I'm really confused now. From the London Telegraph:
Investigators said the Airbus "descended vertically" and dropped 35,000ft in a matter of seconds, hitting the water in its exact flying position.
Now, for an object to fall around 7 miles in 60 seconds it needs a terminal velocity in excess of 400 mph. The inferance that 'it fell in a matter of seconds' is that it completed the distance in less than 60 seconds putting it at or near supersonic speeds. And it pancaked, intact after all that?
I know that Mother Nature has her moments but I have never heard of a downdraft so powerful as to have accomplished this and if the aircraft hit the water 'in its exact flying position' then it certainly wasn't an engine assisted dive or do they mean it's position at 35,000 when the catastrophe struck?
What are the French trying to tell us here I wonder?