Originally Posted by bearfoil
On top of that, the lateral rods failed in the designed for direction.
As explained at length earlier, they didn't. From BEA #2, 1.12.3.5.7 Examination of the fin-to-fuselage attachments:
The centre and aft lateral load pick-up rods showed damage that was consistent with this backwards pivoting of frames 84 to 87:
- tensile failure of the centre spar at the level of the centre rod attachments;
- compression failure of the aft spar at the level of the aft rod attachments and failure of the left-hand rod by buckling