Re: FAA certificates
This isn't an FAA problem, either. If past history is to show anything,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_232
it's a casting flaw. Like UA232, it could be from an impure titanium ingot; at these stress levels, even a small amount of impurity, causing porosity, can be deadly. And, unless we develop technologies to inspect cast metals at the close-to-molecular level, we just can't see flaws that fine when originally cast. This is why ongoing inspections are an important part of any critical systems maintenance.
The problem here, according to early reports, is that the flaw starts internally. It could be, for example, a worn mold surface allowing stress microfracture propagation, as you/they can't polish the interior surface of a hollow cast and therefore must rely strictly on the as-cast finish provided by the mold surface.
So there are lots of possibilities of why this happened, the investigation will be ongoing for a while. They will hope to find the initial part that failed in order to give the final word on specifics.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
