Originally Posted by
pattern_is_full
What do you suppose the loss of a ton of weight (VS) from the extreme aft of the fuselage (long lever arm) would do to the CoG? I would expect a severe and probably uncontrollable nose-over.
Past cases of such occurences tend to show otherwise. Neither the B-52 which lost 3/4 of its VS nor AA587 nosed over. Problem with lost VS is loss of directional control in Yaw.
Massive nose overs have occured in the past (in Military and General Aviation) as a consequence of losing Horizontal stabilizers. If the FR24 is valid this could potentially happen due to exceeding the structural limit in the first apparent recovery (if the FR24 traces are correct). That said in one of the videos the final trajectory rather looks like 50° ND and possibly with a slight recovery path. The other video on the other hand looks pretty vertical. Simply not possible to safely conclude from the few bits we have. First important information bit to obtain woould be the four corners. After that there is a first chance to get a somewhat clearer picture.