Height loss
The BBC programme had a military pilot fly a full simulator with a 'commercial jet' profile. Lost 19000 feet in less than 50 seconds and was of the opinion that unless you had been trained in stall recovery the chances of successful outcome were low. From what I have read elsewhere on this thread the chance of significant structural damage following a stall are high. The BBC hedged its bets on this and went with the BEA report, citing the radome and VS as evidence that the aircraft was structurally intact on impact. The programme was quite sympathetic to the crew I felt and was fair to the extent that it didn't pretend to have the final answer or paper over inconclusive/conflicting evidence.
Last edited by Mr Optimistic; 2nd June 2010 at 18:17.
Reason: typo