[r9etb]

Practically brand-new airplanes don't "blow-up" at altitude without some kind of intervening action or cause.

You mean like, say, flying into a line of big-ass thunderstorms?

[Big_Monkey]

"You mean like, say, flying into a line of big-ass thunderstorms?

Maybe. But, unless they find the wreckage of that plane, and given the depth of the waters and the size of the debris field that seems unlikely, this will be the stuff of an endless supply of conspiracy theories. And, given the fact that there was a bomb threat for this very flight just days before, that is only going to be an accelerant for the tin-foil hat crowd.

[Kirkwood]

Has there ever been a case where an aircraft has blown up in a thunderstorm?

Didn’t think so.