Made sense, a rudderless a/c can fly without rudder, not without Vertical Stabiliser
Except for a B-52, you could argue it still has a bit of a vertical stab I guess.
Airbus repaired the problem that tore the vertical stabilizer loose; by informing the pilots what could happen
If crew understood the meaning of Va they wouldn't have been doing what they did, the fin failed at 203% of its design load. Provided a startpoint for operators to look at their upset training. From report,
The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of this accident was the in-flight separation of the vertical stabilizer as a result of the loads beyond ultimate design that were created by the first officer's unnecessary and excessive rudder pedal inputs. Contributing to these rudder pedal inputs were characteristics of the Airbus A300-600 rudder system design and elements of the American Airlines Advanced Aircraft Maneuvering Program (AAMP)