1. He won't bid the Airbus. Says the French computer will override the Captain in extreme situations and will not allow you to fly out of extreme danger situations.
2. The pin that holds the rudder on is made of a plastic composite. It was done instead of aluminum because it is lighter weight and just as strong. However, Captain says, the failure of such material is poorly understood. It can degenerate from UV light, hence it can only be painted white. It can go fine for five years or so and then suddenly go from 99% strength to 20% without warning.
3. Most American Airline airbus planes are flying from NY to the Islands because they can haul large cargo packages and are money makers on those routes even without passenger loads. They aren't flying many on any other routes.
4. The planes that were recently retired from AA fleet due to cutting routes were Boeing planes that were scheduled for retirement in the next couple years anyway, but could be brought back to replace airbus planes if AA grounds the airbus fleet.
5. He conjectures that the rudder started to come loose from failure of the Von epoxy (whatever I can't remember) material of the pin, and it was the rudder flapping that causes the airframe shudder, not wake turbulence. The torque of the flapping rudder caused the plane to veer back and forth to the point that the engines came loose and one maybe took a wing with it.
When the Captain tried to make the drastic maneuvers necessary to regain a semblance of control, the French computer overrode him.
When the Captain tried to make the drastic maneuvers necessary to regain a semblance of control,
the French computer overrode him.
<TINNYCOMPUTERVOICEWITHFRENCHACCENT>
Silly American pig-dogs! Go and boil your bottoms, son of a silly person!
Ah blow my nose at you! Ah fart in your general direction!
Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!
</TINNYCOMPUTERVOICEWITHFRENCHACCENT>
(Cows, other livestock, and a large wooden rabbit were also seen falling from the plane as it went down.)
This makes sense to me. The question is still WHY did the rudder/VS fall off?