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Old 19th Jun 2009, 16:18
  #1959 (permalink)  
deSitter
 
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Harry Mann - "pulled structure out!!"

No, it failed cleanly and very suddenly - this is shown by the damage to the lower rudder which nevertheless remained attached to the VS implying it was levered backward against the tail cone and shattered under sudden longitudinal compression. This in turn implies that the forward attachment failed very suddenly and explosively, the way composites do, and you can see this in the exposed cross-hatch "brushy" damage in the VS internal structure (seen from below).

I still believe that either the VS failed on its own in turbulence, or as a result of a lightning strike traveling down the aluminum fuselage and exiting at the VS front root, destroying structure there. The latter is more consistent with subsequent computer systems failures.

-drl
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