[sinkspur]

If "clear air turbulence" riped the tail off of this plane, then every A300 in the world should be immediately grounded.

It wasn't "clear air turbulence." The theory is "wake turbulence" from a 747; apparently the A-300 was only 30 seconds behind the larger plane. The pilots specifically mentioned it.

I hadn't heard the missing bolts explanation, but a briefing from NTSB is about to begin, so let's see if they mention it.

[cinFLA]

It wasn't "clear air turbulence." The theory is "wake turbulence" from a 747; apparently the A-300 was only 30 seconds behind the larger plane.

Not 30 seconds but 127 seconds.

[goodnesswins]

"...apparently the A-300 was only 30 seconds behind the larger plane. The pilots specifically mentioned it."

I heard (or read) that they they were 2 min, 7 seconds behind another plane...

[Bryan24]

A 747 cannot produce enough "wake turbulence" to rip the tail off an airplane. Toss it out of control? Possibly.

If a wing "failed" on the plane and flew back and hit the tail, I could see the tail getting ripped off. But most of the witnesses don't describe the plane that way.

I'll go WAAAAAAY out on a limb here. Bad bolts were used to fasten the tail and engines onto the plane. When the tail failed, the pilots firewalled the throttles. The plane began flying sideways (no tail) and the engnes bolts failed.

[Interesting Times]

It wasn't "clear air turbulence." The theory is "wake turbulence" from a 747; apparently the A-300 was only 30 seconds behind the larger plane.

Source, please. Everything I have read indicates they were at least 2 minutes back, as required.

The pilots specifically mentioned it.

Well, yes, but if you're an airline pilot and the plane is suddenly shaking like hell, you probably think of turbulence first instead of, say, the tail coming off...

[Melinator]

Interesting. First it was 2m 20s, then 1m 30s, now a mere 30s. I wonder if it is part of a deliberate plan to keep changing the available evidence so that people simply give up trying to figure it out and rely instead upon the govt.