On November 12, 2001, American Airlines 587 crashed shortly after takeoff from JFK Airport in New York City killing all 260 persons aboard and five people on the ground. The plane departed immediately following takeoff of a large Boeing 747 and encountered wake turbulence from the large plane. The co-pilot, who had the controls at the time, overcorrected the controls from encountering the turbulence using a series of alternating full rudder inputs in opposite directions. AA 587 was an Airbus 300 and had particularly sensitive controls. In addition the vertical stabilizer and rudder were subject to structural failure from the large lateral forces that could result from large overcontrol. This combination resulted in separation of the vertical stabilizer and rudder from the Airbase 300 resulting in an inability to control the aircraft attitude. Based on the cockpit recordings, the co-pilot was evidently especially alarmed over the possibility of encountering the turbulence. In addition, American Airlines training and qualification had not included adequate information on Airbus 300 sensitivity. In addition, some believed that the combination of control sensitivity and structural design of the Airbus were a design flaw. American Airlines and Airbus disagree regarding whether the ultimate cause of the crash was the especially sensitive controls or inadequate pilot training. American Airlines, in the several years following the crash, eventually removed all Airbus 300s from service in its fleet. There were rumors that the crash resulted from a terrorist shoe bomb, and one terrorist organization later claimed credit for the crash, but the NTSB (responsible for the crash investigation) determined that the cause was the structural failure of the vertical stabilizer brought about by the excessive alternating control use. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Airlines_Flight_587
Posted on: Thu, 13 Nov 2014 04:08:36 +0000
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