https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Airlines_Flight_587
All 260 people abroad the plane were killed.... the plane randomly crashed into neighborhood of Queens, NYC.
Who remembers this event? You have got to be kidding me.
On a side note, who remembers on the day of 9/11, a completely random hurricane Erin was going to hit the area. In my memories, on 9/11/11, it was a big ass sunny hella hot clear day.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Airlines_Flight_587
I was watching a youtube video about this crash and it surprised me a bit what the first officer did to cause, or contribute, to the crash.
My question is, how bad of a mistake was it of the first officer to move the rudder back and forth so aggressively?
I'm not a pilot, so the analogy I use might be a bit rough. I also apologize if I come off as insensitive or incredibly ignorant, but I'm honestly trying to understand this situation.
So, the way I think about it is that, if I'm driving a car 5 mph and I turn the steering wheel left and right at aggressive angles, I'm not going to tip over. However, if I'm driving 60mph and I turn the steering wheel sharply I know I'm definitely going to flip over. I know this because of my driving experience and my intuitive feel for driving.
Again, this is not the best analogy I know, but it's the best I can come up with.
Now, if I liken this analogy to flying a plane, I'm a bit in shock at how someone would push the rudders back and forth at max angles while going into a climb. Not only does the first officer move the rudders back and forth at max angles, he also asks the captain for more power.
Thankfully, the captain didn't give in to the first officer's request but it was moot anyway because they crashed.
The reason why the plane crashed according to the study is because the vertical stabilizer fell off during flight and the cause of it was pilot error by the co-pilot.
So my question is how bad of a mistake was this by the co-pilot? As a person only familiar with operating an automobile, it seems intuitive to me that this is something you should absolutely not do and something that pilots should learn or grasp early on in their flight training. Am I wrong in thinking this?
Took an American Airlines flight from Dallas-Fort Worth to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic yesterday. That morning, we checked our bag tracker and it never showed on our plane. We asked our gate attendant about it and we’re told “I can’t help you, maybe they’re just not tracking this flight’s bags.”
My wife and I were immediately skeptical about this, but had no other options but to trust that man. Well, we arrive in Punta Cana, go through passport check, and arrive at baggage claim.
Less than 10 total bags come off the flight. We, and dozens of others, ask what’s going on and are told “no more bags on the American Airlines flight.” So, us and about 80 other passengers all lost our bags because American Airlines staff in DFW somehow failed to load 90% of a flight’s luggage.
Incompetence and indefensible actions from top to bottom. Never, ever flying American Airlines again after this trip. I fully expect to lose my luggage on the way home as well.
For those who are following along, I've been doing the revisited articles in the same order as I originally covered those accidents. However, this week is finals week, and with crunch time approaching it's not clear I'll actually have enough time to write a new article on El Al 1862, the next crash on the list. As such, I'm going to skip ahead to American Airlines flight 965, since I have a new article on that crash already written.
As a bonus, for one of my final papers I'm writing an analysis of the bankruptcy of Transaero Airlines which many of you may find interesting—so keep an eye out for a post with a link to that paper, possibly as soon as tomorrow.
Cheers!
