@alastairbarkley6572

4 months ago

I still don't get why you're posting this. Did your family lose someone in the accident? Of course it's tragic when anyone's life is snuffed out early but, d'you think it's wise - let alone possible - to honour the dead of EVERY single large aircraft crash? Or, from a nationalist perspective, are you reminding everybody as to why this accident was significant? The aircraft, an early, two-engine A300 made by Airbus Industrie in Toulouse France, partly disintegrated mid-flight after the vertical stabiliser (the tail) fell off mid-flight. Everyone - almost exclusively American citizens - perished.

The NTSB investigation was controversial. It found that the AA first officer had used excessive force in flying the plane such that its hull integrity failed (he literally just broke it) and he did this, most likely because the aircraft had encountered wake turbulence from an earlier departing large aircraft, as it turned out, turbulence of a severity that back then would not have been expected to occur.

AA and most of the American aviation community rejected the NTSB's report on highly technical grounds relating to the sensitivity of the rudder controls on this particular aircraft (as compared with homegrown Boeing aircraft) and pointed the finger of blame at the novel construction of the A300's vertical stabiliser. Although no supporting evidence had been offered, it was alleged that the novel composite material used in the tail had, under the force applied by the first officer, failed catastrophically in a process known as 'delamination. Airbus vigorously defended the A300 in all respects relating to possible hull failure, including delamination and it's worth noting that the composite in question used has subsequently proved, since 2001, to be reliable, durable and safe.

Another back story is the A300 itself. Airbus was a young company without Boeing's enormous experience of large passenger aircraft and the A300 was its first attempt to enter a highly lucrative market which, after dismissing small British competition, Boeing had had pretty much a monopoly of - this being a source naturally of American pride. It had been hoped that the A300 would be a commercial flop thus consigning Airbus to the dustbin of aviation history ; when it wasn't, the US aviation manufacturing industry took fright - justifiable it turned out, since Airbus has now become the dominant manufacturer of this type of plane at the expense of Boeing.

And, all those American deaths? Caused by the greed, recklessness and incompetence of hated Europeans - especially the French. Couldn't be allowed. Make sure everyone knows it wasn't the fault of American Airlines.

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