Reply #150: Don't think so - could have been wind sheer, which has taken planes down before -

[haele]

Wind sheer is common in violent thunderstorms. And the plane could have been vulnerable; according to an earlier report (which I don't have the link to right now), the plane had been in a wing "dinging" accident on the tarmac a couple months before - which could have put stress on the fittings holding the wing that was run into at low speed, especially if they weren't replaced because it wasn't suspected that there might have been damage induced into the metal structure itself. (I've worked in shipbuilding, and have had to learn how metal can be stressed and compromised during the welding processes)

Here's my armchair speculation -

Flying through the storm, heavy turbulence could have started excessive shaking - and tossing the plane (explaining the anecdotal frightened text messages from passengers). This stresses the already compromised fittings, which can start fracturing and splitting due to the jolts, causing electrical failures in the wiring going through the wing, and eventually fuselage damage as the wing flexes at a far greater rate and distance than it's designed to.
Even if there was no previous damage to the fittings or structure of the plane, a wind-sheer or rapid cyclonic activity within the storm could cause similar structural stress or damage to a wing, aileron, or rudder component.
At high altitude and high speeds on a fairly large plane, any small structural damage becomes catastrophic fairly quickly - easily within a half hour. The damaged wing can come off, the fuselage can sheer back as happened in that plane in Hawaii - where the pilot was able to slow the much smaller plane down and drop altitude enough to keep the plane from splitting apart while flying. Unlike the Hawaiian Air flight, due to the location, the storm, the size of the plane, the altitude and speed, the pilot couldn't slow down or drop altitude enough to keep the plane from splitting apart and falling into the ocean.

People who tend to jump on the idea that it could only be a bomb, that natural phenomena could never take down a plane in good working condition, have never flown through a really nasty thunderstorm with lightning, wind sheers, and sideways tornadoes before.
Back in 1982, I was on a C-141 MAC flight landing in Tinker AFB (Oklahoma), and we caught the leading edge of a storm like that coming down. Those who remember what an "E-ticket" ride meant - well, that was damn near a "K" ticket ride - "K" for "when are we going to be Killed?"
Damn near broke my arm, and I ended up with some nasty bruised ribs and a strained neck and back from that experience - the web "Jump" seating with lap belts along the fuselage does not keep you in your seat too well, but it was a better ride than the poor officers sitting in the two rows of five seats that had been bolted in for passengers; the last row came loose and bounced around into the row in front, giving the three officers in the front row some serious damage, and it almost bounced into the rest of us while we were touching down. If we hadn't landed, I don't know what would have happened to that plane.

Haele