[Solson]

In general I would agree with that. But, detecting fatigue in carbon composites is generally difficult. If the cracks were too small to be seen with visual contact, they would have been missed. For a reference on non-destructive examiniation please look at this:

http://www.aviation-industry.com/atem/Acrobat/at53ndt.pdf

[rolling_stone]

I was not disagreeing with you, I only thought that whatever they did to check and repair the prior damage turned out to be insufficient or else damage or further damage occured after the check/repairs. I realize some race car engines undergo thorough checking for cracks due to the stresses they under go(includig harmonics at certain rpms)....Thanks for the link on airframes....I did catch on the news conference the guy from NTSB would not speculate on whether flutter was involved.....