[outofsalt]

"It was very early yesterday that I saw the flight altitude chart recorded and all of a sudden, it fell like a rock."

Even if both engines fail shouldn't it be able to glide?

[silverleaf]

Reports read indicate both engines were burning at 28k feet and the wings were off the aircraft when it plunged and it was pieces when the fuselage fell vertically

The whole catastrophe occurred in about 30 seconds

It would not take a very large explosion if it occurred in center baggage area where fuel lines feed the engines, so one pilot posted. All they needed was one IS guy in the baggage loading section who knew what he was doing.

Egypt said there was no mayday , perhaps the pilots were dealing with some technical issues before the "explosion " occurred when the aircraft reached cruising altitude - 2 different issues?

[mazda77]

Jet powered swept wing aircraft are stated to have a glide path of a brick, not figuratively. Aircraft like the A-10 are not swept wing expressedly for the purpose of having some glide path because of the higher possibility of being disabled by common ground fire because of their typical close operational proximity to the ground.

A modern airliner will typically rotate at about 180 mph with all of the flaps at full lift. That is only attained by thrust and if that thrust goes away, as in the airliner taking off from Detriot some time ago, it crashed seconds after it passed the landing lights. Compare that with a C-130. They are known for the ability to take off in very short and rough runways.