When a plane crash occurs, usually there are hundreds of bits of plane shattered everywhere. I watch shows like “Air Disasters”, but they never explain how they know the “right wing flap came apart mid air” or know how the “fan blade dislodged on impact and not in the air”?
In: Engineering
It has to do with the way an object is damaged.
An engine operating at high power settings at time of impact will have dirt and debris much deeper into the core than one that failed in flight.
A plane that breaks up in flight will have a larger debris field than one that impacted intact. Likewise a shallow impact makes a bigger field than a vertical impact.
When something falls off in flight it won’t be in the right spot in the debris field compared to parts that were still attached at impact.
Analog instruments will have an impact mark where the needle was at time of impact. Digital instruments are typically recorded so the last recorded value tells a similar story.
Metal that breaks from repeated fatigue has a distinct microscopic pattern that is distinct from metal which breaks due to sudden impact forces.
There are many more but you get the idea.
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