No links, but sad accident it is..
a few facts,
1) just came out of maintenance
2) they flew at around 1400 feet or so (at 4 Nm from threshold)
3) there was not even a single radio transmission from the stricken aircraft.
point 2 & 3 make it reasonable to suspect that whatever happend happend so fast that they just did not stand any chance of recognising it, let alone coping with it.
if you start an agressive serious nose down dive, the vertical descent rate is easily in excess of 7000 feet per minute.
This means that they would have 12 second from the time the problem started till they met the water below, or far less..
a few possible scenarios
1) 'human error'
maintenance forgot something very vital (think of the lack of greasing MD80 Alaska airlines stabilizer trimspindel/jack for example leading to detachment & horrifying result)
Structural overloading)
mayor structural failure of a wing, or stabilizer, due to upset beyond ultimate load limit.
3) rudder hard over, or 'renagade' total uncommanded control surface deflection of fly by wire system. Commanding for example full nose down elevator and / or full aileron deflection and so on. Airbus does have flight envolope protection & computer systems are fail safe, or suppost to be.
4) trust reverser unlocked.
Think of 767 Lauda Air..
In any case it must have been something very sudden & at 1220 - 1400 feet AGL that left no room for recovery.
very curious what happend..
p.s. i prefere Boeing anyway over the 'scarebus'..
