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Report: Co-Pilot Over-Stressed Rudder Federal safety officials say pilot error caused a 2001 American Airlines crash that killed 265 people. The National Transportation Safety Board said the copilot of Flight 587 moved the rudder back and forth several times, putting so much stress on the tail that it snapped off. The plane plummeted into a New York neighborhood shortly after takeoff. An NTSB investigator said the copilot's reaction to turbulence was "unnecessary and aggressive." He also said the airline improperly trained its pilots to use the plane's rudder to recover from upsets. The jet's rudder control system is sensitive at...

NEW YORK — The crash of American Airlines Flight 587 in a quiet residential neighborhood nearly five years ago is subject to general maritime laws, a judge ruled Tuesday, allowing potentially higher damages for dozens of people who sued. U.S. District Judge Robert W. Sweet said it did not matter that the plane crashed on land in Queens, killing 260 people on the plane and five on the ground. He noted that the plane was on a 1,500-mile transoceanic flight to the Dominican Republic. "There can be no question that, but for the development of air travel, this trip —...

NTSB Maintains New Rudder Worry Not Related To 2001 Flight ANN REALTIME UPDATE: 04.17.06 1800EST: In response to the urging by members of the Allied Pilots Association to reopen its investigation into the November 12, 2001 downing of American Airlines Flight 587, the National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday its recent warnings of a specific kind of problem with Airbus A300 and A310 aircraft does not affect the board's determination that the 2001 accident was caused by the pilot moving the rudder too aggressively. "The scenarios are different. What we noted in our recommendation letter in March did not...

AVIATION investigators were examining a security camera video tape yesterday which appeared to have caught the break-up of the American Airlines Airbus A300 which crashed over New York on Monday as inquiries continued to focus on the failure of the tail section. A National Transport Safety Board official in Washington said evidence was growing that the complete tail section had broken off in flight before the engines, making the jet uncontrollable. He added that there "doesn't appear to have been sabotage in any way". Large sections of the tail and rudder assembly, made of lightweight non-metal graphite composites, have ...

AA Flight 587: Terrorism, Sabotage or Accident? Devvy Kidd November 26, 2001 I am not a person who has visions, predicts the future or anything like that. Once in a while, like a lot of people, I get "feelings" about certain things, like when the phone rings and you know who's on the other end. After several of us involved with Bob Schulz' IRS hearings and the 'Ghosts of the Revolution' threat which specified that effective 1 September 2001, the "rules of engagement" would change and violence against IRS personnel and facilities would occur, I kinda was waiting to ...

Saturday, Nov. 17, 2001 11:39 a.m. EST Flight 587 Video Shows 'Puff of Smoke' in Sky A second-by-second videotape of the final moments of doomed American Airlines Flight 587 shows a puff of smoke in the sky seconds after it crashed outside New York's JFK Airport Monday, lending credence to eyewitnesses who say the jetliner exploded before slamming into a Rockaway, N.Y., neighborhood. Though Flight 587 probers have not released the key videotape, shot from a Metropolitan Transportation Authority highway surveillance camera, reporters from New York's Daily News were allowed to view it Friday. "The tape ... shows a white ...

Just two days after the FBI said it was investigating witness accounts that American Airlines Flt. 587 exploded in midair before it broke apart over New York's Jamaica Bay on Monday, NTSB investigators are pushing the theory that air turbulence from another jetliner -- and not any explosion -- caused the crash that scattered wreckage covering a half mile wide area. "We are consistently looking for any sign of sabotage and not finding any," said NTSB spokeswoman Marion Blakely on Wednesday. "There is no evidence of any bomb, of any sabotage, at this point." That's not what the investigators were ...

A golden retriever dog is recovering from burns to its paws after it tried to rescue his master from a burning house that was hit by the plane crash in Queens. The Suffolk County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is treating the dog - called Dakota. The S-P-C-A says Frank Pomponio was sleeping upstairs when the plane hit Monday morning. His wife and daughter who were downstairs were able to escape with the dog. But the dog ran back into the burning house looking for its master. The S-P-C-A says the dog was forced back out by ...

American Airlines Flight 587 fishtailed violently after being buffeted twice by turbulence from another jet shortly before crashing, the plane's data recorder indicates. The new data raises the possibility that the crew, responding to turbulence, hit the rudder unusually hard, creating excessive stress on the tail fin that may have contributed to it breaking off. After the plane twice hit wake turbulence from a Boeing 747, the rudder jerked the Airbus A300-600 sharply left twice, then right. The aircraft then began turning sharply left and diving, probably when the tail fin broke off and the plane went out of control. ...

