It needs to be stressed that it's not direct blame of an individual which is being sought in this thread. Everyone would, I am sure, respect the honourable aeronautical tradition of not laying direct blame at those who can never answer to their accusers.
What we really wish to know is whether a culture existed on that airline/fleet/crew which seemingly allowed them to ignore the fact that they were about to take-off overweight, which did not query the revised RTOW with the tailwind and which then allowed a critical engine shut down to go unchallenged?
Perhaps the alleged mis-aligned spacer would have been less of a problem if the aircraft had not been over its certificated structural take-off weight limit. Perhaps the tyre(s) would not have failed so dramatically after impact if they had not benn subjected to the stress of an overweight take-off........
There is more to this than just 'a tyre burst after an impact with runway FOD; the resulting fire caused catastrophic loss of thrust and the aircraft subsequently departed controlled flight'.
[ 26 August 2001: Message edited by: BEagle ]