That's outrageous! I can't get over the condition of the tail plane. Weird though. If the screen is only spidered then there was no explosive decompression therefore you would think the pilots wouldn't have passed out. They would have donned masks and gone through the cracked windshield procedure, depending on whether the inner or outer glass was cracked.
Secondly, at flight level 200 the chances are that the autopilot would be on therefore no 'freefall', just two unconsious pilots. The plane would fly on until it ran out of fuel like Helios 737.
And finally it is implied that the loss of the tail plane and the bent wing are a result of the 'freefall' i.e. exceeding VNE and breaking the aeroplane. If that is actually what happened then that is scary stuff. Unsurprisingly I think the news haven't really got the facts straight.
Either way the crew did an incredible job and it makes me feel confident knowing that a kingair can still fly in that condition.
What about a flock of very large birds?? That could inflict that sort of damage. 20000 feet . . . not unheard of.
