The American Airlines Airbus A300-600 flew through the slipstream vortices of a preceding Boeing 747 while climbing away from New York Kennedy airport on 12 November. The flight data recorder (FDR) measured rudder movements. Almost immediately the fin detached and the aircraft crashed. The FDR measured side accelerations on the fin and rudder movements that followed them. The NTSB says that it may never be established whether the rudder movements resulted from pilot input because loads on the rudder pedals are not measured. Airbus and Boeing, however, have warned against heavy use of rudder in large aircraft except to counter asymmetric power at low speeds.
Source: Flight International
