Good point, and it supports some of bearfoil's observations. And two radios suggests either poor discipline, some official use for the second transceiver (emergency channel monitoring near 2 MHz?), or bad procedures. One should have been left on the old selcal and frequency while the other was tuned to DAKAR, the anticipated next configuration. "Why in heck didn't they hear the last few calls from ATLANTICO?" If something had already weakened the vs attachment bearfoil's scenario becomes a little more realistic. (The shape of the tears still seems a little "off" for the VS departing the plane at altitude, to me.)
The electronics should have reported a fault. I wonder if the fault would be reported in such a manner that the pilots would associate it with a problem in the tail structures. Somehow I doubt it. But as soon as the TX button was pressed on one of the transceivers the fault would be instantly reported - SOMEWHERE - if the antenna connection was becoming "ratty". Even modest power transmitters (25 watts and more) REALLY hate operating without a proper load. They have protection circuits to cut off the transmit power and save the output transistors from losing their magic blue smoke.
{^_^}