"We wanted to see what kind of crash could cause pulverization," Chen said, adding that there are many ways a plane can crash, from grazing a mountain, to clipping a wing, to erupting in flames after the fuselage explodes. In Flight 9525's case, the plane and all its passengers had been "totally fragmented" -- in layman's terms, pulverized.

"Not many airplane crashes have caused the so-called pulverization," Chen said.

The plane, Chen and his team learned, had flown into a ravine in the mountain, ending all life onboard in "something like three-tenths of a second," he said. In that time frame, the plane and everyone within had split into debris the size of the hole between your thumb and pointer finger if you were to make an "OK" gesture with your hand.

"The largest piece was probably a car-length long," Chen said.

The debris scattered away from the plane's point of impact, up the ravine. Because the pulverization was nearly instantaneous, much of the aircraft's fuel did not burn or explode, instead transferring the plane's kinetic energy into fracture energy.

Chen said the results were important for practical reasons beyond the crucial understanding of the aircraft's final moments.