Engineering Question: ITAVIA 870
 

Hi,

I've got a question on decompressions:

Let's say we have a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-15, made in the mid 60's, and we want to carry out a little structure test. Lets presume we are flying at 24.000 feet alt, descending mode, going south with a strong westerly wind at high altitude veering to a north-westerly at sea level. In the fuel tank we have about 35% fuel left. And we place a exploding device in the rear toilet outer wall (starboard) just above the lower skin of the starboard engine pylon. Lets presume we detonate this charge:
Could the explosion lead pieces of fuselage skin from above and below the pylon hitting the starboard engine cowlings? Could this event cause such type of structure in such condtions to break-up in 5.0 seconds?

Would a missle or an on board bomb cause more damage?


I am asking these question regarding the accident of Itavia flight 870 in 1981


Thanks

Looks like a hard and technical question which has not been clarified yet from the Italian Transportation Safety Board.
There's a nice web-site in which the Itavia accident is explained quite well but unfortunately in Italian only.

Click Here !!!

Hope you have a translator.

Otherwise, sorry to say that, I really have no idea. The Itavia accident has been surrouned since 1980 from silence, lies, and different versions. Today the only thing we know is that 80 or more souls died in that accident. Another example of ITALY = BANANA REPUBLIC !

Here is another interesting site where you can find info on the subject:
http://www.airmanshiponline.com/

It has its own search engine, just type “itavia ustica”.

Unfortunately most of the articles are in Italian…

This particular article, though, is in English:
http://www.airmanshiponline.com/spri...05-isasdc9.htm