I am a journalist and a UAS-trained PPL, and I make no apology for reading this thread from start to finish. Civil air transport isn't my usual beat, but I am inevitably asked for my opinion and it's useful to have some 'fibre' to go with my stock protestation that it's too early to say, and that we don't know which parts of what we're seeing are facts, and which parts are speculation.
I'm only human, too, and I'm honest enough to admit that (outside what I might write) I'm privately interested in what may have taken two of my fellow pilots.
And privately, it's starting to sound like a catastrophic engine failure, and one wonders whether the aircraft was then mishandled - one of the higher value PPRuNers pointed out that there could be "a disastrous combination if the engine fails at TO, causing wing-to-wing amplitudes that take some sorting out." This might explain the right wingtip hitting the ground, I guess? Or could we have had the lethal combination of a failure of the left hand engine, followed by extension of the RH thrust reverser? Whatever the truth, it's plainly still too speculative to write about - but not too speculative to think about!
I've refrained from posting until now, but I have just seen an interview with one of the Spanish fire-people which throws some light on the survival aspects. He stated that most of the survivors came from the section of fuselage that ended up "in the river", who were able to extricate themselves from the wreckage "unaided". It sounded as though others survived the impact, but were unable to extricate themselves..... Tragic and awful stuff.