I was wondering what if they tried to turn whether by rudder or thrust differential would the outcome have been different/worse. Maybe you can't do much at that speed and so little room.
I'm a pilot. The airplane was sliding on the ground and the landing gear was not deployed. Too fast to stop but not fast enough to use the rudder for directional control. There was no realistic chance to change direction.
If there had been enough engine power to control direction on the ground, there might also have been enough power to remain airborne, but based on limited information, that wasn't so. Under the circumstances the pilots would have wanted to stay airborne to buy time for a more controlled descent, were that possible.
All these speculations are preliminary and may completely change once the black box information is released.
> not fast enough to use the rudder for directional control.
Sure about that? 160kt (how fast someone calculated it went off the end of the runway) is way above Vs1 for a 737, there should be plenty of rudder authority. Heck, Vapp is usually in the 130-150kt range.
