[cookcounty]

Could someone with more than a tad of physics speak to the following:

If a detached engine sliced off the rear stabilizer, doesn't that mean the engine was moving more slowly in the flight direction than the rest of the aircraft? With less forward speed, wouldn't it drop somewhat faster? Just wondering.

[cookcounty]

Also, If the stabilizer was sliced off by a wing, wouldn't the wing be likely to be back there with the stabilizer, in the bay, instead of all the way up with the fuselage?

[Dan Day]

Could someone with more than a tad of physics speak to the following: If a detached engine sliced off the rear stabilizer, doesn't that mean the engine was moving more slowly in the flight direction than the rest of the aircraft? With less forward speed, wouldn't it drop somewhat faster? Just wondering.

It could have gone practically any direction in the first few seconds after separation, depending on how it finally tore loose, whether it was still operating residually and providing its own thrust, how the wind (500mph+) of travel caught and deflected it, whether it hit another part of the plane first and was "bounced", etc. etc.