…Problem Highlighted In Flight 587 Probe

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Key Takeaways:

  • Recommendations for aircraft safety reportedly stemmed from the 2001 Flight 587 crash, which killed 265 people.
  • Flight 587 crashed after encountering wake turbulence, resulting in the detachment of its vertical stabilizer and both engines.
  • The NTSB recommends evaluating other transport-category aircraft with rudder-limiting systems for similar potential problems.
  • Airworthiness Directives (ADs) should be issued for any aircraft found to exhibit similar dangerous characteristics.
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The report makes no mention of Flight 587, which crashed in New York in 2001, killing a total of 265 people, but Forbes.com said the recommendations grew out of that investigation. In the New York disaster, the aircraft entered a series of rapid oscillations after hitting the wake turbulence of a Boeing 747 shortly after takeoff from John F. Kennedy International Airport. The vertical stabilizer came free of the airplane, as did both engines, before the aircraft crashed into suburban Belle Harbor. Among the dead were five people on the ground. The NTSB recommendation also says that other transport-category aircraft with rudder-limiting systems be evaluated to see if they share the same problems. It says Airworthiness Directives should be issued on any other aircraft that exhibit similar characteristics.

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