The Seattle Times (Washington state, USA), via
ABC News reports that an NTSB investigator, through simulation, found that the end stop on the jackscrew of the MD-80 is now believed to be the proximate cause of the final and fatal plunge of AS 261 on 1/31/00. When the end stop broke, it permitted the stabilizer to tilt 22 degrees, far in excess of the maximum 2.2 degrees tilt. A stabilizer tilt of 22 degrees matches the flight data.
It all seems so neat. Can other explanations still exist? How perfect are flight simulators in replicating such data?
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R. J. Emery