Airbus Industrie A300B4-605R accident near Belle Harbor, NY

On November 12, 2001, an Airbus Industrie A300B4-605R (airplane) was involved in an accident near Belle Harbor, NY. 260 people died. Damage to the aircraft: destroyed.

Date

November 12, 2001

Place

Belle Harbor, NY

Aircraft

Airbus Industrie A300B4-605R · Airplane

Injuries

260 fatal, 0 serious, 0 minor

Damage

Destroyed

Position

40.579°N, 73.841°W

NTSB ID

20011130X02321

Official records · DCA02MA001

• Public docket: reports, statements and exhibits from the investigation
• Investigation page: status, final report and safety recommendations

Air traffic control records

• ATC 3-Factual Report Of Group Chairman: Document (PDF), on ntsb.gov
• ATC 3-Attachment 1_jfk Daily Record Of Facility Operations: Document (PDF), on ntsb.gov
• ATC 3-Attachment 2_jfk Position Logs: Document (PDF), on ntsb.gov
• ATC 3-Attachment 3_jfk Controller Statements: Document (PDF), on ntsb.gov
• ATC 3-Attachment 4_jfk Tower Cab Layout: Document (PDF), on ntsb.gov

NTSB summary

The Board's full report is available at http://www.ntsb.gov/publictn/publictn.htm. 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 (JFK), 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 postcrash fire. Flight 587 was operating under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 121 on an instrument flight rules flight plan. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident. The accident airplane arrived at JFK about 2231 on the night before the accident. The airplane had been flown from San Jose, Costa Rica, to JFK with an intermediate stop in Miami International Airport, Miami, Florida. During postaccident interviews, the pilots of the flight leg from MIA to JFK indicated that the flight was smooth and uneventful. Flight 587 was the first leg of a 1-day roundtrip

Probable cause

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.

From Wikipedia

American Airlines Flight 587 was a regularly scheduled international passenger flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York City, to Las Américas International Airport, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. On November 12, 2001, the Airbus A300 flying the route crashed into the neighborhood of Belle Harbor on the Rockaway Peninsula of Queens, New York City, shortly after takeoff, killing all 251 passengers and nine crew members aboard, as well as five people on the ground. It is the second-deadliest aviation accident to have occurred in the United States, behind the crash of American Airlines Flight 191 in 1979, and the second-deadliest aviation incident involving an Airbus A300, after Iran Air Flight 655.

Text from Wikipedia, “American Airlines Flight 587”, CC BY-SA 4.0; shortened to the introduction. Authors.

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Browse: New York · Airbus Industrie aircraft

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Source: NTSB aviation accident database (US government, public domain). Findings may be preliminary or later revised by the NTSB. Not a complete global record.