I flown in a lot of bad turbs -- over Japan (egads the pressure lines get bad over there, as well as 12 seconds behind KC-135s during heavy minimum interval takeoffs during the Cold War. I've also experienced a full rudder hardover on a KC-135 that was strong enough to bounce my head of the side window, but the aircraft sustained NO damage. There is NO WAY that any of that should be able to cause catastrophic structural failure. . .This is starting to smell like a controls design problem and maybe a weak structure to boot.
There was a test B-52 many years ago that sustained almost complete loss of the vertical stab. The details there were they were deliberatly out looking for mountain wave turbulence over the Rocky Mountains, and found it in spades. They lowered the landing gear for additional yaw stability and landed safely.
If there's any US govt agency associated with aviation that competent, it's the NTSB. Let's wait for their report.
[ 26 January 2002: Message edited by: Roadtrip ]</p>