Zeke
When I first read the words in the Airbus statement that you quoted "... the crew reported that a loud bang was heard. The pilot took manual control and returned to land safely at Varadero. ....", I rather assumed that Airbus was implying that the bang was the rudder departing. However, the words "loud bang" rather rang a bell in my head because I seemed to remember the same words in a previous PPRuNe thread being used where the rudder did NOT depart the aircraft. Searching back I found the following. It describes one of four incidents under the heading, "Survey Of 4 Yaw Incidents BEFORE AA Flight 587.":
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6/27/00. Airbus A300B4- 605R, Reg. N14065. As the aircraft was approaching FL220, at a reported airspeed of 325 KIAS, the aircraft experienced an abrupt disturbance which was perceived by the flight crew to be a disturbance in yaw with no attendant lateral motion evident in the resulting manoeuvre. They believed that the yawing motion had been caused by an uncommanded rudder input. The disturbance was accompanied by a loud bang which was noted by both the flight crew and some of the cabin attendants. They all reported the noise as being coincident with the disturbance. At the time of the event the aircraft was configured as follows: flaps and slats 'IN', landing gear 'UP', auto pilot 'OFF', pitch trim (systems 1 and 2) 'ON' and yaw damper (systems 1 and 2) 'ON'. The aircraft was clear of cloud and there were no other aircraft reported in the vicinity. Following the disturbance the aircraft appeared to behave normally. However, the commander decided to return to London (Heathrow) rather than commence a transatlantic flight following a suspected uncommanded flight control input. An uneventful, overweight landing on Runway 09L was completed at 1624 hrs. Ref. AAIB Bulletin No: 2/2001, ref EW/C2000/6/10. No cause attributed.
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This sounds to me like a loud bang caused by a rudder hard-over WITHOUT the rudder departing.
The quote above came from an early PPRuNE thread on Flight 587, but I have not been able to find the original.
Cheers,
