Originally Posted by
aerobat77
but again for those who assume that the copilot simply selected flaps up instead of gear up as the reason of the crash : how does the plane continue out to the sea and even makes an u turn back before crashing in a scenario of "positive rate, gear up ( but instead of this flaps up ) " . common sense dictates that they would crash at the end of the runway. in my opinion this is not and simply cannot be the reason.
Assuming a long take off roll (heavy plane per pilot), flaps up instead of gear up 3-4 seconds after lift off -- wouldn't the remaining flight time/crash location be consistent with the time it takes to retract the flaps?