Originally Posted by
DozyWannabe
What you're describing are the precise conclusions of the investigations - the rudder reversal induced vertical stab separation, which induced yaw and spin, which induced engine separation.
Got a link handy for that? 'Tis the first I've heard of it. I think there was some disbonding, but that was unrelated to the failure and could be considered normal wear and tear.
Find the crash photos from AA 587 and look at the pictures that show the tail. One segment of the tail is still attached to the fuselage lug attachements. That segment is the patch installed by Airbus to correct some production damage(incurred while installing the tail???). The patch was stronger than the rest of the tail.
Design failure is 2.00 design load(incorrect terminology). Failure occured very, very close to 2.00(+/-.3 I believe).