Yeah...the airframe is made of supersnazzy material that might be great from a stealth point of view, but less than ideal from a strength point of view....so I'm told anyway.
Add in the fact that the plane itself is not the most aerodynamic thing in the sky and you have a recipe for high stress on parts of the structure. What happend to the plane at the Bawlmer (thats Baltimore, for all you non-Maryland people) Airshow was a structural failure involving the wing. As I said earlier, the danged thing basically parted ways with the rest of the aircraft.
But again, we have the pilot. He knows better than anyone else what happened to the plane. If it was a mechanical problem, I bet we'd have heard about it by now. You know..."the plane had a mech failure, but we don't think its an issue for the rest of our fleet. Game on." So no, he was shot down. My $0.02
As to the weapons bay issue...you lose stealthiness when you open the doors for a few reasons:
1. the doors themselves, when open, provide a flat, vertical surface that is PERFECT for reflecting radar beams. At least, they're like that on non-stealth aircraft. Perhaps the F-117A is set up so they are angled differently. Not sure.
2. The interior of the weapons bay is mostly flat surfaces...again, the F-117A might be different...but there is a limited amount of space on an aircraft, and making the weapons bays conform to stealthy angles and facets probably is not an option. A guess...
3. The payload is definately !stealth. Thats why its on the inside, not the outside.
4. The interior of the weapons bay is likely not RAM-coated. That crap is expensive.
For what its worth. Remember, this is all guess work...especially the part about him getting popped with the bay doors open. Just a stray thought...
Mike
PS I cannot say it enough, though...these planes attack the most heavily defended targets out there, and they do it pretty much alone. They take risks that no other aircraft can possibly take. Sooner or later one of them was gonna get popped.