Has anyone looked at the animated reconstruction on the USA Today of the (commanded, I assume) rudder movements during the upset over the Atlantic in 1997? Just ignoring the fact that the incident began with a stall, the rudder movements seem pretty incidental to recovering the situation - indeed exacerbate it, and this was clearly the case over Rockaway as well. Where is the airmanship and professionalism in flailing away in such a random (and violent) manner on the rudder pedals? It's all very well to blame the French authorities, their US counterparts, composite materials used in primary flight surfaces et al, but the A300 and all other airliners are built to withstand (I believe) 150% of their max design load. In both the AA incidents this was exceeded fairly dramatically.
Three words come to mind reviewing these maneouvres and especially the control inputs in both incidents. Pilot Induced Oscillation.