Originally Posted by Cromely
As and SWA FA once pointed out while encouraging people to move the back of the plane -- You never hear about a plane backing into a mountain.
Cromely.
The tail is the strongest part of the plane. The second strongest is the place where the wing meets the fuselage. The only problem in the latter place is if a compressor disk decides to fly out of the engine - you're screwed, as is most of the fuselage.
There's an AA 762 (?) down in LAX that had an engine fire during test. You can see how badly it damaged the fuselage.