7 but it all happened so instantaneously that no distress signal was given. An oversped, overstressed plane does not come apart instantly.

8 both pilots of an Air Comet flight from Lima, Peru, to Lisbon, Portugal, sent a written report on the bright flash they said they saw to Air France, Airbus and the Spanish civil aviation authority, the airline told CNN.

"Suddenly, we saw in the distance a strong and intense flash of white light, which followed a descending and vertical trajectory and which broke up in six seconds," the captain wrote. http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/06/04/plane.crash...

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In other words, we don't know. Repeat after me: We don't know.

I've been seeing explanations since the event, from the storm to a "computer glitch" to this, and it's starting to wear on my nerves. Let's get all the evidence in, including the black box, and only then try to figure it out.