Aggravated stall, AKA flat spin is the only thing that could explain this. Stall’s are caused by insufficient air speed. At least they’ve narrowed the scope of what they’re looking for.
Pilot suicide?
Those poor folks. It seems to me that a dive from 35,000’ has got to be a very long flight of terror.
Terrorists took over the cockpit and augered it in through incompitence! Or the Airbuust lost its tail like AA582 and was not controllale, but then the Pilots shoulda had time to call a Mayday!
What happened to all the early on “proof” that it broke up at high altitude - e.g. bodies were stripped of clothing from having fallen from high altitude, etc...?
Hell, I'm not even a pilot and that doesn't make sense.
First they tell us the thing dropped like a rock on it's belly at a gazillion miles per hour (which to me would indicate a stall of some type).
Then they tell us that the pilots inability to know their air speed was not a direct cause. Huh?
The speed sensors, called Pitot tubes, are "a factor but not the only one," Bouillard said. "It is an element but not the cause," Bouillard told a news conference in Le Bourget outside Paris. Other elements that came under scrutiny in the immediate aftermath of the crash, such as the possibility that heavy storms or lightning may have brought down the jet, were also downplayed in the BEA's presentation.
"Between the surface of the water and 35,000 feet, we don't know what happened," Bouillard acknowledged. "In the absence of the flight recorders, it is extremely difficult to draw conclusions."
they don't know what DID bring it down, but they sure as hell say what DIDN'T bring it down... is that it???
there are three kinds of Critical Failure, Crit-1, Crit-2 and Crit-3
pitot tube failure sounds like a high Crit-2 to me, add another one, and, well...
The media's typically stupid remarks!!!
Aren't we always told NOT to inflate life jackets until we are out of the plane, huh???
Lesson: Don't fly through the equatorial region in June.
The area I live in we have tornadoes. They don't last long, but they do lots of damage.
Waterspouts are just tornadoes above water.
If the Airbus flew through the clouds that were producing a tornado, might they not suffer 100mph updrafts, heavily laden with water? Would the sudden change in humidity along with speed overwhelm the heaters in the pitot tubes, causing the tubes to ice shut?