Originally Posted by
DMC707
I didn't mean to start a structural material based thread drift-- Doh --
Airbus had some problems, for sure - never trust the French! (LOL - just kidding )
The text in blue below is not my opinion, its just a summary I found. Pilot error has been causing accidents since the dawn of aviation but I havent really dug into Airbus' many issues that deep
On the flip side , I still shake my head in wonder that the near 70 year old B-52 is still in service
NTSB wrote:
"The Flight 587 crash [Airbus A300-605R (N14053)] on November 12, 2001, was the second deadliest aviation accident in American history. The aircraft's vertical stabilizer and rudder were found in Jamaica Bay, about a mile from the main wreckage site. The engines, which also separated from the aircraft, were found several blocks from the wreckage site. NTSB says pilot's excessive rudder pedal inputs led to the crash.
The plane's vertical stabilizer separated in flight as a result of aerodynamic loads that were created by the first officer's unnecessary and excessive rudder pedal inputs(???)
The investigation tryded to determine why those components - made of carbon fiber reinforced epoxy, a composite material - separated in flight. The Board found that the composite material used in constructing the vertical stabilizer was not a factor in the accident (!!!) because the tail failed well beyond its certificated and design limits. The Safety Board said that, although other pilots provided generally positive comments about the first officer's abilities, two pilots noted incidents that showed that he had a tendency to overreact to wake turbulence encounters. The Safety Board's airplane performance study showed that the high loads that eventually overstressed the vertical stabilizer were solely the result of the pilot's rudder pedal inputs and were not associated with the wake turbulence.
“Had the first officer stopped making inputs at any time before the vertical stabilizer failed, the natural stability of the aircraft would have returned the sideslip angle to near 0 degrees, and the accident would not have happened.”"
As in my other comment, since the Airbus was flown THRU the computer, it should have been programmed NOT to over stress the rudder. The crash was purely due to Airbus not programming the computer wrong!!!!!! And again due to computer programming error an early Airbus crashed when the computer thot the plane was landing when the pilot was doing a low pass.
You dont want to blame billion dollar corporations for their mistakes when you can blame an expendable little pilot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Kinda makes you wonder how many members of the NTSB were able to pay off their houses after that report came out.