Airbus Internal Memo Pointed To Rudder Problems

In June, 1997, Airbus got a memo from one of its production partners, Daimler-Benz Aerospace, which said in part, "rudder movements from left limit to right limit" on an A300 "will produce loads on the fin/rear fuselage above ultimate design load." Four years later, according to the NTSB, that very scenario caused American Airlines Flight 587 -- an Airbus A300 -- to go down in a residential neighborhood in Belle Harbor (NY).

Union pilots at American Airlines say that memo proves that Airbus should shoulder at least part of the responsibility for the accident, which killed all 265 people on board. Investigators have centered on the way in which the first officer on Flight 587 manipulated the rudder pedals as the reason the vertical stabilizer parted with the empennage, leading to the crash.

Since the November 12, 2001 accident, the NTSB has issued a recommendation to flight crews, saying they should avoid moving the rudder from stop to stop.

If Airbus had shown the memo to the NTSB before the November 12, 2001 crash of Flight 587 "instead of concealing it from them, the NTSB would have issued the recommendation before the crash," said John A. David, an American Airlines pilot who is the chief representative of the union, the Air Line Pilots Association, in the investigation.

The NTSB will issue its findings of probable cause in the Airbus incident on October 26th.

The 1997 memo came after the crew of another American Airlines Airbus flying near West Palm Beach (FL) allowed their airspeed to drop too low. The aircraft stalled and the crew recovered. The investigation into that incident focused on the crew, not the plane, according to the New York Times.

The Times quotes Airbus spokesman Clay McConnell, who said Airbus didn't become a part of that investigation until it had focused on the crew. After the 1997 incident, he said Airbus stressed to pilots not to use the rudders in wide-ranging or violent maneuvers aimed at recovering attitude.

"There is no good piloting reason to use alternating rudder, none, in the history of aviation," McConnell told the Times.

FMI: www.aa.com, www.ntsb.gov, www.airbus.com