Originally Posted by
The Old Fat One
It's easy to find, but if you want to save yourself a ton of reading...
..through no fault of their own the crew took an uncontained fire into the air with the inevitable consequences...
/thread
I appreciate that, but I was curious as to what exactly caused the loss of control. The report (thanks Buster15) suggests it was the control surfaces being burned away. There was a suggestion in some quarters that the airspeed being low and/or the C of G issues meant it would not have made Le Bourget even without the fire.