[caver]

“Experts said such injuries suggest the plane broke up in the air.”

This non-expert suggests that the injuries might have happened when the plane hit the water at 200 or 300 mph.

[org.whodat]

This non-expert suggests that the injuries might have happened when the plane hit the water at 200 or 300 mph.

Correct are their, about to be dead, bodies hit the water at that speed.

[TMSuchman]

I hate to dispute your thoughts on this,but hitting the water at the speeds that you indicate, would cause mass fragment ion of the aircraft. Water can be hard as concrete at those speeds, and the aircraft would act like a large blender. There would be very small shards of very sharp metal and those would impact to passengers on the plane, causing more injuries. Whereas if the aircraft broke up in flight all of the pieces would start to loose velocity And causing less injury/damage to those on boardIt is a very bad way to go, any way you look at it though!

[Tallguy]

Also a non-expert, but I can understand that if an aircraft hit the water intact the aluminum would go off like a fragmentation grenade. Whereas if the aircraft had a mid-air breakup, some of the parts would spin down toward the water and may actually decelerate.

I recall the video of the Iranian airliner that was accidentally shot down by the US Navy in the ‘80s. People thought it was a put-up job because most of the bodies were floating naked. In all likelihood the Standard Missile clipped a wing causing the aircraft to breakup in midair similar to this Airbus.

[Blueflag]

Human bodies are like water balloons at 200 - 300 MPH. They are not intact in truly high speed collisions.

A free-falling human body will have a terminal velocity such that the parts remain attached after impacting the water.