Originally Posted by
deSitter
No question it's the APU, obvious really. The airplane is torn all to hell. I don't see how this is possible without a high speed impact.
Hmmm, looking at the damage pattern I do see heavy compression damage but almost no longitudinal damage at all.
In a high- speed forward impact you would however expect the latter.
So for me this image is a strong indication of a 'pancake' arrival attitude.
Also it is good to see that it has not sunk much into the silk so the bottom fortunately appears to be rather firm. Which is good news regarding chances to find the CSMU.
Looking into the very open structure in the back I'm also confident the CSMU is not resting cramped in another structure, especially since it has a rather streamlined shape which makes it hard to get entangled somewhere. Try to fix a cylinder somewhere without bolting it to a support...