Photographs of plane pieces suggest missle path

[Chieftain]

None of this is official but it is interesting none the less.  Professionals will need to confirm this but this may explain why there was no smoke trail coming down.  According to this, the missile might have detonated at or near the cockpit, cutting the nose off the plane and letting the rest of it fall to the earth before exploding in flames.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=143_1406023233

 

[EC]

Intriguing that it is already popping up as "video not found" at least on this side of the Atlantic.

[flowers]

This is one I found someplace on the net.

[EC]

Part of the passenger deck from the underside, by the looks of it.

Slide in the center foreground, undeployed. It shows no sign of having been inflated, and that is totally automatic.

[Chieftain]

Intriguing that it is already popping up as "video not found" at least on this side of the Atlantic.

Hmmmm.......it is still on their front page...scroll down...I'd really like your opinion on these pics EC.

http://www.liveleak.com//

[flowers]

Part of the passenger deck from the underside, by the looks of it.

Slide in the center foreground, undeployed. It shows no sign of having been inflated, and that is totally automatic.

OK   

[EC]

Hmmmm.......it is still on their front page...scroll down...I'd really like your opinion on these pics EC.

http://www.liveleak.com//

Got it. The video won't play but the stills are there.

Those are entry holes from a decent sized warhead. Nothing massive - there is no scorching. So we are looking at maybe a 500lb warhead, stood off about 30 or 40 feet when it lit up.

The path line seems wrong. I'd rotate it 180 degrees to match the wing damage and the cockpit damage. The wing damage is bigger - larger fragments that are hitting the wing at about 600mph, and they drag - it's not sheer penetration, but more scraping before they finally dig in. You can see them actually tearing the metal - that's a close head on blast. Not something coming up from behind.

I'd like to see a picture of the number 2, but that is probably a mangled wreck by now - they don't land particularly softly. I'll be a steak dinner to a burger though that it's blades are shredded completely.

Edit to add - the bottom pic is cargo hold. The only holes are at the bottom, indicating the missile was definitely fire from below and to the left. Planes are pretty fragile and they really don't like holes in their skin.