It is to soon to say what failed on the PA28R that crashed this week ,i doubt that a spar falure was the start of the tragic chain of events , i say this because some years back following a PA28 spar failure the FAA issued an AD that required a dye pen inspection of all high time PA28 spar webbs ,no more cracked spars were found.
The FAA concluded that the aircraft that had the spar failure had been flown in a "bush type" enviroment off very rough strips and was not typical of the type in gereral and so withdrew the AD apon the evidence of thousands of satisfactory spar inspections.
The above inspection required the removal of both wings to dye pen the spar webb close to the main wing bolt holes.
If eny emergency action is required i am sure that the AAIB will not be slow to take action.
[This message has been edited by A and C (edited 08 December 2000).]