James Robinson wrote
Much of the aircraft was recovered, and it was clear from the damage to
the aircraft, the extent of the debris field, and the injuries to the
passengers, that it broke up at high altitude.

But that was not my understanding of
what happened on the SAA ditching. I thought a garbled HF
transmission was received that investigators *believed* was a fire
comment. I did not know that the fuselage was ever found.

The wreckage was found, and much of it was recovered, including the
cockpit voice recorder.

Here is a copy of the transcript:

http://aviation-safety.net/cvr/cvr_sa295.shtml

The controversial part of this accident was the question of what the
aircraft was carrying and why it caught fire. There was much
speculation about some kind of ammunition or other type of weapons.

Hey Jim, thanks for the link. I was on the 747 in 1987 and must of
got caught up in the popular press accounts and rumors of the time.
The real-deal just never gets disiminated till years later as a
footnote (pre www.) So I guess now we can say "there has never been
an intentionally attempted 747 ditching at sea. (save China Airlines
and Koran who regularly ran off the runway into the bay at old Hong
Kongs IGS Rwy 13.) But I think some of the boats in the harbor always
kept an eye peeled everytime those two airlines started their
approaches over downtown Kowloon! I scared myself a couple times in
there as well in bad weather, but managed not to go swimming.

Best Regards, Keep up the interesting posts,

pacplyer