I strikes me, reading all the very many informative and relevant views that have now permiated this thread, that Airbus and Colin Chapman have alot in common.
The fact that Airbus have built a plane that can be mistreated to the point of destruction by the pilots by simply moving control surfaces in an inappropriate manner gives me the hebe gebbies! That just sounds absolutely rediculous. But I don't get this general feeling from this thread. Many of you seem to think that the pilot should not have used the rudder in such a way in the first place (not saying people are blaming the pilot...training issue). I say regardless of how the pilot flew the plane, it has been designed to carry 200 people over crowded densly populated areas. If a fin fails because of loading issues then that is a design problem pure and simple.
Is the A3X0 series just like a Lotus 49? Superbly equiped to do the job in-hand, extremely efficient but extremely fragile?