Believe it or not, this is the first full article I have read about this, so I'm probably way behind the curve. I heard the basic story about this ossuary, but hadn't paid much attention to it yet.
My thought is, since the limestone is 2000 years old and very very fragile...It's very serious damage, but not unusual for a limestone box of this age." ... and since the stress fractures were inherent in the piece of limestone, (just made manifest by vibration to the fragile limestone during the flight) isn't it reasonable to assume that if the 2nd half of the inscription was FORGED RECENTLY, the stress from grasping the fragile box and laboriously scratching the words "brother of Jesus" into it, would have caused the box to fracture THEN? In a way, doesn't the stress fracture caused by this week's airplane ride almost AUTHENTICATE that the inscription was NOT faked or added recently?
I wouldn't even guess about something like that. I don't know about the dimensions of the ossuary, or where the inscription is on that ossuary, in relation to the places it would be stressed on an airplane flight. I don't know where the cracks are in relation to the inscription. I don't know if the cracks were caused by the removal of the frame, which would seem to be the most stressful thing about the inscription. I think they could study the cracks and basically tell if the removal of the frame itself caused the stress fractures. Also, this article does not claim or require that the later addition was done recently. It could be quite old.
What is your opinion on why the frame was removed?
The stress fracture (the visible manifestation of an inherent weak spot in the limestone piece) runs RIGHT THROUGH the part of the inscription in question -- "Brother of Jesus".
I maintain that the stress that would have been imparted by forcefully inscribing those words would be far greater than the vibrations of an airlpane ride, and probably would have caused the fragile 2000 year old limestone to crumble in the inscribers hands.
The "frame" in question is not really a frame, but more a "style" of inscription. The frame refers to the way the words were inscribed, inside a sort of stylistic "frame".
At least that's my understanding from reading the articles.