On one of the pilot message boards they explained how the planes have the capability to dissipate lightening strikes and didn’t think turbulance could take down the plane either.
With the wreckage over miles you have to wonder about if it blew up as there was no May Day.
Investigators have few clues to help explain what brought the Airbus A330 down. The crew made no distress call before the crash, but the plane's system sent an automatic message just before it disappeared, reporting lost cabin pressure and electrical failure.
It would be interesting if they found the black box.
They should think again.
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Synopsis: Approaching Mildenhall, after an Atlantic crossing with a known inoperative weather radar, the aircraft entered an area of thunderstorms and heavy rain. The aircraft encountered severe turbulence and broke up in-flight. There were no survivors of 18 onboard.
The crew was alerted from home station at 2100 hours local. The aircraft commander had spent a full duty day in the office, the day of the mission.
The aircraft’s previous crew had written up the APN-59 radar as "extremely weak and unusable", but on the ground it seemed to be working, so it was signed off as "Ops Check Okay". The maintenance crewman assigned to fix the radar, did not know that it had been written up eight times previously.
At McGuire Base Ops, the Mildenhall weather was forecast to be "3/8 at 2500 feet, 4/8 at 4000 feet". Shortly after takeoff, the crew noticed that the radar was inoperative. Since severe weather was not forecast, they elected to continue to Mildenhall. Two hours after takeoff, British forecasters issued a SIGMET for "Moderate to occasional severe clear air turbulence from FL240 to FL400". USAF Global Weather downgrades it to "Moderate". It doesn’t matter, the crew is never aware of the report. Four hours after takeoff the crew updates the weather forecast. They receive a weather forecast of "3/8 at 3000’, 4/8 at 4000 feet with an intermittent condition of wind 030/12 gusting 22, visibility five miles in thunderstorms, 2/8 at 2000’ 5/8 at 2500 feet". One hour from destination, the crew again tried to update the weather, but due to scheduled autovon maintenance at Mildenhall, the crew could not make contact. They attempted another station. This time the report was "4/8 Thunderstorms tops to FL260". During the enroute decent they entered the clouds. At FL 150, they requested vectors around the weather, from the air traffic controller. Because the primary radar was inoperative, the controller advised that he would have difficulty providing avoidance vectors. He reported, "I can’t see any way through it all". The crew replied, "…MAC is attempting to maintain VMC and to pick our way through…". That was the last transmission from the aircraft. Radar tracked the aircraft as it entered the leading edge of a very strong line of thunderstorm cells. A few moments later, at FL90 and 25NM northwest of RAF Mildenhall, the radar target disappeared. The aircraft was seen, by ground observers, falling from the clouds in pieces.
Investigation revealed no evidence of lightning strike or fatigue failure. The aircraft apparently encountered severe turbulence. Accident investigators estimated gust loads in excess of the design limit of any transport class aircraft. One estimate indicated they encountered a 100 mph downward vertical airshaft. The right wing had failed, followed quickly by the upper half of the vertical stabilizer, and the four engines. All 14 crew, including members of a deadheading Reserve crew, and 4 passengers were killed.
http://www.c141heaven.com/mishap_paul_hansen.htm
Two more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BOAC_Flight_911
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braniff_Flight_250