Originally Posted by
lucille
Not a lot makes sense with this incident. Structural failure? But in all likelihood it was smooth air up at FL280, so that rules it out.
We are a long way from knowing if structural failure is involved here, but smooth air doesn't rule anything out. A structure on the brink of failure is just that - a structure on the brink of failure. An aircraft in flight is sustaining loads greater than "static" when it's sitting on the ground. If the structure has been compromised, it will eventually fail under "normal" flight loads. The only thing turbulence will do is speed up the process.