This story has been doing the rounds, including Caoimhe and Insta.
I have watched several documentaries on American Airlines flight 587, people may remember it as the first crash in the US after September 11. It apparently was all down to pilot’s training, or being trained incorrectly. Over-using peddles in the cockpit, pilots were inadvertently placing too much stress on the tail rudder and during what may have been wind sheer in New York, the pilot unwittingly placed a huge amount of stress on the the tail rudder, causing it to fall off. But the saftey of composite materials in Airbus’ was brought into question – and remains a sore issue. The plane crashed into houses in Queens. But that was on the Airbus A300, this latest incident is on the A310. Is there an inherent design flaw?
As someone with several relatives working in airline industries, I am very concerned indeed.
I spent more than 2000 flying hours as a pilot on the L-300 series aircraft and it also has a large rudder assembly. IMHO, Airbus has a design problem. I think Airbus must dampen the amount of hydraulic pressure available for application to the rudder assembly. The current set-up is inadequate. There are problems with the design strength of the composite materials that occur with the application of rolling-G force. Cello tape won’t fix that but smart boxes could control the application pressure to the rudder fin.