I believe the B 707 was the queen of the skies. It was also one the strongest "civilian" aircraft Boeing built. IMHO it was the last of the real aeroplanes. It has only one powered primary control and that is the rudder. The rest is cables, pulleys etc., and it still could be flown with a very light touch. It did need a certain amount of finesse and correct technique in cross winds, for E.G.
There is/was a B 707 engaged in short haul cargo operations, round trip fuel, (landing weight "limited") that I know for a fact has been landed on average, 10 tons over MLW, 2 times per day for over 10 years, more like 15 years. No other aircraft in it's class would take anywhere near that sort of punishment and abuse and keep going.
As far as this accident maybe concerned I would like to add this. "If you flex or bend a piece of metal long and often enough, it will fail". The trick is to find where it intends to fail before it actually does.