D120A, the photos I saw showed a small, light coloured plume in the vicinity of the bottom of the lower jetpipe early in the flight. As I said, I didn't know whether or not that was normal.
Later photos taken immediately before the accident show a much longer, light coloured trail from the same area.
I haven't seen anything which looks like fire - that would surely be evident as black smoke? Maybe the reports of 'fire' were actually observations of reheat on take-off?
Did the Lightning have a dual redundant powered flying control hydraulic system - or would a massive hydraulic leak lead to complete loss of pitch control? Was there any manual reversion?