to be quite frank, the media more often than not get it wrong, or misrepresents the facts. It may well be a case of a cracked fairing or similar which is technically part of the fuselage, but not strictly a major structural item. I’m not saying it is in this case, but the media have a habit of omitting information to sensationalize a story. Eg, where are the follow up reports about the Boeing design fault that led to the CAL fire at Okinawa? That doesn’t sell newspapers does it?
When aircraft have major checks, a great deal of rectification is the repair of numerous cracks all over it. Not many people realize that ALL aircraft fly with cracks, some known, some unknown. What prevents them falling out of the sky is designed redundancy allowing cracks to exist until picked up at the appropriate maintenance opportunity.
Ironically, a crack is found during maintenance, the aircraft grounded, and people get all upset. I guess aircraft are not allowed to break down away from their home base without it making the news.