Originally Posted by
msbbarratt
It's also worrying that, whilst their nice strong wing was clearly not hanging by a thread, they didn't stop to consider what might have happened to the much more fragile elevators on the tail of the 767. Bit like a lorry hitting a scooter and driving off because the lorry is Ok.
Yup. That is outright scary, bordering on criminal.
Wing tips are quite solid and an airliner will fly just fine with a significantly dented wing tip. Even a 1 or 2 ft missing on the wing tip should be fine to handle with 5 - 10 kts increased speeds on take off and landing.
The tail feathers, however is a whole different story. You get some flutter due to a damaged Elevator and kiss good bye your stabilizer and thereby your (and all the other's) posterior.