The crash outside of Dubai a couple of years ago was never 100% blamed on lithium batteries, but the common consensus was that they were likely the cause. Lithium batteries ARE allowed on our aircraft along with other hazmats. Furthermore, considering the thousands of pounds of lithium batteries that were on board that 747, I'd say it was a safe bet.
The jury is still out on this A300....but typical domestic flights generally only have very small amounts (i'm talking grams) of lithium batteries.
For the sake of the load planners and load supervisors, I sure as hell hope not. But beyond that, any significant discrepancy would have been noticed upon takeoff. Even if there were some unsecured containers, they would have felt them shifting around before they ever got close to Birmingham. So no, I really don't think it had anything to do with W/B.
It's a strange situation for various reasons. The most glaring, to me, is the fact that there was no distress call to the tower. If there was a fire in a cargo compartment, there are multiple sensors and alarms that would have alerted the crew to the issue, and they would have then called this in immediately. (As they did with the 747 in Dubai). The fairly abrupt decent is somewhat significant, but not outside the range of possibility. It's a little quick for normal circumstances, but again, if it was due to an issue they were having they would have called about it. Furthermore, they leveled out decently afterwards so things appeared under control.
There are 2 likely possibilities in my opinion. 1-Bird strike as they were on their final approach. A significant bird strike (or strikes) could take out an engine...or both. That could explain the fire that witnesses apparently saw before the crash. The other possibility is that they set the numbers wrong for the guidance computer (these planes can land themselves). If the plane thought it had an extra 500 feet of altitude that actually wasn't there, for instance. This could explain why they may have never had a distress call. When they realized something was wrong, they would have tried to fix the problem ASAP rather than take a moment to get on the radio.
We will find out in time, but either way, it's a tragic and sobering day for the air team and all UPSers.
Edit: Oh, and thank you cheryl for deleting that disgusting post by TOS.