If the cabin v/s condition followed engine flameout, the corresponding ACARS message would not have been sent. In my opinion
flameout is a dispensable element in this chain of events.
and as HarryMann said:
There are many other ways the descent and the actual crash into the sea could have been connected together, without one continuous event, surely?
The satcom on aircraft is an electronically steerable phased array antenna with nominal gain 12dB (type CMA2102). The info in BEA report re a satcom drop out is, I am reliably informed, a misunderstanding by BEA and there is no conclusive evidence of a dropout.
Astute .... unless there were onboard electrical disruptions....
All logical and tends to point to a structural failure (i.e. a partial loss of fuselage integrity causing a pressurization loss) following the high altitude loss of control - an overstress event that would not be a surprising outcome of a high-speed loss of control and tightening spiral.
Neither would it be inconceivable that the FBW flight control's
circuitry (i.e. vice designed "graceful" degradation) may have been affected
physically by any loss of fuselage integrity or bus loss (==> loss of roll or pitch axis control). But partial/limited control might have been regained latterly, sufficient to enable an erect attitude at impact.That theory of
two "follow-on" event scenarios, broken by a brief interlude of partial control, ties in with the loss and later regain of signal period for the ACARS data.
I tend to favour the theory that something beyond normally allowable RTL-limited rudder deflections were permitted during their unusual attitude recovery, following the airspeed anomaly and ADIRU compromise. Large unintended rudder deflections during a high-speed LoC event may have partly detached the vertical stabilizer from its mounts, or even locked the rudder at a significant deflection.
Following the LoC recovery, with a rudder stuck at a significant deflection, the yawing roll may have been able to be countered by aileron control to achieve a wings level attitude, but the overall drag, limited controllability and descending trajectory may have quickly forced a ditching solution, notwithstanding that some power may have been available. A higher speed ditching may have been predicated by the limited controllability.
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Just another theory.....