Elevators, operation thereof
AIUI, bafanguy has it 'spot on'.
The elevators respond to the trim tab, not the control column at rest and a ground walk-around won't help you.
Regardless of whether this was a nut that dropped off or a worn jack screw as in the Alaska Airlines accident, this is 100% a maintenance problem.
Damn good job by the flight crew. Without a RTO this jet would now likely be a smoking hole in the ground.
Beware of low cost operators and/or bad management ( how do you know you might ask about management standards ? ). 'Something' is likely to suffer. I hear anecdotally that Allegiant flight crew have a good reputation but what would have happened in the case of another operator ? I believe that the FAA has a duty in this case to inspect MX records for their entire fleet.
Last edited by Design Engineer; 28th Aug 2015 at 02:56.
Reason: addition