[Joeaksa]

MFAFF,

The flying pilot (the copilot in this case) was reacting to the flight conditions and using the rudders as he felt needed. Could care less if he was jumping on the rudder back and forth (which you just would not do with passengers onboard) because as long as you are below Va you should be able to go from lock to lock on the controls without damaging the airplane. Damaging the airplane usually means bending something or stressing a control surface in this case.

In this flight the flying pilot did not "damage the airplane," the entire vertical fin came off of the tail and the airplane crashed, killing everyone on board, so this is not a good thing.

Boeing, as well as other airplane companies have had issues with various airplanes but it was fixed as soon as a problem area was identified. Yes, the B737 rudder issue took years but they did not find the cause for a long time. No one wants to see airplanes go down.

In this case Airbus told the airlines to tell the pilots not to use the rudder as much, which is just crazy in the view of the most of the guys that I know flying them.