NeedaHobby, there are no elevators on the wings of most aircraft (I guess aircraft with elevons are sort of an exception). On yer basic aircraft, you have ailerons on the wings (outboard) which control rolling, a rudder on the vertical stabilzer which controls yaw, and elevators on the horizontal stabilizers which control pitch. The wing flaps are located inboard on the wing and serve to slow the aircraft down during landing approach.
Yeah, what DSYoung said.
Thanks for the informative link Lion. That makes a lot more sense than the only WAG I could come up with, the elevators acting as short moment ailerons in an emergency. I worked on F-14s in the navy which have elevons because there are no ailerons on the wings and the proprtions of the aircraft are vastly different than an airliner.
Omni: Adding to the speculation?
All I meant to say is that reports by the media are not always very accurate, and sometimes very misleading, that is why I included the NTSB report.
Basically, my point is to WAIT until all the possible evidence is at hand, and work from there. DSYoung is right.
Now, it is possible that Boeing designed the elevators in such a way that if any one got stuck, you could isolate the “bad” one by exerting a certain amount of force on the yoke. I don’t know. The media (check The Lion’s link) says that “…Boeing officials say that a pilot can manually split one half of the elevator from the other by pushing with great force on his control column.”
This same report also says that “…(a)s the plane plummeted, it reached .94 Mach—nearly the speed of sound”, whereas the NTSB reports a speed of Mach 0.86.
So far I haven’t been able to find a reference to confirm this.
But whatever it is the case, I believe we should get as much information as possible before venturing into any preconceived answer to this problem.
I think this is a better place to look for info: NTSB Press Releases
Following up on this, you will note that the NTSB now says that the back-up co-pilot did NOT say something equivalent to: “I have made my decision” before uttering a common Islamic prayer. This had been reported as being true for several days after the voice transponder was first recovered.