MilesBuzz! - 737 "uncommanded rudder movement"

This pertains to a United flight, but since many airlines fly the 737, I figured it might best be posted on MilesBuzz... My thoughts: maybe the FAA should step the five year program to 30 days:


Pilots of United jet 'wrestle' aircraft to ground

WASHINGTON, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Pilots had to ``wrestle'' a United Airlines jetliner to the ground last week after an apparent rudder malfunction during a flight to Chicago, authorities said on Tuesday.

Federal investigators said Flight 578 from St. Louis was at 9,000 feet on Dec. 13 when the nose of the Boeing 737-300 swung to the right. After disconnecting the auto pilot and a rudder control device, the crew struggled hard to regain control of the plane.

One official said the pilots had to ``wrestle'' the aircraft to a safe landing at O'Hare airport in Chicago. After landing, the crew said they heard a bang after the rudder swung to the left and then right.

None of the 93 passengers aboard were hurt.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators are analyzing the plane's flight data recorder for clues. One regulatory official said the problem was reported to authorities as an uncommanded rudder movement.

Investigators determined that rudder malfunctions were the likely cause of two fatal 737 crashes in 1991 and 1994. Those disasters prompted Boeing (NYSE:BA - news) to replace certain parts in all 737 rudder systems.

Last month, the Federal Aviation Administration proposed the industry outfit its fleet of 2,000 U.S.-registered 737s with new rudder control systems over a five-year period at a cost of $364 million.

Another one for the "avoid" list, which now includes

A-300 (composite materials potentially suspect)
MD-83 (and potentially other members of the MD-80 family (rudder jackscrews prone to failure (this may have been corrected by now)))
737 (hx of uncommanded rudder deflections)

Any others?

Mikey, if you're avoiding the MD-8x series and the 737, you're going to run out of domestic destinations pretty quick.

I avoid MD-11's and DC-10's as well as 737's.

I DO NOT trust the FAA....not at all.

If you avoid MD-11s, DC-10s and 737s, while distrusting the FAA, I guess you don't do much flying in the US, huh?

d

Yeah...you better avoid the 747 too. remember the flight out of HNL that had the skin peel away above the baggage door? Four passengers plunged to their deaths still strapped in their seats. So....avoid 737's, MD80's, 747's, A300's. Oh yes, the DC-10 was also plagued with failure too. I'd avoid them as well. Also, avoid all propliners since they are more prone to accidents as well. Oh...a Lauda 767 had an uncommanded thrust reversal over Thailand and killed everyone. Avoid those too. Also, I'd avoid cars since they have a lot of accidents. Trains too.

As far as I know, there have been very few dogsled accidents. So, perhaps that should be your ideal form of transportation.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif



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A british tourist here in Alberta was thrown and killed off of a dog sled here last week. So I guess that nixes out dog sled as a safe form of travel. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

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I don't actually refuse to travel on these planes; I just take alternatives where possible (not to include dogsled).

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Are there tickets sill available on the dog sled ? Willing to take chances.Still seems safer then waiting for 5 years for the good old FAA to act!

[This message has been edited by 777 global mile hound (edited 12-19-2001).]

all joking aside, is there any more info on this flight?

Please also see:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum109/HTML/000228.html

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This has been of some ongoing concern!

MD-80's & 737's have some of the best safety records in the business. They are both running around a fatal accident every 3M flights. Note the Concorde had it's first fatal accident after about 60,000 flights.

If either had serious problems with it's rudder or jackscrew, they'd be falling out of the sky on a regular basis. Both are in excess of 30M flights, and fly millions of flights per year. For example, if they crashed every 60k flights, you'd probably see a crash a week. And remember, 60k flights is flying once a day for almost 200 years!

doppy....

actually I try not to fly thru US airspace or use US carriers unless absolutely necessary. It's not because of 9/11 either.

MileageAddict....

It's to hot in Brasil for my poor Huskies....woof woof.

There have been several uncommanded rudder movements on 737's over the last 20 years...but, only one thrust reverser incident some years ago on the Lauda Air 767....none since or before...

That speaks volumes if you ask me.

[This message has been edited by Carioca Canuck (edited 12-20-2001).]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by MileageAddict:
Yeah...you better avoid the 747 too. remember the flight out of HNL that had the skin peel away above the baggage door? Four passengers plunged to their deaths still strapped in their seats.</font> MileageAddict,Are you referring to the Aloha Airlines 737 (http://disastercity.com/flt243/) back in '88 from which an FA was blown out of the plane after the aluminum skin suffered a fatigue failure, or is this another incident?

The UA 747 out of HNL blew open the cargo door because it wasn't completely closed.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by MileageAddict:
Yeah...you better avoid the 747 too. remember the flight out of HNL that had the skin peel away above the baggage door? Four passengers plunged to their deaths still strapped in their seats.</font>

Bit macabre but some of these passengers went through one of the engines.

There's a report that a wire brush left in the cockpit may have caused the problem.

http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/business/51544_brush21.shtml