Yes, we noted that in the plunge video, even though it was fuzzy and far away, it appeared that there was no tail. And there was a ‘flash’ just before the aircraft plunged thru the cloud cover. Lightning?........................
Damn. I have been on planes struck by lightning. Not. Fun.
How high up were they? Far up enough to have pressurized, had an instant decompression where people hopefully would have passed out, unaware of their fate?
At this point, there is no telling.
I am certain Boeing is crapping their pants, not because they think it is some onboard computer glitch that made it nose dive into the ground, but simply because it is a Boeing aircraft, and after all they have gone through with the 737s this past year, they have to be nearly irrational with fear.
We all know it is likely the communists will lie to the hilt to avoid blaming it on a bomb, poor maintenance, suicide by the flight crew, or a struggle with a passenger in the cockpit.
China is a “shame” society, so they will do everything in their power not to find the truth, but to find the “truth” that will portray them in the best light.
Lightning rarely causes any more than light surface damage to planes. Certainly not blowing the tail off one.
Losing a tail is massive structural failure usually itself ultimately caused by a control failure taking the plane outside of it’s design limits.
Hydraulics can act weird occasionally. At one point 737s had a problem with their rudder valve that would cause control reversal.