That’s what some press reports are saying.  Had Jimmy Leeward not maneuvered the stricken plane as he did, things could have been much worse.

"The way I see it, if he did do something about this, he saved hundreds if not thousands of lives because he was able to veer that plane back toward the tarmac,”

Zodiac AircraftThis past April, the NTSB called upon the FAA to ground the entire fleet of Zodiac aircraft because their wings tend to fall off in mid-flight.  As it turns out, a defect in the Zodiac’s design induces an aerodynamic phenomenon known as flutter.  Flutter can destroy a wing or other control surface in a matter of seconds.