I can tell you without having seen the plane just hearing the passenger accounts.
Plane took off from Nashville under weather (high turbulence/thermals) which flexed the fuselage at the mid point above the wing box and the tail section. A section of the plane's seam/riveting failed and cracked open during that time putting the "skin" up at a lip to catch wind. At high altitude and high speed with the pilots ignoring the higher than normal cabin pump and wind noise it finally gave way under most likely a small amount of turbulence that pushed the lip back up to catch wind and rip off.
There you have it. Wouldn't really be anybodies fault unless that was patch work for something else in the planes maintenance logs. That kind of structural failure isn't as big of a deal as people keep thinking it is. The size is way inside of tolerance for total air worthyness. To see what a plane can get away with look at Aloha Airlines Flight 243 or check out any war footage of less forgiving planes designs coming back with far less surface in tact. The spars holding the fuselage together are all still in tact running down the body. It was mostly cosmetic and comfort such as the pressurized cabin.
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