Rick Studder - radar showed them being nearly 1000ft above the impact point 2 miles before it. Even at 180kt turbulence speed the aircraft would of have to have entered a 1500-2000fpm descent to get to the impact point from it's last radar return.
A good point. But looking at the Google Earth plot in your previous post I presume the point at 7600 feet is the last radar return -- what were they doing at that altitude in that mountainous terrain? Seems to me they were below MSA at that point too...