On the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) morning radio newscasts today there was an item on the AA587 crash which mentioned that this particular Airbus had experienced severe turbulence some years ago in which some 40 passengers/crew had been injured.
The news reporter went on to mention that the tail of the plane had been repaired as a result of that incident.
I have looked and looked at the various web news sites this morning, and none seem to be reporting that there were repairs to the plane's tail. For example, here is all that the NY Times had to say on this matter:
"The investigators have many areas of inquiry still open. One is that seven years ago, the plane hit turbulence in flight and 47 people on board were injured. Whether this could have produced structural damage that went undetected was not clear, although the plane itself was designed to withstand a degree of turbulence that could result in injuries or deaths."
Maybe I misheard what the CBC Radio reporter said about repairs to the tail of this A300, but if there were any such repairs made following the violent turbulence then this crash may be a repeat of the JAL 747 crash where its tail eventually failed after botched repairs carried out years before.
If the reporter was incorrect, and the tail was not repaired, then there remains the possibility that the tail failed because of undetected fatigue in the composite materials which was initially stimulated by the violent turbulence experienced by this airframe years ago.