With the report that wreckage has been found 8km away reinforces the observation that the airframe breakup was at medium to high level. The multiple negative results of explosives residue negates any suggestion of a bomb.
On the one hand the Chinese are being uncharacteristically open with their press conferences but may still be guarded in their admissions of the possibility of a mid-air collision with an errant mil-jet. Everything outside of airways in China is mil-controlled. Consequently getting co-ordination for wx avoidance is downright impossible. Equally an errant military jet may have infringed civil airspace resulting in a mid-air, survivable for one party but not the other. Without some force-majeure intervening towards the end of a perfectly stable cruise, the likelihood of the tail simply falling off seems very unlikely indeed.
Last edited by Magplug; 27th Mar 2022 at 23:53.
Reason: typo