On Sat, 12 Sep 2009 09:25:22 -0400, "Morgans"
wrote:


"Stealth Pilot" wrote

this diagnosis didnt make sense to me. how could an aircraft that has
just shed it's load fail? with the shedding of the load the airframe
gets relatively stronger.
the locheed reports indicate that the aircraft had an undetected crack
in the root of the mainspar that had grown to such an extent that the
structure was compromised. the events that you see on the video are
coincidental and not the cause of the crash.
the crack grew to the point that it broke up in flight. that was the
cause.

It shed its load of water, by dropping it on a fire. If you keep your
control surfaces in the same position, you will suddenly pull more G's when
the plane is much, much lighter. Those G's were more than a plane with an
already compromised wing could stand, so it broke up.

Does that make more sense?

yes but I'm still not convinced.