MYSTERY IN THE SKY - WTF? - MH370 & MH17 & QZ8501 & More

[blueberryhill]

Zero mentions the rudder problem which caused more than one crash....With proper maintenance, this shouldn't happen, but even a loose screw can be the reason for a catastrophic event (usually coupled with pilot or instrument failure, etc..)

BBH, I remember 1 month after 911 a mysterious event happened to an Airbus leaving NYC and everybody swore it was more terrorism. It proved to be a tail broken off during take-off that made the plane unable to be controlled. I know Ski has mentioned that the Airbus uses 100% composite materials in their tail construction. Composite materials are more brittle and crack and break where metals would stretch and flex. The Airbus rudder is very sensitive to the commands of the pilot and it can over stress the integrity of the tail and possibly lead to catastrophic failure. I was on a flight where the cockpit crew disengaged the auto pilot near the end of our flight in preparation for landing and nearly turned the craft upside down counterclockwise and overcompensated and nearly flipped it upside down clockwise.
It's possible that the crew was preparing for landing, disconnected the auto-pilot, the pilot over charged the rudder causing the craft to make a sudden left turn and then over compensated when trying to correct this and forced the plane to make a sudden and critical right turn stressing the plane beyond its limits. If the tail and rudder broke off the plane it may have continued to spiral continuously right and fall to the ocean. The radar data supports this.conclusion.

Yes, I recall that....What is ironic is that I just watched about 10 programs over the weekend (Smithsonian channel included in free previews) of Air Disasters. At least 2 or maybe 3 concerned the rudder of the Airbus......Was one of them Alaskan Airlines.....they are all confused in my head, but one sticks out in my mind about an electrical fire that started in one of the bathrooms....The toxic smell was reported to Chief Flight Attendant who used a fire extinguisher to try to control (later determined that this was wrong way to squelch this type of fire (so lack of training of flight crew was one cause listed) but there was a domino effect of all the mistakes made.....

They couldn't use the oxygen masks because law requires that they only be used in case of depressurization of aircraft.....the cockpit crew had gas masks and had them on......I honestly don't know if this was the one caused by rudder but everyone died in this crash....Some causes were clearly poor maintenance, downright shoddy repair of the trylon or whatever the support for the engine is called....they had added metal on top of a crack and used a sealant by drilling stop points....Of course it was strained and this engine had been written up by several crews before and had just been "repaired" the flight before the fatal one......I wish I could remember name of airline...Might have been shuttle company with good reputation out of Miami...Glock or something like that. Investigators found out they were having financial problems and were cutting corners on maintenance......they used seaplanes.....