Rudder Control
The FAA issued an airworthiness directive (AD) in November requiring either a design change to the rudder control system on all A300-600s and A310s or the installation in those airplanes of a stop-rudder-inputs warning modification.Eleven years after the fatal crash of an American Airlines Airbus A300-600 that was traced to excessive rudder-control inputs, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has ordered action to prevent excessive loads on the vertical stabilizers of several models of A300s and A310s.
The AD was intended to “prevent loads on the vertical stabilizer that exceed ultimate design loads, which could cause failure of the vertical stabilizer and consequent reduced controllability of the airplane,” the FAA said.
The FAA said its action was prompted by “events of excessive rudder pedal inputs and consequent high loads on the vertical stabilizer on several airplanes.”
Among those events was the Nov. 12, 2001, crash of the American Ai…
