Something that has come up in discussion with both professionals and enthusiasts over the last few weeks has been the total destruction of the composite areas of the structure.
No way to compare those, thin walled sandwich composite parts behave totally different from thick walled, monolithic composites. Compare the burn through time of a 3 layer plywood panel with that of a 10 ply panel, it will be a factor of 100 between. Every destroyed layer acts as a protection for the ones underneath, from a certain thickness it basically becomes fireproof. While melting metal runs away immediately exposing the one behind, burned layers will stay in place and protect the remaining ones. Heat transfer through aluminum and composites is totally different. Aluminum is destroyed by external fire, composies burns by itself once a fire started.
Finally both wreaks will not be a pretty sight...
The only thing we may learn from this accident is the fire scenario which should be used for tests. The scale of samples we should use for the tests, the type of flame we should use. Maybe one standard test does not give all the answers. And again (since british airtours) streched acrylic windows should get a second thought.