KGB troublemakers with some kind of electronic pulse weapon?
OR:
The pilot made a sharp turn for short final at a slow speed; is a stall possible?
No way is any commercial jet pilot making a sharp turn when he’s less than 1000 feet off the ground. If they had, alarms would have been going off in the control tower and investigators would already know about it and wouldn’t be yammering about looking for flaws in the avionics or electrical systems. I’m no expert but I’ve flown on commercial flights enough to know they’re always lined up for a straight-in landing WAY before that point. This plane was 40 seconds from planned touchdown when the problem was first noticeable.
EMPs are a slim possibility. Very unlikely, I’d say, but then again I would have said that about an assassination with polonium 201 in London . . . until about a year ago. Al Qaeda would be more likely than KGB in this case — there hasn’t been a peep about any bigwig on the flight who might have been a KGB target, but Al Qaeda’s MO is terrorizing ordinary people. If it was a terrorist act involving EMP weapons, it didn’t go as planned — they would have wanted it crashing into the highway or buildings, killing everyone on board, making everyone afraid to fly AND afraid to go near the airport. I doubt it though. Terorists wouldn’t be likely to take down a plane over a populated area in connection with a landing. Take-off is when the thing is loaded with fuel and capable of spectacular destruction.