Finally saw the video y'all are talking about (re: the tail, or "chopping the tail off the plane"). You had me concerned there for a bit, I thought you were talking about a complete tail section. That was just a vertical stabilizer.
Hmmm...maybe they used that monkey wrench to loosen all the bolts on the vertical stab before they hid it in the inlet.
OK, so the wing comes off, taking the tail off... now, did an exploding engine take the wing off? Or was the bright flash seen by at least one eyewitness a bomb?
So far, none of the war stories about exploding engines on this thread indicate they are bad enough to take off enough wing that would, in turn, shear off the vertical stabilizer at the base.