HarryMann,
Machinbird answered your question for me.
I didn't say (or mean to imply) that the aircraft didn't break-up (as it obviously did at some point). But I believe (on current available info, which is still very sketchy and full of unknowns) that it's more likely that it broke up on impact with the ocean, rather than at some point prior to impact.
The pathology mentioned by the BEA is just one reason I tend to support that scenario as more likely, at this point. The damage patterns and sizes of some of the recovered pieces we have seen of the aircraft, along with the sequence and content of the ACARS, lend more credence (IMHO)to a substantially intact aircraft impacting the ocean, than to a scenario of inflight break up and the subsequent descent of various parts that were no longer connected.
Of course I may be wrong, which is why I choose my words carefully in describing likelihoods and possibilities. Regardless, the all important questions of "what happened and why?" won't be answered without the aircraft being located and (please God) the recorders.
grizz
Last edited by grizzled; 15th May 2010 at 06:53.