This news article
(http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/12/20/D8EKBRTG0.html) says that the
wing was recovered from the water today, and the engine and prop are
still attached. There's even a photo showing it. Looks like the wing
separated pretty well inboard of the engine. At this point,
speculation seems that either a fuel leak/fire melting the spar... or
perhaps just simple plain structural failure of the spar with the fire
happening afterwards could both possibly explain the wing separation.


Jim Macklin wrote:
More likely that a fuel line was not properly safetied or
otherwise failed. Turbine engines have fuel pressures as
high a 1,000 PSI, so the fuel system in the engine is highly
stressed. The fuel supply pumps are high capacity and 50 to
100 PSI, so again, the fuel connections and lines are
stressed.

If there was a fuel leak into the nacelle, wing root area,
any source of ignition could cause an explosion and the
resulting fire would soften the aluminum spar quickly. The
emergency procedure for a fire is to shut off the fuel
valves, but if the failure was between the tank and fuel
tank or the valve was damaged, it might not be possible to
shut the fuel off.

The NTSB is very good at investigating this type of failure,
the will track melted and bent metal, see the pattern of
soot and follow the fractures in the metal.