On a calm Saturday afternoon in May 2002, a routine flight from Taipei to Hong Kong ended in one of the most shocking mid-air breakups in modern aviation history. A Boeing 747 carrying 225 people suddenly vanished from radar over the Taiwan Strait.

What investigators discovered later was not a sudden act of sabotage or engine failure - but a flaw hidden deep within the aircraft’s own structure, dating back more than two decades.

https://medium.com/@eskalion1/the-boeing-747-tail-separation-china-airlines-flight-611-882989bc802b