A regular poster in another forum who works in some aspect of Indonesian aviation safety has stated that from his inside information, the plane went "from 32000 to 36300 and down again to 24000ft or so (in) just over a minute."
16000ft of vertical space in a little over a minute? Could it have been a descent to 34000, instead of 24000? I ask because it seems quite a feat to climb at 4000ft/min at that altitude anyway, much less do so and then drop 12000 feet afterwards in the same time span. Wouldn't it have to manage a 6000+ ft/min climb to FL360 just to have the time to free fall 12000 ft. (assuming a breakup, as stated)?