Tailstrikes that damage the skin of the pressure hull can be deadly if an aircraft is pressurized after such an event.
China Airlines 611
On 25 May 2002
tailstrike damage improperly repaired, finally unzipped the pressure hull of CI 611 sprinkling 225 crew and passengers over the Taiwan straits.
The cracked section was leaking nicotine stained air through the original tailstrike crack which had grown enormously for at least 7 years before the crash (smoking banned 7 years before the catastrophic event).
But nobody amongst the aircrew or maintenance staff ever realised what they were looking at and what was really happening below the doubler plate during daily walkaround inspections.
China Airlines Flight 611 (CI611/CAL611) was a regularly scheduled passenger flight from Chiang Kai-shek International Airport (now Taoyuan International Airport) in Taiwan to Hong Kong International Airport in Hong Kong.
On 25 May 2002, the Boeing 747-209B operating the route disintegrated in midair and crashed into the Taiwan Strait, 23 nautical miles (26 mi; 43 km) northeast of the Penghu Islands, 20 minutes after takeoff, killing all 225 people on board.
The in-flight break-up was caused by metal fatigue cracks resulting from improper repairs to the aircraft 22 years earlier.
The final investigation report found that the accident was the result of fatigue cracking caused by inadequate maintenance after a much earlier tailstrike incident.
Around 1995, China Airlines started to ban smoking on board. Cabin pressurization forced the smoke out through the cracks.
Over time, the smoke left the nicotine stains outside of the plane.
These stains were an indication of a possible hidden cracks beneath the doubler plate, which means that the cracks had been there long before 1995.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Airlines_Flight_611