There have been distractions in nearby London today...
Catching up, I notice that the BEA now makes reference to the CVR memory module also being missing, though I don't recall any mention of its chassis, which someone earlier said is mounted on the forward side of the aft pressure bulkhead, the other side of it from the DFDR?
Looking at Machacha's images, am reminded how far aft the APU is of the tailplane. My initial thought that the DFDR memory module might lie close to the heavy APU fails immediately, as the aft pressure bulkhead is presumably forward of the forward tailplane spar. (Does anyone have a cutaway to hand, and is that correct?)
Is it a fair assumption that the APU-containing tailcone, being aft of the tailplane, would have sheared off on impact? I think PJ2 proposed something on the lines that the tailplane deceleration on impact would be great, causing the fuselage to fail forward and aft of it?
Quote from the BEA today:
"The forward and aft parts of the airplane are broken apart and mixed up, which means that a time-consuming systematic search is required."
Sounds a nightmare, but they must have known that once the thousands of photos from Phase 4 had been perused.
Do we know the medium used for the QAR cassette? Is it a "magneto-optical disk" and, if so, is that about as accident-proof as a DVD disk?
By the way, we owe young HeathrowAirport a response to his/her idea that the module memoire might float.
Excuse these somewhat rambling jottings.