takata
Bonjour. Thank you for your debris map, it was most welcome.
Let me run past an elementary proposition, to see if, as a simple set, it establishes some foundation.
Three miles port side of the airway, at cruise, the pitots Ice, and airdata is lost. Due Unreliable Airspeed, the ADIRUS 'quit', auto flight/autothrottle are lost, Normal Law is degraded to Alternate, and the pilots need to quickly manage the a/c to retain control.
The exact mechanism of LOC is not known, but the a/c contacts the water below, Belly down, Tail low, mostly intact, and is destroyed. From the debris field, it appears that due to its very compact spread, there was little current to cause dispersion, but the direction of the current is suggested as East to West, and that if the debris field is searched further to the west, at some point debris would reach its ultimate distance from the heavier pieces.
No conclusion relative to the flightpath can be discerned from the orientation of the debris ?
No conclusion can be ascertained from the debris as to which direction the nose of the aircraft was pointed at impact ?
The impact point can be estimated to some degree with data known about the rate and distance of the sinking engines, by unwinding its path down ?
The Captain's rest ended at 0200, and he was likely in the cockpit, perhaps even taking his Left Seat at the time of the Master Caution (Cavalry Charge), leaving only the F/O seated and restrained ?
The attitude excursions allowable by the a/p affect the ride of the a/c; did the a/p disconnect due its inability to manage the a/c ( Turbulence ), or due an already Unreliable A/S ?
Merci beaucoup, mon ami. Vous ete l'Homme.