Originally Posted by
dixi188
In the MD80 heavy landing the structural failure was aft of the engines.
Yes, the engines are forward of the aft pressure bulkhead on the DC-9/MD-80/MD-90/717 - which is where it failed.
As I said, I don't know if there was a connection, but the mass of the engines would still have added stresses to the tail structure that failed as the whole fuselage did it's dance after touchdown even though the actual failure occurred aft of the engines.