and it cracked up a whole bunch of the airplane. now that cracking just led to the whole airplane breaking apart. >> we believe that the nose broke off just forward of the wing. that came right down. straight down. the engines were still producing the same amount of power so it will go up because it is lighter. the airplane itself rose and continued a few thousand feet more ending up in the 16,000 foot range. you have a lot of fuel being mixed with the air and already the fire, so now the fire ball gets to be quite large and noticeable. >> there were some witnesses who saw a rising streak of light. we believe this was from the nose section coming off. the residual fire burning in the airplane. the airplane rising up and creating what appears to be a vertical streak of light. >> from the ntsb's point of view