A300 HAD VERTICAL CFRP COMPOSITES FIN PROBLEM BEFORE FLIGHT 587.

Advanced Materials & Composites News,  June, 2003  

Tags: Airbus, tail

• E-mail
• Print
• Link

May 27, 2003 - An Airbus jet of the same model experienced similar tail problems in 1997 to those of American Flight 587 in November 2001. Airbus officials said they did not know until last year's investigation of AA587 that pressures on the earlier flight, AA903, were strong enough to have broken off the plane's tail as it neared West Palm Beach, Florida, in April 1997.

Similarly to the AA587 incident, pilots of AA903 used the rudder to try to direct the plane, pitching and yawing for about 34 seconds. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) concluded that the pilots ...

Read the rest of this article with a Free Trial at HighBeam Research.