Given that American Airlines prefer to polish their aircraft, can we assune the tailfin of the A-300 is plastic ie. carbon fibre or of some sort of aramid construction?
(in the photo it appears to be painted light grey). If this is the case perhaps it has some bearing on the possible chain of events leading up to this tragic accident. Perhaps may also explain its intact appearence as if its made of this stuff its effectively one big piece. Thoughts anyone? (apologies if its really made of aloominum!) maybe an AI employee knows.