What really happened to Chuck Noland's plane

C J Campbell writes:

The load begins to shift and some of it punches through
the fuselage wall, causing an explosive decompression
and damaging several control systems.

Is this plausible in real life?

Also, aren't most of the control systems along the bottom of the
fuselage, such that punching through the sides would not damage them?
(And if the cargo is punching through the _bottom_ of the aircraft, I'd
really be interested in knowing how that can happen.)

The airplane descends rapidly to 10,000 feet as the pilots
fight for control of the aircraft.

How fast can this happen in real life? I guessed 35,000 feet for the
initial altitude, 10,000 feet for the final altitude. That's 25,000
feet in the space of a few seconds (because they aren't wearing masks
for very long, as I recall). 24,000 feet is 4 nm, and if they do that
in, say, 15 seconds, that's 16 nm per minute, or over 900 kt (and thus
above the speed of sound). Or am I missing something?

This descent is compressed in time to prevent the audience
from becoming bored with the scene.

Hmm. Maybe.

I can believe the load shifting and causing a decompression because I have
seen this happen to friends of mine. They lived, but were hospitalized for
six months.

I'm surprised the load could develop enough inertia to breach the
fuselage. Isn't everything packed in pretty tight, and tied down as
well?

Although Noland is alone on the island for years, he does not go crazy or
commit suicide.

He never has to trim his nails, either. Nothing to do with aviation,
but I couldn't prevent myself from noticing that in the movie.

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