> You are correct...the 'rudder' didn't leave the a/c, the whole tail did. But, as in AA587, it was claimed that the seperation was caused by the pilot overloading the rudder.
I have been following this thread closely since page 6, and have a pretty good memory. You are correct. In the beginning there was a great deal of claiming by the completely uninformed that the PF overcontrolled the rudder and broke it off.
Then the pictures of the VS showed up, with enough detail to show that it still had the rudder attached and yanked the roots out of the aft body section, rather than failing the attach lugs on the VS itself. Since that point most of the claims of pilot overcontrol have evaporated.
In any case, we do not, and at this point with the available information CAN NOT *KNOW*, whether the PF overcontrolled, whether some mechanical/software failure automatically overcontrolled, or whether no overcontrol occurred at all. All we KNOW is the plane fell out of the sky, and at some unknown point the VS fell off. We do not know WHY it fell off, we do not know which direction it fell off, and there isn't enough info available for the slightest productive speculation.