At this point, talks of a "bang" noise heard before the airplane hit the ground for the first time are not necessarily reliable.
Only survivors (and not all) speak of hearing a bang, but never before being airbone (which only lasted 6 seconds) and it's unclear whether it may have been when they already hit the ground or prior to that. They may just be confused. Very possibly they heard the "bang" when the airplane first touched ground with the wing to then "continue" bouncing around some 6 times on the ground until it caught in fire and crashed some >200m (3-400m likely) away.
They all describe the airplane as moving "side-to-side" (possibly rolling) and falling very shortly after airbone, though. And one survivors speaks of: "lift off, steep side-to-side 'weird' (erratic) movement, hearing a bang, crashing, loss of memory til she found herself outside the airplane amid mud".
Survivors are 8 women and 7 men age 22-60 plus 3 children (6-11). 2 survivors are still in very serious condition. The 3 children among them are not in extreme danger (boy and girl with single leg fracture and another boy with skull fracture and other face wounds).
Last edited by justme69; 25th Aug 2008 at 12:43.