Second American Airlines aircraft nearly lost its tail

Airline Industry Information, May 29, 2003

AIRLINE INDUSTRY INFORMATION-(C)1997-2003 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD

An American Airlines aircraft of the same model involved in a crash in New York which killed 265 people reportedly experienced similar problems four years earlier.

In November 2001 flight 587 crashed shortly after takeoff from John F. Kennedy Airport in New York. The Airbus A300-600 aircraft lost its tail before crashing and killing all 260 people on board and five people on the ground. Airbus officials have now revealed that pressures on an earlier American Airlines flight in April 1997 were strong enough to have broken off the aircraft's tail.

Airbus officials said they did not know until last year that pressures on the earlier flight, American Airlines flight 903, were strong enough to have broken off the aircraft's tail as it neared West Palm Beach, Fla.

The pilots of flight 903 had reportedly used the rudder to attempt to steady the aircraft, which was veering up and down and from side to side for about 34 seconds. The US National Transportation Safety Board has now warned against sharp rudder movements.

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