It slid off of the runway? Among the first questions that will be asked, what was the wind speed and heading during takeoff?
The "large noise" is a pretty vague statement even by immediate post accident investigation standards. Large noise as in what? A shuddering noise? A banging? A rumble?
[quote="Dartzap"
What would cause that sort of deterioration? Material fatigue?[/quote]
The landing gear collapsed after it ran off then runway, that will cause a plane to break in half without it needing to be in poor condition. Planes are basically soda cans, very strong for the weight, but once you get a little bit of damage started, say from the nose hitting the ground first when the gear was lost, they crumple.
"This cult of special forces is as sensible as to form a Royal Corps of Tree Climbers and say that no soldier who does not wear its green hat with a bunch of oak leaves stuck in it should be expected to climb a tree"
— Field Marshal William Slim 1956
Ripping the landing gear off an airplane can cause surprisingly severe damage because the gear is typically attached to one of the strongest areas of the structure. Ripping those off will damage other areas that also happen to be attached to the same structures.
After that point, you have to deal with problems like load and balance shifting which will induce unintended stresses. If the fuselage contacts the ground that, too, will induce stresses in the fuselage that it was never designed for.
Think of it this way - if you take a cardboard tube like the one from the center of a roll of paper towels and, using a hand on either side of the tube, compress it along its length you will find it almost impossible to crush. If you twist the tube, however, it is easily destroyed. Airplane fuselages are not quite the same thing, but they are designed to withstand the loads normally found in flight and landing, not the twisting motions that losing a wheel or hitting the ground can impart to the structure.
As for accident causes - no doubt there will be questions about the weather, but other factors could be involved, such as debris on the runway or some sort of mechanical failure, perhaps originating in the landing gear itself.
As for the "large noise" - the would presumably be a noise not normally heard during operations. No doubt the investigators will pull the black boxes and try to analyze the noise. If something broke that could have caused a loud sound.
A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory.Leonard Nimoy.
Now I did a job. I got nothing but trouble since I did it, not to mention more than a few unkind words as regard to my character so let me make this abundantly clear. I do the job. And then I get paid.- Malcolm Reynolds, Captain of Serenity, which sums up my feelings regarding the lawsuit discussed here.
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. - John F. Kennedy
