[Blueflag]

Not to you in particular, but this report on cnn.com sheds some light.

The plane took off and flew normally. The plane encountered and flew through a jet wake. Seconds pass, the plane is pushed left, then left -right. The VS detaches, the engines fall off. The wings do not (in this report) detach. Note that the rudder and VS have no marks indicating damage.

This evidenciary report is consistent with a VS that fails (finally) after encountering normally survivable WT. The VS itself may have deflected (airframe shakes) or it may have been rudder flutter (airfrmae shakes), but I still see this crash as a tragic accident brought on by the failure of a weakened airframe or rudder failure. I'd blame Airbus.

[Thud]

Throw in a conspiracy to make the conspiracy buffs happy. Tell them the cause was an Airbus conspiracy to make money by holding costs down.

[eno_]

Don't forget that 587 also made a tight turn, finished the turn, and was flying straight and climbing when vert the stab came off. That turn would have loaded the vert stab more than wake turbulence. Also, no amount of exterior damage should stop the FDR and CVR. In fact, you could expect these things to continue operating AFTER impact so they could be located by "pingers" inside them. I think it is more likely that the part of the wing, the engines, and the tail all came off AFTER some other event that caused loss of control, and caused the aircraft to break apart due to air load.