Looking at the state of the engines it appears that neither were producing power at time of impact. Also the fairly large intact fuselage pieces suggest a relatively low speed.

Speculation can be unwise. However, I wonder if this could be a A380 wake encounter in RVSM airspace. I had one in a b737 some years ago and for a moment the aircraft was uncontrollable. Either way, rip to the victims.

That also can be what happens when the downstream (away from terrain) engines dislodge and hit tailpipe first and stop the fan.

Reading the tea leaves gives a clue about how it hit,not why it hit

The only A380 I see passing the area of the crash around the time of the mishap is UAE37V (aka EK216) going opposite direction on UP574 at FL390. However they passed at 1407Z and according to the FR24 data TC-TRB was level at FL360 until something happened after 1430Z.

Also, I'm thinking that TC-TRB was probably on UT430, not UP574 from reports of the crash site location.

Quote from Kulverstukas post:
"According to the Turkish media, the pilot in his last contact with the control demanded an urgent landing after the departure of the aircraft, and this request was registered. "

According to the press reports I have read, the crew reported technical problems and requested a descent. It was shortly thereafter that a loss of speed, rapid descent and loss from radar seems to have ocurred.
Reading the version posted by Kulver, it does not seem to read quite right. In as much that an urgent landing was requested after departure. They were in the cruise, an hour or more into the flight, when the accident took place. Perhaps this is due to linguistics.

Does not correspond to the Iranian Statement I quoted above.

They were in cruise and asked to descend, whereafter the radar contact was lost at FL320.

It was, as was confirmed by the Iranian Authorities.

Iran pax photo
 

FWIW PAX where these young ladies

http://www.20min.ch/images/content/2...77286/16/1.jpg

back from a hen party in Dubai...

Local sources are saying the pilot initially requested a climb to FL360 then made some comments about being low on fuel, subsequently requested descent to FL340 and then a rapid descent occurred with communication to FL120 thereafter the rest is history. There is a lot of speculation, however, the lack of coms tends to suggest some sort of pilot incapacitation and locals apparently reported seeing a jet "spinning " i,e stalled. We may never learn the real cause, very sad for such a happy event to end in this manner.

This sure sounds speculative without an aviation source of facts

Perhaps there will be some passenger mobile phone video.

Some colleagues flew there that day and experienced very unstable atmosphere which caused speed shift, beyond the limitation in certain cases

Not sure where this allegation came from :
Iran denies rejecting permission for emergency landing for crashed Turkish jet

rotor lock
 

Some years ago a Pinnicle CRJ suffered engine rotor lock by trying to fly too high. Both engines shut down and could not be restarted. The resulting dead stick landing was fatal. I don't know if the engines came from the same family or if a fix was made for the problem.

Are there any news about the black boxes? Usually the FDR is readable almost immediately...any local news about it? To drop out of the sky during cruise is so strange..smoke in the cabin? You start the descent, call the atc but then you cannot see anything anymore...it is just a thought of course.

Does anybody know why Canadian TSB did not comment or issue any kind of statement regarding this accident ? :rolleyes:

Had it not been for the press reports that the crew had reported technical problems before requesting a level change, the above could perhaps have provided some basis for speculation that wheather could have been a factor. If therefore we accept the report of a technical problem as being correct, then I would have thought it would be reasonable to assume the ensuing crash is more likely to have been brought about by that than any other instigating factor in the causal chain of events.

https://aviation-safety.net/database...?id=20180311-0

Here it says they were at FL360 .After 45 min they climbed at FL377 and then the pronounced descent started...I recall I have read something about atc saying the pilots were talking about fuel problems(but I cannot find this info anymore) so the climb could be a need to save fuel for endurance calculations..but an immediate descent after that? why? stall? is it related?

The problem was fixed when the aircraft hit the ground, thus preventing the crew from performing any further acts of idiocy.

Simple.

Accident investigation protocol is that it's for the investigating state (in this case Iran) to make any statements on the accident unless it chooses to delegate the investigation to another state.

Failing that, any TSB involvement would be as accredited representatives to the investigation, and it would not be expected to make any public comments while it is in progress.