Well, no expert but...
If the separation into parts occured at impact with the sea the dispersion during the fall to the sea bed was relatively limited (what is the main debris field 400m by 50m ?) and unchaotic (linear). The l:d ratio of the debris is about 8:1 excluding outliers, that of the pristine fuselage about 12:1 as I understand ( 60m x 5m).
Is it a coincidence that in its basic form it reflects the geometry of the original structure ?
There is no 'fanning' at either end visible as you might expect if parts were being sorted by density and slowly separated.
Presumably at least some of the linear stretch would be due to the motion as the aircraft slewed across the surface after impact and isn't it at that phase, were there is reasonable speed compared to any subsequent current, that any sorting by form factor/density etc would have occured.
Is everyone so sure that the orientation of the debris doesn't give more information ? If the fwd and aft ends of the a/c are subsequently found at either end of the debris trail, it would be a clincher wouldn't it ie (ie that the debris reflects heading at impact)?
If the main structure stayed together, then perhaps not, but then would you expect the separated parts to so neatly fall in line ?
As the ratio of structure dimension to debris trail doesn't depart much from the original, about 10:1 each way (and there is plenty of rough calc here), perhaps consistent with a limited fwd speed relative to vertical at impact.
Last edited by Mr Optimistic; 17th Apr 2011 at 12:55.
Reason: throw in some numbers