Snidely wrote:
On Anderson Cooper 360 about last night, (at least) one of their
sources pointed out that to make the tight turn to compelte the u-turn
at that altitude and turning left, a very steep bank is needed, and
that this can cause a los of altitude -- and the radar returns indicate
that 200' was lost during the turn.

IIRC, William Langewiesche talks about this in his Atlantic article
(Dec '93, it seems),
and maybe in Stick and Rudder (Stick and Rudder: An Explanation of the
Art of Flying
by Wolfgang Langewiesche, William Langewiesche, ISBN: 0070362408 Pub.
Date: September 1990).

Another Atlantic columnist, talks about the crash in 2 articles:

"For the second time in a month, I have woken up (in China) to news of
a fatal crash of exactly the kind of airplane that I used to own and
fly." http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200610u/lidle-crash

See also http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200610u/lidle-crash-2

/dps