Another report quoted a local tribal chief that flares were being fired shortly before the accident.
Does anyone know whether IR decoy flares
a. are fitted?
b. would be fired en masse as an SOP prior to a forced landing?
Imagine that some pyros (such as a marker marine, retro etc) would be carried in case of a divert overwater SAR mission. Any history of these cooking off inside the pressurized fuselage and creating a disposal problem at height? Are any IR decoy flares carried for reloading from internal stocks (i.e.reloading on the ground at a deployment/forward base?).
Apart from the pyros, the high-level problem followed by an emerg descent has all the hallmarks of a land ASAP electrical fire. Either scenario is supported by the indigenous person quoted as saying that there was a fire in the rear of the aircraft shortly before it impacted some few hundreds of yards from him.