KL-666 wrote:Hj1an said earlier that the main part of the stabilizers is behind the rear hinge. He assumed that the front would go up under the weight, if the jackscrew in the front failed. But weight is not as important as airflow. So the loose stabilizer would kind of follow the airflow.
Yes, but a back-heavy stabilizer would still point down in fast moving airflow. It might be slower moving down and not abrupt, but the net effect is the plane nosing down in an arc and going faster and faster rate. Of course that would not explain the abrupt cut off in the recorder as well. Also, as I previously said, I don't think the fuselage would break off from a horizontal-stab failure unless the plane is doing insane G's and very suddenly. So I think the stabilizer is only secondary to another initial problem.