Airbus, French accident investigators, NASA Langley and the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are to work together on the 12 November crash of an American Airlines A300-600R, Flight 587, soon after take-off from New York Kennedy.
The A300 went out of control after its tail fin separated (Flight International, 20-26 November 2001). The team aims to examine the A300's rudder systems and the structure of its carbon fibre-reinforced plastic tailfin.
Meanwhile, United Airlines is examining three A320s which, like the crashed American A300, had undergone repairs to composite tailfins before delivery, when delamination was discovered. United reports that ultrasonic and visual checks on the first of the three found that the structure in the repaired area had not degraded.
The NTSB records that in the technical log of the crashed aircraft, just before the fatal flight, a mechanic had reported that "a pitch trim control and the yaw damper would not engage during a pre-flight check". The mechanic re-set the computer controlling these functions "which resolved the problem".
The board also stresses that the metal lugs and pins which secure the fin to the rear fuselage were found intact.
Airbus is refurbishing a systems test simulator at its Toulouse, France, base to assist the NTSB in "simulating possible malfunction scenarios within the rudder system of the aircraft".
Also, NTSB structures group staff have travelled to an Airbus site near Hamburg, Germany, to work out ways of testing the fin structure for possible failure modes.
In the USA forensic work has continued at NASA Langley on the crashed aircraft's rudder-system actuators. On completion of the forensic tests, the system will be shipped to Toulouse for testing under NTSB supervision.
Source: Flight International
