Was just talking with a NWA mechanic about the report of visible flames etc. coming from the back of an engine and he maintains that usually indicates "shelling" of an engine; ie: the expulsion of blades resulting from an uncontained or contained failure.
His point was there is no way to know and if there was molten metal coming out the back, the possibility of damage to either the flaps or horizontal stab is distinct, and if there was damage (in the form of skin damage), then over ten hours the potential of that damage to propogate was certain.
Like I said before, literally all of the people that I have spoken to at NWA that have intimate experience with the 744 cannot rationalize the decision to continue across the continental US and the northern Atlantic after such a failure.
Although it may be unpopular, my take on this is that the crew was suckered/coerced into the notion that continuing to destination was a good idea.