With respect to the center of gravity issue, I had a friend who worked as ground crew for FedEx loading aircraft. He told me what a nightmare the MD11 was compared to the DC10 in terms of CG being so far back that the nose had a tendency to come off the ground while parked if not loaded just right. So, that would seem to add some weight to the notion that aircraft's CG could have played a role in the nose up pitch.