A strong updraft will pitch an aeroplane nose down. To confirm this, if the aeroplane is in a strong nose UP attitude and maintaining level flight, it is obviously in a very powerful down draft. We are talking powerful downdrafts here.
I would have thought any damage to pitch down stops in the VGs would not be caused inflight, but either in wear and tear during rocking on start up or during impact damage or damge post break-up.
What is the date of this accident, and what prompts this to be raised at the moment?