Originally Posted by
menphix
The report now confirms the part discovered 12km away is the "trailing edge of the right winglet"
Winglets are highly susceptible to flutter. A 737-800 at cruise is already near VNE. A pushover would quickly result in putting the winglets into the flutter zone and separation from the aircraft. Flutter is primarily a TAS issue and it doesn’t take much speed increase at altitude to exceed VNE. Most aircraft with retrofit winglets have their VNE reduced for this reason. With high altitude winds the distance is very plausible.