PJ2
One thing flight safety investigators and specialists don't do is hitch their wagon to theories and stick with them in the face of new evidence. I would have thought (and did) that, as the impact is described, a high-speed vertical trajectory in a flat attitude/spin, (indicating a very high angle of attack), would have resulted in greater evidence of a) compression stress and b) evidence of shattering of parts instead of large intact structures but there it is.
How this conclusion was reached will be revealed in the coming days/weeks but at least we know more now and it will be fascinating to learn how this was concluded.
Well I thought that you and others had got it mostly right. I had interpreted the largely intact parts as being from a flat low forward speed impact with the water and the recovered parts significantly protected from severe damage by the hydraulic crushing of the planes underbelly.
The only evidence of hydraulic crushing that I might have recognized was the bottom of the crew rest module in the belly (I had pointed to this earlier as of interest).
Of course the crushed metal fragmentated pieces would have sunk.
I like you will be interested on their change of opinion from their earlier comments about it breaking up in the air to the supposedly new comments about it being intact in their latest release.
I hestitate to form an opinion based solely on the reports in the news (I don't trust their interpretations or translations). However I do look forward to this board's interpretations since we have enough divergence of experiences to not miss the more subtle stuff
