Originally Posted by
crosvs
Right, I was assuming only a 1/3 fuel load = 18,000 lbs or so. Then figure the 25,000 lbs of passengers behind the wing. The physics question -- which I'm far too out of practice to reasonably calculate now -- is how much weight would have to be behind the wing to sufficiently overpower the downward-pitched elevator?
Thanks, that's clearer - I had misinterpreted your "fully-loaded" and "1/3" meanings - although I still think, like others, that all efforts would have been concentrated on trying to gain access to the cockpit given the pilot would most likely understand how much time he had against the rate of descent given his high level of experience.
That, in itself, just makes the whole episode incredibly sad - whilst thankfully the passengers may not have been aware of the issue until close to the end, the pilot probably was and had to deal with that potentially much earlier.