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That's really not much for a plane like that. Hurricane Hunter aircraft fly in worse conditions. They may never know for sure without the black boxes. Debris is so spread out though I'd say a midair breakup is a real possibility.
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Hurricane Hunters - the C-130s and P-3s - are over-engineered to the point that they can take structural hits and survive far beyond what most other aircraft can sustain. The 'experts' have been talking a lot about the severe turbulence of the type storm the Airbus was flying into - 100+mph winds - but coming from all directions and stressing the aircraft in ways it may not have been designed to overcome - and the issues involved with the automatic flight systems dangerously over-compensating under such conditions. They've also been talking about the potential impact of such storms - including massive electrical strikes - upon both the control systems and the numerous composite structural materials (unlike the traditional materials of the C-130/P-3 type aircraft) used throughout in the newer commercial aircraft like the A330.
Bottom line - they don't know and may never know exactly what happened to this flight.
As for the terrorist threat - authorities reported a threat being made a few weeks ago against an Air France flight from Argentina - not Brazil - to France and - after investigation - it proved to be unfounded. There were no threats made against this flight.
Richard's $.02
