Ignition Override,
It was predictable that a handful of ppruners would automatically jump in and suggest that there is a correlation between this event and the AMR587.
Yes there is a correlation, they are both Airbus aircraft, that’s about where it stops. I have seen nothing else to suggest there was a wake turbulence encounter, or inappropriate control inputs, or a loss of life.
AMR587 was caused by inappropriate control inputs of the rudder leading to the whole of the vertical stabilizer detaching from the aircraft. If the causal factors were low breakout forces and inappropriate training, so be it, still at the end of the day was ultimately caused by inappropriate control inputs.
To put things into perspective there have been something like 3 million flights in A310s, with 6 hull losses, it has an accident rate less than that of the 747. As far as I am aware it was the first time a rudder detached from an A310.
Thinking out loud, with nothing to back me up, I could see this sort of event occurring from ice in the control surface leading to flutter. But as I said I have nothing to suggest this is the case, just the look of the photos.
I trust you are mature enough to know the difference between a vertical stabilizer and a rudder.
