One reason that passengers had to stand on the wing instead of being in one of the rafts is because the tail section immediately submerged, so the two tail exits were never opened and those two slides were never deployed. The cabin crew directed the passengers away from the tail exits.
The NY Times article says that initially all of the passengers rushed to the rear exits, then the flight crew told them to come forward. Could that initial weight shift have been the reason (or contributing factor) for why the tail sank? The article doesn't explicitly say so, but presumably, the flight crew initially directed the passengers to go to the rear - if so, was that a mistake? What if someone had managed to get the rear exit open before it sank - wouldn't that have been disasterous?
Along those line, is it possible to open the exit doors if the plane is submerged? (The wing doors, it says, are the push-out kind, not pull-in; presumably the rear exit is the same.) If yes, doesn't that pose a risk of sinking the plane if a panicy passenger opens one under water? (And if no, what about entrapment risk in a fast-sinking plane?)
Also, one thing I saw hinted that there might have been flotation rafts stored inside the plane (closets and overhead) that were not deployed. Does anyone know if that's true?
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