Originally Posted by AZR
Low forward speed is my interpretation
Agreed, and not unreasonable too, but not a fact,
regards,
HN39
In the second BEA report under the section on pathology, there is a statement that forty-three of the victims, spread between business class and the rear of the aircraft, had fractures to the spinal column, the thorax and the pelvis. Pelvic fracture is one of the classifications used by accident investigation pathologists (Naval Flight Injury Manual) to correlate the most serious injury sustained against deceleration and corresponds to a deceleration force in the range 100G to 200G. Interestingly, although thoracic injuries are mentioned, there is no mention of any facial or head injuries, normally associated with forward motion impacts, nor any reports of limb fractures - thoracic injuries are often attributed to forward collision, but could also be explained as a result of contact with seat arm rests during a vertical descent. Of course, the absence of any mention of head or facial injuries may be because the BEA just wanted to present the most significant injuries, or simply that they are refraining from a more detailed description until the final report. The alternative is that there were none, and the forward velocity was minimal.