Re: Truth will never be known.
Vertical stabilizers just don?t fail like this and break away. There has to have cracks on the mounting rivets etc. Yes, the boeing 747 can cause enough turbulence behind it to flip a 737 in air if it were close behind. In this case the 747 was way ahead of the danger zone.
Argument for bird (sucked in) damage: yes, it is possible for an engine to stop functioning or even get severely damaged from inside if a large bird to be sucked in. This is a common occurrence and many engines get damages from bird strikes. I have seen many engines in the hanger of airlines where the bird had caused a total destruction of the inside of the engine of an airliner. Let me repeat myself: I have seen many engines get totally destroyed from a bird strike.
If you have access to enter a repair hanger of a commercial airline you would see lots of stuff that you would never see in media. Damaged engines(many), damaged fuselage etc. Airlines know how to hide such stuff from public eyes. I wouldn?t mention which airline but I had seen nose damage of a wide body aircraft with a simple bird strike. Don?t forget, the bird comes to you like a cannon ball at a few hundred miles per hour and punches a hole right into the fuselage or takes out perfectly aligned fine blades of a jet engine.
How many of you guys hit a dog on the street with your car at 50-60 miles per hour? My friend hit a normal sized dog at 50 miles / hour and totaled his car from the front. Now just imagine a large sized bird hitting fan blades of a jet engine (which spins at 30 thousand RPMs).
In any case, I don?t buy that the bird had caused such damage. It?s most likely a mechanic?s error. As I remember, the engine was over-hauled and remounted just a short time ago. If the engine was not mounted in a proper way then vibrations (on take off) can break the mounting disk and the engine can come off. I remember, I had volunteered in giving up my seat to a Japanese business man on eastern airlines from Miami to NYC. I got a free pass to travel anywhere eastern flied at that time. When I arrived at la Guardia airport in the evening to receive my bags which were on the flight that I got off from, I was told that the plane had to make an emergency landing in north Carolina for engine problems. Later, it was known that an engine had fallen off in flight over north Carolina. This incident was in papers but a very small article (Daily news). It was a Lockheed
L-1011 wide body aircraft.
So you see, engines do fall off from aircrafts.
Now getting back to the 547. If the engine did fall off then it might have struck the vertical stabilizer and might have sheered it off. According to co-pilot?s voice, he had ordered the plane for more thrust. This would not only make the plane go fast but it would actually give it more lift as well. If the nose was up (as it is on take offs) and the vibration was increased due to extra thrust then the engine can break loose and strike the stabilizer behind.
Eye witnesses did mention a piece of a wing coming off the plane in mid air. That may have been the vertical stabilizer as it does look like a small portion of the wing. If the engine was broken off the airplane; this would make the aircraft off balanced to one side and without the vertical stabilizer the plane couldn?t stay afloat in a leveled position. Thus the plane took a nose dive (nose is always heavier on an aircraft) and tipped to one side opposite to where the engine was missing.
In a case like this, the plane had no chance to make a landing to safety.
This is my best educated guess as to what had happened to flight 547.
Anyone else has any better explanation?