m x 200m large at all - in fact for an aircraft the size of a 767 that's on the small side. It would also rule out any in-flight breakup (unless of course they find bits at another location).
I also would consider an uncontained engine failure to be rather unlikely since they'd have been at a relatively low engine power setting - most engine breakups at takeoff power sets, or at high altitudes where the physical rotor speeds tend to high. I suppose a major bird strike might cause enough damage and a large enough imbalance that perhaps the engine could start coming apart, but again the probability would be low at relatively low rotor speeds.
But, one of more big birds through the forward bulkhead that took out some flight controls (remember, the 767 is basically a cable controlled aircraft)? Even if it didn't incapacitate the crew they'd have precious little time to react...