chug
just a point of detail - why is it you think that the cockpit area was "engulfed"? - it wasn't and, as I have said before, the nature of the impact was quite benign for the instruments.
It remains a possibility that someone on the ground switched the TANS off - it doesn't really matter as far as analysis is concerned by its being switched off at that stage (by hand or by impact) as the data was not lost.
The relevance/value of the data is apparent if you actually work through it to reconstruct the track - if you are unwilling or incapable of doing this, then perhaps you should stop bleating.
The definitive factors apparent from engine settings, rotor RPM (from witness marks on a dial), control positions, and control surface positions are those at impact - there is only one plausible scenario that fits all that is known and that is that they were approaching at an intermediate power level and were surprised at their imminent closing with the ground such that their final (extreme) control inputs, whilst starting a manoeuvre (affecting attitude and increasing blade pitch), were so close to the time of impact that rotor RPM had not dropped.
That is, they had been in a steady approach but were surprised at how close in they had got - and the a/c responded (in the correct sense) to the controls at the initiation of an evasive manoeuvre.
They knew they were approaching the landmass, so why were they surprised? - something had to have been misleading them.
Still in denial?
Last edited by walter kennedy; 29th Mar 2011 at 15:54.
Reason: addition/corrections