A videotape that could show exactly what happened to American Airlines Flight 587, which crashed three minutes after taking off from New York's JFK airport on Monday, is in the hands of the FBI -- but the bureau has thus far declined to release it. New York City's Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokesman Tom Kelly confirmed to the Daily News Friday that the agency has given surveillance videotapes from Cross Bay Blvd. and Marine Parkway bridges to the FBI. "One tape captures the plane taking off from JFK," the News said. Cross Bay Blvd. and Marine Parkway traverse Jamaica Bay, where ...

American Airlines Flight 587 Belle Harbor, New York November 12, 2001 Vertical Stabilizer and components of aircraft recovered from the water Vertical stabilizer (tail fin) attachment point Piece of rudder One of the forward attachment points Vertical stabilizer Right side forward and center attachment points Left forward attachment point Images from the main wreckage site NTSB investigator at crash site Center and aft attachment points (left side) 1 center and 2 aft attachment points      Tail section of aircraft Forward attachment points of fin (attached to empennage)

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The engines powering ill-fated American Airlines Flight 587 continued to run after the crew reported that it was having problems controlling the Airbus A300, investigators said on Wednesday night. The National Transportation Safety Board also said that investigators had found the plane's maintenance log book amid the wreckage in Queens, and said it did not raise any red flags about its service record. The updated information about the two huge General Electric CF6-series engines came from more detailed analysis of the plane's cockpit voice recorder, which picks up crew conversations and a range of other aircraft ...

The victims of American Airlines Flight 587 and their families deserve our deepest sympathy and prayers. But compassion must not override vigilance. Our resolve to enforce immigration laws in the wake of Sept. 11 must not be weakened. According to the Associated Press, several crash relatives who are in this country illegally want amnesty so they can bury their loved ones in the Dominican Republic and then be allowed to return to the U.S. "Anguished families are torn between claiming a victim and jeopardizing their ability to stay in their adopted country,'' said Hispanic community leader Fernando Mateo. One illegal ...

<p>Information from the last 28 seconds of the flight data recorder aboard Flight 587 according to NTSB reports.</p>

By Patrick Markey NEW YORK (Reuters) - A JetBlue Airways pilot waiting for take-off at John F. Kennedy International Airport saw the American Airlines flight that crashed on Monday as it fell from the sky accompanied by smoke and a smaller piece of the aircraft, according to an internal report. The pilot told the JetBlue officials that in its final moments American Airlines Flight 587 appeared to be in a very steep descent, falling nose down at about 80 degrees in a spiral dive. Before it exploded on impact, the aircraft was accompanied by the smaller piece above and to ...

This is Bull $h!t!!! The NTSB is LYING like rugs!!! NTSB dude just claimed that .3 to .8 g's encountered during the wake encounter caused the Airbus to break up in flight... Even a male reported asked "is this even possible". "Isn't this normal bumping encountered when flying?" Even the media don't believe them!!!!!

Up until now, my best guess as to the cause of the 587 crash was defective/substandard bolts used in attaching the vertical stabilizer to the tail and a failure to detect the problem through inspections.However, I heard on the news last night that the vertical stabilizer was not fabricated from aluminium, but from a carbon fiber composite. This material is very strong and light but can fail catastrophically if a stress fracture/crack develops. Based on the photos of the recovered stabilizer showing that it was cleanly severed from the tail, I now believe that this is the most likely cause ...

A major factor in the destruction of American Airlines Flight 587 may prove to be something called flutter — one of the most dreaded bugaboos of flight, experts said yesterda Flutter is a vibration so violent it can render an aircraft uncontrollable. In tandem with structural flaws, flutter can conceivably rip off a plane's tail. "Flutter is the demon of all aviation," said Chuck Leonard, a former National Transportation Safety Board investigator. "Once you get flutter, there's going to be damage done." NTSB investigators probing Monday's crash in the Rockaways said yesterday that they are focusing on the tail section ...

Tail, Turbulence Emerge As Keys To Flight 587 Disaster By Sean Broderick/AviationNow.com 14-Nov-2001 10:24 PM U.S. EST Detailed analysis of American Airlines Flight 587's cockpit voice recorder revealed that both engines were running when pilots lost control, providing the strongest clue yet that something besides an engine failure -- such as an aerodynamic upset, structural failure, or both -- triggered the plane's fatal descent. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Investigator-In-Charge George Black said that a sound spectrum analysis of the recorder revealed that &quot;the engine signatures extend past the start of the loss-of-control event.&quot; The revelation, made during a ...

'I Know What I Saw...That Was No Mechanical Problem...No Way!' By Peter Gelzinis BostonHerald.com 11-13-1 ROCKAWAY BEACH, NY -"I will never believe it was an accident. They'll never convince me of that." Eugene Sanfilippo kept looking past the microphones and notebooks, down 131st Street toward Jamaica Bay and a vision that the rest of us could not see. It was past three in the afternoon, the sky above this sliver of Queens was clear, but all this lanky, 45-year-old bus mechanic could see was a huge orange ball of flame; he could still feel the unbearable heat; he could ...