@ BJ-ENG - Aerodynamic and Hydrodynamic etc
Latest official information is that both recorders were found under the right wing and/or right wing/fuselage combination.
Latest official information states that only the right wing was located.
Officials have not provided information on the left wing, the cockpit, or the second engine. Spotting the first engine was mentioned earlier. But there is no mention of actual location yet.
BJ-ENG. Thanks for your reply. You introduce some interesting points that I would like to look at.
Before doing that, my line of thinking on water landing (before I read your reply, so there may be some duplication in it) was roughly thinking about two different and both basic scenarios.
First scenario, the pilots somehow regained control after losing it (losing it for whatever reason). Then they would probably try a ‘mild’ pitch up approach (would be interesting to know what kind of procedure AirAsia has for water landings). Which might lead to a ‘tail separates first’. The Hudson landing was one of amazing airmanship, but luckily not in ‘open water’. Even there, significant tail damage is visible (there were some good posts on that earlier, thanks). Damage that looks similar but, at first sight, not of the ‘same type’.
Second scenario, they did not regain control, or not enough. Which would probably lead to a ‘one wing first’ (there is quite a swell in the area...), followed by a slam on the water, leading to a break ‘somewhere forward of the wing’, and the - by then rotating aircraft (along the longitudinal axis) - losing the horizontal and thereby wringing the lower part of the tail section off.
The widebody jet crashing close to a beach in Africa was not recovered as far as I know. If there is information, that would be interesting.
The second option appeared more probably to me. It would also explain something of the ‘giant hand’ damage on the aft section, pressure bulkhead and some other parts. What made it less probable – at least to me, and until now – was that I would expect the second scenario to lead to quite a different debris field from the one we have. A surge through the fuselage would sweep out a lot of material that floats. Hope you can give your views on that.
Also hope they find the cockpit and the other wing, which will tell us more.