[Cementjungle]

This aircraft had a tail strike on the runway during a previous flight years ago.. It was ‘repaired’ but perhaps serious internal cracks caused this break up. No tail, no ability to fly.

How would that result in fragments over a large area?

[CivilWarBrewing]

Once a pressurized cabin causes the compromised internal fractures to burst, a bomb-like break-up can occur. I believe this is what happened.

[ZOOKER]

How would that result in fragments over a large area?

If the tail broke off, you lose all control, the plane could flop around and tumble in all three axes. This could cause the entire plane to break apart and scatter over a wide area, I suppose.

As for what the initial cause of the breakup was, I suspect we'll never know. Rumors will be thick in the air, I'm sure.

[Gen.Blather]

The plane is pressurized. It is held together by a very thin aluminum skin stretched over ribs. Break that skin almost anywhere and there is a sudden, progressive cascade of events, each worse than the one before it. Ripples caused by the air current flow down the sides causing even more breakup. From start to finish is typically very short.

Survival of the aircraft from events like the flight that lost a large upper fuselage section as it approached Hawaii are rare. If I recall that was a Boeing and Boeing tends to design with a belt and suspenders approach. I believe this was an Airbus. Airbus has had more of this type structural failure probably because the basic design philosophy is looser.

[Domangart]

The tail is intact way behind the smashed up plane.

[CivilWarBrewing]

It's difficult to tell, but I see the charred remains of the main wings with forward fuselage and nose cone all INTACT on the ground. We don't know when the fire started at this point. That is crucial in determining what happened, but how does 3/4ths of the aircraft lay upon the ground intact if it were a bomb?

It could well be a bomb but so far the evidence leads ME to conclude the aircraft broke apart towards the tail, possibly due to the aircraft reaching full cabin pressurization causing fractures near tail to erupt. If a bomb were located near the tail, would there be so much passenger luggage still intact?

I'm just guessing. I'm no expert by any means.