AS HYPOXIA still seems to be the most "favoured" starting point and explosive decompression appears to be ruled out by BEA, it returns us to slow creeping hypoxia during climb
Q1) Maintenance-whatever controls the nose undercarriage doors ( elec/cable or hydraulic), the "power" input (elec or hydraulic) presumably exits/enters the pressurized zone through the roof or side walls of the nose bay. If maintenance need to access those on the inside is the O2 bottle in their way?
Q2) how long before the start of descent was the previous comm with ground and at what height was the aircraft.
BSIEKER you say the length of the fuselage acts as a crumple zone helping to protect the flight recorders.
NOT if it hits/clips a ridge at 300knts+. in fact the tail may have been the 1st part to hit the ridge.
FIRE
Initially I also thought the extended area of black could have been burning, however those familiar with the area confirm that is the natural rock colour, but in the valley bottom some of the tree clumps do show burning but not enough to destroy the whole clump, so there were small localised fires only.
Someone posted the cockpit had been seen and was relatively intact, any pics?