The rudders of about 420 older Airbus jetliners are being subjected to repetitive ultrasonic and other enhanced inspections.
The vertical stabilizer of AA587 failed, rendering the aircrat both unstable and uncontrolable.
Had the rudder failed before the vertical stabilizer did, chances are this thread would be much shorter and we'd be talking about lucky escape and not accident. And I'm definitively not advocating make-rudders-weaker-than-fins here.
I wonder whether is this mix-up of rudders and fins malicious or just plain ignorant.