There also seem to be logical inconsistencies - the rain cover being sucked into the engine, but also seen floating on the surface after the crash? If it had gone into the engine at full thrust, I would have though it would have been instantly shredded or gone to be bottom with the plane.
Would the engine actually start (through air starvation or protective monitoring systems) if the cover(s?) was in place? Edit: would it be able to taxi?
..yes, its obvious that a rain cover getting sucked into the engine before take off coudlnt have been the crash causation. -Obviously such an event would show up to the pilot and he wouldnt then go up the "runway deck" at all.
However, i am more than happy for all to believe that this is what happened......after all, the real reason is that the West doesn't design and make basic electronics any more.....and such has meant that the F-35 isnt that well designed and built.....but as discussed, as a wealthy importer of electronics from the Far East to the West, i am part of the situation of badness in the F-35's design and build.......so i will drink to many many more F-35's getting sunk (as long as the pilots emerge unscathed and totally unharmed of course).
If you lose your basic electronics design and build, by importing most of your basic electronics from the Far East....then you lose a massive chunk of the whole lot of electronics....and your military hardware is basically , inevitably, poorly designed and built....as we saw, with it literally , pathetically , plopping off the edge of the carrier.
We had a great laugh back in 2004, when, being shown round the HMS Albion in Plymouth, the Chief Petty Officer described the general design of the boat as "barking mad"....his own words, not mine. (at the time, we were down in the hull, in a big kind of chamber where the water de-salination plant was sited)
Of course, we in the UK have completely given up any thoughts of designing and building the
propulsion systems of our latest T45 warships.....we subcontract that out to non-UK countries. And that includes the Queen Elizabeth Aircraft carrier...and the HMS Albion too.
When we visited the HMS Albion in Plymouth, a young Naval officer approached us and said he wanted to speak to the designers of the ship's Electric Drive...he asked us to point them out to him....but we told him that they weren't with us, and that they were in France, as they were French people, working for Alstom.......this Naval officer looked baffled...he hadn't actually been aware of this. I'm not saying there's any problem with having French built electric drives.....but with such vast military hardware...you'd expect a country purchasing it to want to have a swing at it themselves.