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OK, here goes my understanding of the issue and how to recover. A caveat: I could be wrong and I hope others jump in here and set me straight.
When a flap cable breaks, the flap on that side snaps instantly to neutral (zero degrees). The other side remains where you set it, and the imbalance causes the aircraft to roll aggressively, especially at full flaps. The solution: with the left hand instantly apply opposite aileron (to arrest the roll) and with the right hand flip the flap handle back to zero (so the non-broken flap goes to neutral like the broken one). Bringing the flaps to neutral is critical, because for some flap settings (certainly above 2/3 and perhaps even at 1/3) there isn't sufficient aileron authority to overcome an unbalanced flap condition.
At least one pilot, on short final and with flaps deployed, was able to recover from this failure, in what was decribed as a masterful job of piloting.
On approach, part of my checklist is a reminder of what to do if a flap breaks and after setting flaps I try to keep my right hand close to the flap handle.
Ernie
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