Control surface freedom of motion check
If one of the elevators was jammed in the trailing edge up position that must have occurred during the pre-flight freedom of motion check. One would hope that such a failure would be noted during the walk around. During and following the freedom of motion check does the flight crew have feedback as to the actual control surface positions to check for a failure like this?
The article linked speaks of "lift-off". Clearly this event involved pre-mature rotation with the main gear still on the ground. I wonder how close they got to a tail strike? We would have to know the weight, but does anyone have an idea how close they were to Vmu?