There’s something not right, too much left out of this story. The blades are >150 feet long, weigh better than 10 tons and “full speed” is 50-60 rpm, making for a YUGE amount of centripetal force. Lose one blade and the imbalance produces considerably more force than the nacelle can tolerate, and the whole schmeer comes apart.
Which lends the possibility they’re either leaving out the fact that it self-destructed, or the blade fell off when it wasn’t even running, like maybe during routine maintenance.
Interesting point. In another article, they showed the blade broken in 2 to 4 pieces, hard to tell practically at the base of the windmill tower. Seems like it’s running at least part of it would’ve been flung a bit farther away.