Jim Macklin wrote:
My guess is that they had a loose or broken fuel line,
caught fire and the fuel vapor exploded and the fire melted
the spar enough for it to fail.. The airplane seems to have
been very sturdy, since the fuselage is intact after the
impact.

Any information as to what altitude they were cruising at? It seems
like it would take a minute or more to soften a spar enough to fail, but
maybe the pilot wasn't aware he had a problem in time. Then again, it
may have been something else entirely. I wonder if they could have hit
a gull or something like that also and cause a problem.


Matt