First off, I am not aware of any information in regards to the location of the impact...
Surface finds are not indicative of the impact site, but narrow down the 'ground zero' factor.
In my opinion, as i have located many underwater wrecks, is that the aircraft impacted the surface at near zero velocity, ie a flat spin.
One can note that the current debris field, has few artefacts with the potential for aerodynamic drift...
Opinion: This aircraft impacted the surface at a near flat spin. Due to the prevailing factors, it is likely that the hull was breached prior to impact. Even at terminal velocity, the surface area likely caused extensive breakup of the remaining structure, but allowed for structurally dynamic assemblies to remain intact. Given that aircraft assemblies are not designed for forces in this direction, it is difficult to predict the load diagram, and hence failure mechanism, and relative points, cannot be determined without extensive case studies....
Last edited by FlightPathOBN; 3rd May 2011 at 01:28.