Back at
post #3478 ,
swordfish41 made reference to the sidescan sonar nadir/shadow made by a large piece of wreckage to the east of the debris field. An enlarged sidescan sonar image of the debris field published by the BEA is reproduced below.
I looked at the sidescan image a couple of days ago and enlarged it to discover the curved shadow, and suspect that it is the forward fuselage. The length would seem correct, but the skin may have been split away from the frames to present an enlarged width. I have good reason to suspect that
swordfish41's analysis is reliable, as he was responsible for the finding of the HMS "Ark Royal", that sank in the Mediterranean in 1941, by using 200kHz sidescan sonar for a BBC documentary. I posted some information on the finding of the Ark Royal in
post #1038. A post in response by
swordfish41 is at
post #1049.
With regard to the AF447 wreckage, the forward fuselage probably parted company with the rest at impact, and with less impediment to its forward movement, made its way to the bottom on a slightly different trajectory than other debris. If this is the case, then the heading at impact was around 070°T.
EDIT :: True north is 10° to the top right of the Y axis in the above graphic.
grity; BJ-ENG;
The impact graphics at
post #2066, seem to match the injuries resulting from a 100g+/- impact as researched by
BJ-ENG. Also,
grity's analysis of the likey 'g' forces tends to match what I had proposed, and the small debris field found would tend to support that. Thanks guys.