Afriqiyah crash at Tripoli

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Originally Posted by MarkLawrence

Looking at the ash cloud map today, it's not close to North Africa - so I question the articles that said that might be a cause.

Here is the ash cloud current status:

http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/cgi-app/ ... G=en&ART=3

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Yeah, from what I've heard the ash cloud was about 2,000 miles west at the time of the crash, so probably not a factor. Sandstorm would be more likely.

The A332 has an extra long wingspan that allows it to glide in even without fuel (AT Azores incident) and in this case plane was only half full. The terrain there looks flat and IMO had it been a normal glide after fuel starvation there should've been much larger pieces or a fuselage split in 2 or 3 parts with wings torn off.

The way the wreckage appears so fragmented, it seems like a violent high speed crash. Perhaps after a dive they tried to pull up for aerodynamic braking but didn't make it and slammed into the ground. This of course, coming from an armchair aviation dweeb :borat: