Ouch sorry about the loss. Hopefully your friend will jump right back in the saddle. I have to say I'm somewhat surprised about the wings separating in flight. I started with my Alpha 40 RTF back in April and flew for several months with the wings just taped together. Glow fuel eventually got to the tape, and I epoxied the wing halves together.

Out of curiousity, how many rubber bands did you use to connect the wings to the fuse? I usually did four (two per side) front to back and then four more (two per side) going front-left to back-right and vice versa. I wonder if this would help keep the wing halves together as well?

From the sounds of it, H9 should replace the plane since it was built per their instructions and an experienced guy was at the controls. Hopefully they'll do your friend right.