Seaplane down off Miami Beach....

Bird strikes are common, but Grumman was called the Iron
Works for a reason, they built tough airplanes. Aluminum
melts at 1100 degrees F and has lost most of its strength at
500 degrees. Kerosene fire is high heat and energy, failure
could happen in 10-15 seconds [guess].


--
James H. Macklin
ATP,CFI,A&P

--
Merry Christmas
Have a Safe and Happy New Year
Live Long and Prosper
Jim Macklin
"Matt Whiting" wrote in message
...
| 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