Something More Than Just "Turbulence."
HotDog: The "metallic" tail failure in 1985 of the JA 74 was attributed to a faulty repair involving a flawed riveting pattern of the pressure dome. The damage had been caused by a tail scrape from an over-rotation incident 8 years earlier.
The survivable "metallic" tail failure of a B-52D in 1964 was attributed, in part, not soley to severe mountain wave rotors. At the time it was still classified, but the crew had been engaged in experimental high speed low level terrain following maneuvers. Needless to say, during simulated combat maneuvers that airframe's operating limitations had been exceeded. Undetected airframe limitations may be exceeded today, but the airframe or any of its components may not fail for many months or years
Recall when in 1986 Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager had taken off in the scaled composite Voyager for a nonstop, unrefueled flight around the globe: During the lengthy takeoff roll at Edwards AFB one of the wing tips had dragged on the runway and destroyed its winglet. Sometime after the craft had staggered to altitude, upon the recommendation of Burt Rutan, the builder, Dick had induced sufficient yawing motions to snap off the winglet on the opposite wing in order to regain aerodynamic symmetry.
This was but a small example of demonstrated effects of severe airframe yawing.
In the case of AA587, you'll note that both engines had snapped off during similar severe back and forth rudder induced yawing.
This catastophic failure was not caused by wake turbulence.