Assuming that this was the result of an accelerated stall (I know, there is no way to ever know...)

So, assuming this was the reason, a question for the aerodynamicists out there... we all know that you can stall at any speed if you pull hard enough on the elevator (if there is enough travel), but I presume there is some metric that characterizes how "easy" it is to do this at medium or high speeds. It seems odd to me that a plane that lands so slowly and is so lightly loaded would do an accelerated stall so readily, presumably with modest elevator travel setup as recommended by the manufacturer.

Several have commented on how "short coupled" the VJ is, and that might be a reason for this behavior. If so it seems an F-18 would be similar... it is incredibly short coupled if you just look at the wings and stabs (and ignore the lift from the fuse).

Looking at this video and the similar one from the UK a few months ago (the one that started the other argument about stall or not), they sure do look similar. In fact it looks exactly like a P-47 crash I had 5-6 years ago when I believe I stalled the plane when the engine quit and I did not know (lots of planes in the air, noisy, plane far away, etc) so I subconsciously added up elevator to stay level till it stalled and went in .. had no power, but still going straight down could not find a combination of airspeed and pull that would recover.

If not a stall, maybe a common structural failure in the two crashes? .. like a wing twisting out of position on the wing tube after the attach failed, as someone speculated...

Dave

Edit: Corrected to reflect HH's comment below re: AoA vs. Airspeed