[TXnMA]

Whoa! I just noticed this photo of the aft section of the a/c -- shot from the opposite side:

If anything, it reinforces my suspicion of an internal explosion in the aft galley/lavatory area...

Notice the left-side "A-321" I mentioned in my #47 (The Airbus logo is gone on this side...)

I don't see much, if any charring or "sooting", but the apparent hemispherical displacement of materials certainly suggests an internal explosion.

If this part of the a/c is separated spatially -- by a significant distance from the remainder of the a/c -- and if this portion is closer to the takeoff point, then I'd say the "aft-located bomb" scenario is a fairly safe bet...

[TXnMA]

I'd appreciate it if you folks would take a look at my #47 and #49 -- and let me know if anything in this mess we've seen so far (or anything you see in my two posts) makes you think I'm out of line on this "first-pass guess"...

Thanks, FRiends!

TXnMA

[Moose4]

It’s hard to tell visually. You’ve got hundreds of mph of wind acting on the airframe in odd ways, not to mention the ground impact falling from six miles up.

Although I think you’re on the right track. One thing that crash investigators do first is look for the “four corners” of the airplane—the nose, the tail, and both wingtips. If the tail section of the airplane is at the other end of the 5 km debris field from the nose, that’s a sure sign of an in-flight breakup and makes a bomb that much more likely.

}:-)4