Airbus jets to undergo inspections By Alan Levin, USA TODAY WASHINGTON =97 The Federal Aviation Administration will order inspections of= =20 some Airbus A300 jets after investigators probing last November's American= =20 Airlines crash in New York found a damaged tail fin on another A300,=20 officials said Monday. American Airlines Flight 587 crashed Nov. 12 after=20 the A300's rudder moved violently back and forth, according to the=20 National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). The jet's 27-foot vertical=20 tail fin tore loose from the fuselage, and the jet plunged into a New York= =20 City neighborhood. The crash killed 265 people. Inspections of another=20 American A300 last week uncovered damage to one of the six structures that= =20 attach the tail fin to the fuselage, the NTSB announced Monday. The jet=20 experienced sharp rudder swings during an incident in 1997. The rudder is a= =20 panel attached to the rear of the vertical tail fin that moves the jet's=20 nose to the right or left. In that incident, the A300 went out of control because pilots allowed it to= =20 get too slow, the NTSB found. The jet plunged 3,000 feet in about 30=20 seconds. As the pilots attempted to regain control, they repeatedly moved=20 the rudder back and forth. One person aboard the jet suffered a broken leg.= =20 The jet has flown without any apparent problems since then. Several sources= =20 familiar with the investigation said the damage did not appear to be so=20 severe that the jet was unsafe. But the discovery raises questions about=20 whether undetected damage could be present on other jets. It also confirms= =20 the NTSB's concerns that strong rudder movements can damage tail fins on=20 jets. The FAA and Airbus will comb through records of incidents on A300=20 jets and inspect the tail fins of any jet that experienced severe rudder=20 movements, an FAA spokeswoman said. At least two A300s owned by Fed Ex will= =20 be among those inspected, sources said. American, FedEx and UPS are the=20 only U.S. carriers to fly the A300. The NTSB has not determined what caused the tail fin to break on Flight 587= =20 in November. The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site: Roj (Roger James) *************************************************** escape email mailto:ejames@escape.ca yahoo email: mailto:triniroj@yahoo.com Trinbago site: http://www.tntisland.com CBSC Group on Yahoo: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/caribsocabrass CBSC Website http://www.tntisland.com/caribbeansocabrassconnection/ ******************************************************* Steel Expressions Orch http://www.escape.ca/~ejames/se/ email #1: mailto:steelexpressions@yahoo.com email #2: mailto:steelexpressions@home.com ******************************************************* The Trinbago Site of the Week: (TCL) http://www.tclgroup.com/ (TCL Group of Companies) courtesy of Roj Trinbago Website & TnT Web Directory Roj's Trinbago Website: http://www.tntisland.com TnT Web Directory: http://195.224.187.36/ *********************************************************