[jacquesm]

There are some eye witness accounts about corrosion around the base of the tank. One way in which that could have caused this is because corroded metal takes up more space than the original and this could put point stresses on the acrylic. I haven't seen any engineering drawings (I did try to find some but there are only pretty pictures) so I'm not sure how much effect that would have but keeping the base corrosion free would seem to be an absolute requirement regardless of whether or not it would have a disastrous effect like this. So I will have to wait until the investigators have gone all over this, given the amount of money involved there is bound to be a very thorough investigation and after having seen a couple of aircraft accident investigations conclude with entirely different findings than the first 24 hours of speculation I've learned that to be patient usually pays off.

[swader999]

That is fair. Security tapes might tell a lot as well.

[jacquesm]

Those will definitely be interesting, if they are leaked. Let's hope the cameras have a high frame rate because the first couple of frames will be the most interesting with respect to where the failure started and how it propagated.

In the Panama City there is an overhead swimming pool many meters above the restaurant floor. I've dined there a couple of times and never feel quite comfortable with that much water hanging over me supported by a sheet of acrylic.

After this that feeling is likely not going to be any less :)