Oval3Holer:
While I agree with most of your post regarding their efforts, I believe at some point desperation might have set in as nothing they were doing was apparently working and that lowering the gear might have been a last-ditch effort to somehow regain control. There are aircraft that have that as a procedure when you are in an extreme/unknown attitude (extreme being the case here..). As was pointed out- the gear looked like it was partially extended-giving credence to the idea that it was last-second, so its not an unheard-of thing to do-just my 2 cents worth, hopefully the cause will be found. My condolences to the families...
Last edited by waddawurld; 1st May 2013 at 13:01.