wrote in message news:ffVpf.1989$LB5.1838@fed1read04...
Jim Macklin wrote:


Engine failure was pure speculation on my part. An in-flight explosion
brings to mind all kinds of ugly possibililites.

While it appears there may be fire/explosion prior to impact this time. The
truth is that in almost every instance of a witnessed aircraft crash there
will be eyewitnesses reporting a pre-impact fire or explosion, even when
that didn't happen.

For example an Avianca 707 crashed in NY due to fuel exhaustion. There was
no evidence of even a post crash fire. The earliest eyemitness accounts
reported the aircraft variously as on fire or exploding and then falling.
As often as not witness reports of fire are an artifact of emotion of
witnessing a traumatic event.

People could witness a glider crash into a lake and someone would report it
exploded and burned before impact.

--
Scott