IF the a/c broke up at a decent height, the main bits would then have dropped to the surface at a high speed.
Would they ? The engines would, a centre section section wouldn't tumble 'that*' fast, with main wing panels attached.
*What is 'high speed'?
The surface impact would probably have been extreme and the a/c would have been reduced to smallish pieces.
Would it? More likely if striking as a whole unit ?
Although a lot of these would have sunk, many would have floated. More than the bits that have been found..
Not so in the case of the Comets, which '
definitely' broke up at altitude...
The only real difference, is that here we'd have a few more pieces floating, due to composite construction... seems they stayed attached?
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We seem to be not only wantonly urinating, but to windward with a lot blowing back in our faces here...
Someone's going to be right, but probably more by chance than genuinely educated deductive reasoning
So I think BBF's conclusion is probably right, it agrees with BEAs and currently is the more likely occurrence, but some of the conjecture on kinematic and aerodynamic behaviour requires more rigorous justification.
Something may well have bent or broke at high altitude, but just as likely in thicker air at low altitude if control was compromised (which obviously it was, one way or another)....