..."but I strongly believe that in the end it will be shown that if cargo shift played a role in this event, the shift occurred during takeoff roll on the runway and not after leaving the ground."
In my earlier life I had lived a scenario when cargo had violently shifted
during rotation, because we had heard a distinctive "metallic thump" sound and felt a distinctive "shudder" of the airframe. DC-8 bear traps had sheared and a pallet had rotated vertically, puncturing a hole in the fuselage.
