Way back in the 100s there was a discussion of what part of he plane was made with “honeycomb”. Your answer may be there ( wing is one part)
There was also about 174 a copy of comment made thru air network from a person who had hardcooy in hand identifying it as a wing
Hope this helps!
I am no expert, but do not necessarily pick apart findings = conclusion as many are.
General rule: anything can happen. It all depends on exactly what happened how things can shape up.
I wouldn’t put it past the plane to include large pieces even with a direct hit. Plunge in perfectly and the fuselage may stay together, as the weak wings tear off. Then the fuselage may disintegrate just after impact.
As to floating on and on, again, it could happen. Airplanes are made to be as LIGHT as possible. Thin aluminum with honeycomb composites. The airspace in some of those honeycomb panels could be enough to allow floating.
I will say, though - how do they know these pix from Aus sat weren’t whales?
I think you’re correct. Lets assume everyone died on board and this thing was just flying on autopilot for thousands of miles. Eventually it runs out of gas, and basically comes down nose first. I can’t imagine any piece 50+ feet long would be left.
If it WAS an attempted water landing the obvious question is... why would anyone fly a plane thousands of miles over open ocean when they knew they couldn’t reach land? Nothing about this makes sense.