The jet suffered engine failure taking off Wednesday from LaGuardia Airport and had to make an emergency landing at nearby Kennedy Airport. Pieces of one of the jet's two engines were found embedded in the fuselage, and other metal debris landed on the roof of a plumbing business.
American Airlines defends maintenance procedures
So it looks like parts did at least hit the fuselage, if not penetrate it.
I also found this little tidbit interesting:
The Wall Street Journal, citing sources, said the plane had a history of engine problems and hadn't received follow-up work after discrepancies were spotted in fuel usage between the two engines.
Not so much for the news about the engine problems, but for the fact that the Wall Street Journal seems to have a channel to "source" information these days. This is the third recent incident where the WSJ cited "people familiar with the details" or some such. Seems the NTSB -- would there be any other likely "source"? -- has been using this conduit to leak early information.
In the case of Continental Flight 1404, which veered off the runway on takeoff in Denver, it was the WSJ (I believe the same reporter), who broke the news that crosswinds were being investigated as the likely cause of the accident.
Then when Colgan 3407 crashed in Buffalo, it was again the WSJ that broke the story:
Investigators examining last week's Continental Connection plane crash have gathered evidence that pilot commands -- not a buildup of ice on the wings and tail -- likely initiated the fatal dive of the twin-engine Bombardier Q400 into a neighborhood six miles short of the Buffalo, N.Y., airport, according to people familiar with the situation.
Pilot Action May Have Led to Crash - WSJ.com