Originally Posted by ATCBob

CNN's official aviation expert Richard Quest, who has "flown many times as a passenger on airlines all over the world" has released his analysis of the accident: Russian plane crash: Quest finds it mysterious - CNN.com

He has found that "whatever happened was dramatic enough it made the plane uncontrollable or it became uncontrollable and stalled because of the way it was being flown."

I think this solves it. Thanks, Dick!