Plenty of Blame to Spread in AA 587, Queens Crash

While the NTSB determined that “unnecessary and too aggressive” rudder inputs by the first officer broke the vertical stabilizer off American Airlines Flight 587, there was plenty of blame to spread among the airline, U.S. and French aviation regulators and Airbus Industrie, builder of the A300-605R that crashed into the community of Belle Harbor, N.Y., on Nov. 12, 2001.

AA 587 had just taken off from John F. Kennedy International Airport bound for the Dominican Republic when it crashed in a residential area near the Rockaway Beach area of Queens, killing all 260 people on board and five people on the ground.

The A300’s vertical stabilizer and rudder separated in flight and were found in Jamaica Bay, about one mile north of the main wreckage site. The two engines, which also separated from the aircraft seconds before it hit the ground, were found several blocks north and east of the main wreckage.