An Airbus A321, en route from London Luton to Tenerife Spain, was forced to make an emergency landing at London Stansted Airport today (16Nov) around 0845 after the crew reported problems with one of the engines shortly after takeoff and was forced to shutdown the engine.There is also this (now outdated) bit of information on that same web page
Preliminary flight data released on yesterday from AA587 showed the Airbus A300 was buffeted twice by turbulence from another big aircraft seconds before it began its final disastrous descent. Safety investigators said at a briefing the final turn to the left occurred even as crew controls were set to the right, suggesting the plane was no longer responding to pilot commands several seconds after the second bout of turbulence and just before crashing on Monday. National Transportation Safety Board officials said there was movement noted on the flight data recorder that was consistent with two similar turbulence encounters caused by the wake of another plane. But it remained unclear if the force of the wake turbulence, presumably from a Japan Air Lines Boeing 747 that took off just before the American Airlines plane, was enough to throw the doomed jetliner more than four miles behind it out of control.
...suggesting the plane was no longer responding to pilot commands several seconds after the second bout of turbulence and just before crashing...What it comes down to is: did loss of control cause the plane to get sideways and enable air load to rip off the vert stab and engines? If it did, then what the witnesses saw: flame or explosion near the wing root before the plane came apart, is corroborated.
The other question is: is there any other theory that pulls it all together and explains what happened?
What the NTSB has in front of it is delicate: I don't think anyone has the titanium balls to try "Exploding center fuel tank" again. So what do you call what the witnesses saw?