The following story details findings of fatigue cracks in rear fuselage of this aircraft: http://www.aviationnow.com/avnow/news/channel_awst.jsp?view=story&id=news/aw 080541.xml (URL may wrap) To me this is very persuasive as to the probable cause of the breakup of this plane. It seems to argue for very careful inspection of the fuselage of aircraft of this age and service, particularly those which have ever suffered damage. This one had a tail strike in 1980 which required reinforcement of the skin. It is unhappily reminiscent of the failure of the AA A300 at JFK. In the latter case the aircraft had suffered damage many years before the catastrophic failure. Gerry http://home.columbus.rr.com http://www.fortunecity.com/victorian/pollock/263/egypt/egypt.html