I believe that informed speculation is well within the remit of these forums. I believe that doing so here is appropriate before any official reports are published.
Having said that, comments in the media about engines being sighted "on fire, according to eye witnesses" should definitely be taken with a grain of salt. Witnesses assume that a fiery crash is preceded by an engine on fire, and thus "remember" that as the case. There is not enough information to assume this is an engine failure accident yet.
Given that, any possible engine failure is not particularly relevant. The aircraft crashed because it lost directional control, and that is the "cause" of the crash, so any speculation should focus on why the aircraft lost directional control.
The aircraft appears to have left the side of the runway about three quarters of the way along it - easily enough to get airborne, but there is no information on how much deceleration it managed on the runway. From the information then it is still impossible to tell if the aircraft lost directional control in the air or on the ground.
So - simply too early to begin informed speculation then.
Last edited by Checkboard; 20th August 2008 at 19:15.