ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 147101
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| Date: | Sunday 9 June 1996 |
| Time: | 22:00 |
| Type: |  Boeing 737-2H5 |
| Owner/operator: | Eastwind Airlines |
| Registration: | N221US |
| MSN: | 20454/247 |
| Year of manufacture: | 1970 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 53 |
| Aircraft damage: | None |
| Category: | Incident |
| Location: | near Richmond, VA -
 United States of America
|
| Phase: | Approach |
| Nature: | Passenger - Scheduled |
| Departure airport: | Trenton-Mercer County Airport, NJ (TTN) |
| Richmond International Airport (Byrd Field), VA (RIC) | |
| Investigating agency: | NTSB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
Eastwind Airlines flight 517 experienced a reported loss of rudder control while on approach to Richmond, VA. There were no injuries or damage to the airplane as a result of the incident. At the time of the event the airplane's airspeed was about 250 knots and at 4,000 feet MSL. The captain reported that he was hand flying the airplane and he felt a slight rudder "bump" to the right. He asked the first officer if he had felt the bump, then the airplane suddenly rolled to the right. He reported that he applied opposite rudder but that the rudder felt stiff. He stated the he applied opposite aileron and used asymmetric power to keep the airplane upright. He stated that after he declared an emergency to the approach controller, he and the first officer performed the emergency checklist. The captain reported that as part of the checklist they turned off the yaw damper. He reported that the airplane became controllable, but was not certain if the problem when away at the same time that the yaw damper was turned off.
It is reported that the airplane has previously had problems with uncommanded rudder deflections. Previous reports have been of "rudder bumps" during departure and that the airplane would not trim properly.
The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this incident to be:
The yaw/roll upset of the airplane resulting from the movement of the rudder surface to its blowdown limit. The rudder surface most likely deflected in a direction opposite to that commanded by the pilots as a result of a jam of the main rudder power control unit servo valve secondary slide to the servo valve housing offset from its neutral position and overtravel of the primary slide.
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
Aviation Week & Space Technology 8.7.96 (34) + NTSB
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 26-Jul-2012 07:20 | harro | Added |
| 21-Dec-2016 19:28 | ASN Update Bot | Updated [Time, Damage, Category, Investigating agency] |
| 17-Aug-2020 19:47 | harro | Updated [Narrative, Accident report, ] |
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