Questions for the guys up front
I have been following all the AF447 threads since they started. I would like to thank all the pilots, engineers and other subject matter experts who have posted on these threads, not only for being generous with your expertise, but also for your infinite patience with the less knowledgeable among us.
I have learned huge amounts from you all. My respect for flight professionals, which was already considerable before all of this, is now immeasurably greater.
As a frequent airline passenger I have little to contribute, other than my own logical analysis based on the wealth of information posted here. Until now, I have not felt that my contribution would add anything to the discussion.
So with all that preamble out of the way, I now have some questions for the flight crews and/or aircraft engineers.
Since the beginning I have wondered if the original "upset" is not an extreme weather event, analogous for example to the rogue open-ocean waves that are large enough to swamp an oil tanker leaving no trace.
Is it plausible that extreme weather dynamics in a storm system could create opposing up/down currents violent enough to flip a commercial airliner on its back, notwithstanding its size? If this were to occur, how would the aircraft then behave in terms of vertical and forward motion? How would an attempted recovery play out?
Two reasons for asking this question now:
(1) it might explain the proximity of the wreckage to LKP;
(2) it might explain the apparent hiatus in ACARS transmissions (upside down antenna loses the satellite).
If this all comes across as another hare-brained theory, more suited to the Rumours thread, then feel free to admonish me accordingly. And if this has already been discussed, I apologize for having missed it.