Take everything you see in the media regarding aviation in general and this accident in particular with several grains of salt. After all, the media was very quick to make a lot of noise about icing in regard to Colgan 3407...
As a long haul pilot myself, what I want to know is this: Did this flight somehow get itself into WX so extreme that it caused in flight loss of control and/or structural failure? If so, how? And how can the rest of us avoid this happening to ourselves? And, if not WX, what did happen, and how might it be prevented in the future?
50 odd pages of speculation (so far) is not providing an answer to these questions. That will come (hopefully) with time, as this investigation will undoubtedly be difficult and time consuming.
IMHO, these tidbits about QANTAS, Air Comet, Bomb threats to flights from Buenos Aires, etc. are red herrings and useless distractions. What I've heard about the ACARS messages isn't much more helpful and won't be until the actual messages themselves are made public.
Let's all step back a bit and respect the memory of those aboard by refraining from posting "information" that is unverified, or irrelevent, or misleading, etc.
Q.
ps: Those of you are posting relevant, verifiable, germane facts: I thank you.