[jlogajan]

The engine failure could have sprayed engine parts though the side of the plane destroying their radio communications.

The one witness who helped recover wreckage from his boat said that from the time the debris ripped the tail off until the jet hit the ground/water was just a matter of three seconds or so! Once she blew the pilot barely had time to blink before it was all over but the flames.

[DB]

A shoulder-fired missile is normally a heat seeker... It would have hit an engine if fired at the plane.

The wreckage should easily show if this is the case or not.

[MARTIAL MONK]

You're low, slow and heavy and you lose an engine which takes off flight surfaces. You try everything but a skyhook to hold that piece of metal in the air. Six hands wouldn't be enough, not to mention breaking intense focus. You just don't think about calling home.