Quote:
Originally Posted by bungarra
On take off with full fuel capacity, she would have had in excess of 150,000lt of fuel on board. Given the wings contain the fuel tanks and the previous damage to the wing,it is possible the wing tore open and fuel erupted and engulfed the plane. The radar return showing the plane potentially turning aorund, could have been the debris trail.
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Wings don't just tear open when there is structural damage, cracking occurs first, generally at fastener locations, and if in a fuel tank area, will be evidenced by fuel leakage visible from the ground and during preflight walkaround checks. Only if the structure is overloaded which is extremely unlikely, can there be a catastrophic failure.
The aircraft became lost during the first part of the flight, probably when the maximum cabin pressure differential was applied to the fuselage, which is normally when decompression failures occur.