Seeing the photograph of the fin being recovered made me look again at one of the failure messages sent by the ACARS:
272302006 F/CTL RUD TRV LIM FAULT
IF the failure was corrupting speed data and the rudder travels had gone into low speed(full deflection) mode it would have been very easy to rip the fin off the aircraft.
Last edited by tubby linton; 8th Jun 2009 at 17:39.