The NTSB has a set of pictures of the vertical stabilizer and the empennage attachment points at:
http://www.ntsb.gov/Events/2001/AA587/tailcomp.htm
From the presswires:
NEW YORK (AP) - American Airlines Flight 587 twice ran into turbulence left by a jumbo jet, including a blast of air that sent it
careening sideways seconds before it crashed, investigators said Thursday.
The doomed plane's flight data recorder indicates the Airbus A300 had two turbulent "wake encounters'' during its three-minute
flight, said Marion Blakey, chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board.
"The second was similar in intensity to the first,'' she said.
Flight 587 began banking hard with its left wing down within eight seconds of the second wake encounter, said Tom Haueter, the NTSB's deputy director of aviation. The flight data recorder cut off at that point.
"Obviously, the whole time we're talking about is the last eight seconds,'' he said. "We have eight seconds we're going to be
looking at in extreme detail.''
Earlier, NTSB investigator George Black Jr. said investigators were almost certain the tail broke off before the jetliner's twin
engines. While cautioning that investigators are not ready to rule out sabotage, he said the tail "doesn't appear to have been sabotaged in any way.''
Black also said the pilots of Flight 587 were probably unaware its tail fin had broken off as they struggled to control the plane.
"They don't have a rearview mirror,'' he told The Associated Press. "They have no idea they've lost a tail.''
In Washington, the Federal Aviation Asministration was preparing to order inspections of Airbus A300s, focusing on the tail. The order would cover 90 of the European-built planes used by three U.S. airlines - American, FedEx and United Parcel Service. American has already agreed to do voluntary inspections of its 34 remaining A300s."