Correct, it was in a normal cruise climb at the time, but with the drastic change in aerodynamics and loss of power, hard to imagine much of a climb after "explosion". Did they ever find the "lost" Long Island radar tapes? Sure seems like a lot of tape evidence came up missing once it got in the investigators hand.
Yes, every video disappeared after being confiscated. Hmmm, but then that is normal.
Remember it lost a lot of weight also.