Originally Posted by
deSitter
Composite materials fail explosively as the tremendous locked-in stress energy of the layered and bonded materials is released - so there is plenty of energy around to do a lot of damage.
But the composite didn't fail. The mounts and parts of the fuselage structure were detached from the rest of the fuselage.
We would have maybe the only case ever of complete destruction of an airframe without significant exterior damage to one of its largest members.
Intact Airbus composite fin was found floating of Perpignan after that crash, and there is eyewitness and black box evidence that it was still attached at impact.
The fin being found intact and floating is not evidence to back the detached-in-the-air theory - we
know that this happens even in high-energy impact with water, with the fin still attached at impact.