[NorseWood]

If he had time to dump fuel, wouldn't he also have had time to radio a distress call?

[wingnuts'nbolts]

How in the name of all this is reasonable would he have had time to dump a full load of fuel in 4 minutes or less?

[Magnum44]

"If he had time to dump fuel, wouldn't he also have had time to radio a distress call?"

Yes, which makes me wonder if anybody there has enough of the facts yet to be making any comments.

[aristeides]

If the pilot had time to dump fuel, wouldn't he also have been able to avoid hitting such a narrow peninsula?

[D2BAH]

I'm betting the black box will show an "in cockpit" distress call. . .something like ". . . Wh. . .the hell!" Or. . .well, use your imagination. It has happened before--in an instant of sudden unbelievable shock and stress, it is natural for pilots to just automatically blurt out the first words that their brain registers--and those words are often expletive in nature. It may be a long time before you know what they were.

[timestax]

How do they know he dumped fuel?? No witnesses reported this. Maybe he did, but why the rush to make this a mechanical failure before they check out the black boxes and cockpit recorders?? It makes them look like they are pulling a con job on us!