22-10-2012, 04:54 PM
National Transportation Safety Board Aircraft Accident Report: In-Flight Separation of Vertical Stabilizer, American Airlines Flight 587, Airbus Industrie A300-605R, N14053, Belle Harbor, New York, on November 12, 2003
ABSTRACT
On November 12, 2001, about 0916:15 eastern standard time, American Airlines flight 587, an Airbus Industrie
A300-605R, N14053, crashed into a residential area of Belle Harbor, New York, shortly after takeoff from John F. Kennedy
International Airport, Jamaica, New York. Flight 587 was a regularly scheduled passenger flight to Las Americas International
Airport, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, with 2 flight crewmembers, 7 flight attendants, and 251 passengers aboard the
airplane. The airplane’s vertical stabilizer and rudder separated in flight and were found in Jamaica Bay, about 1 mile north
of the main wreckage site. The airplane’s engines subsequently separated in flight and were found several blocks north and
east of the main wreckage site. All 260 people aboard the airplane and 5 people on the ground were killed, and the airplane
was destroyed by impact forces and a post crash fire. Flight 587 was operating under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal
Regulations Part 121 on an instrumental flight rules flight plan. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the
accident. The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of this accident was the in-flight
separation of the vertical stabilizer as a result of the loads beyond ultimate design that were created by the first officer’s
unnecessary and excessive rudder pedal inputs. Contributing to these rudder pedal inputs were characteristics of the Airbus
A300-600 rudder system design and elements of the American Airlines Advanced Aircraft Maneuvering Program.