I have a recollection that the fin from the AAL 1997 incident was pulled from that aircraft and subjected to destructive analysis as part of the AA587 investigation.
I was of the understanding that the investigation by the NTSB and American was concluded without a strutural inspection of the fin and that it was years later that damage was discovered during a routine shop visit in spite of the fact that recommendations for inspection were pronunced by Airbus sometime after the NTSB had dropped their interest.
Lots of self serving pronouncements by the parties, claiming that
if they had only known , however one of the responsible parties, the NTSB, is immune from litigitious blame finding.
I suggest that those of us on the sidelines wait for the NTSB hearing to sort out the details and ignore the stuff in the news print.