wrote in message ups.com...
:
: Jim Macklin wrote:
: Remember the Voyager had wingtip damage at take-off. They
: did some maneuvers to break their winglets off.
:
: A few years ago a 707 had an engine fire and melted about
: half a wing off the airplane.
: http://aviation-safety.net/database/...0628-0&lang=en
:
: A vertical winglet would be easily compensated with rudder
:
:
: The winglets on the Voyager were much smaller in size both compared to
: the wingspan and absolute size. The 737-800 winglets are very tall (8
: to 10 feet) and fairly large in comparison to the rudder size and
: wingspan.
:
: You may be right that the rudder could compensate, but I could also be
: convinced that the rudder wouldn't be enough to do it.
:
: Dean
:


The rudder has to be powerful enough to keep the plane going straight at V2 with one engine out and the other producing
full power...

I speculate that the 737 experienced rapid decompression. The flight crew pitched down and initiated the emergency
descent profile, usually includes a spiral turn and dropping gear (experts chime in). Then either they lost control or
had some other structural failure that they were not able to recover from...