This does not suggest that there were no problems with the Boeing 737-2/3 rudder actuators.
So how about with older widebody Airbus types?
We are at a JFK hotel tonight. Not very far from here soon after 9/11, an A-300 crashed. It was very easy to blame the flying pilot, especially buried six feet under the cold ground, due to some comments made by just one pilot he had flown with.
No pilot goes "ape", or "bananas" and pushes wildly on the rudder pedals-maybe the rudder, at that moment, already suffered from erratic oscillations? During my career, I never heard about any pilot, none whatsoever, using rudders in that manner. It is unheard of-but that comment certainly let the NTSB "off the hook".
Imagine the resulting legal 'Katrina' storm (much of it from the FAA....), if the NTSB had used documents from foreign "translated" regulatory agencies to create doubt in the reliability of a large aircraft-after years of operating with US carriers, i.e. American and Fedex! That same plane might have suffered, before the accident flight, structural damage during either turbulence or a hard landing.
Were there not strange anomolies (uncommanded control inputs to other A-300s), in aircraft operated by Interflug, Air France and AirTransat? How often is a rudder designed whereby a pilot pushes on the pedal, but after a certain distance of pedal travel, a disproportiate angle is commanded by the rudder actuator? This has been alleged for the A-300/310.
The"airline" Interflug is gone, and would that company and Air France keep records of maintenance inspections after the 'alleged' incidents?
Did Fedex aircraft suffer unexplained rudder problems on any A-310/300s?
Last edited by Ignition Override; 20th Nov 2006 at 06:45.