Airplane Has Counterfeit Parts / Bad Vibrations on Partnair Flight 394
Black Box Down
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The Investigation Board Decided That the F 16 Could Not Have Caused the Part to Crash
The investigation board determined that, in order to cause the part airplane to crash, the f 16 would have had to have flown just a couple of meters over it. At worst, there may have been a little bit of wake turbulence, but it wouldn't have been anything really bad. The vertical stabilizer actually had abnormal clearances in its attachment fittings and thus had a certain degree of freedom to move laterally. This initiated rudder oscillations to a degree higher than the dampening capacity of the rudder balance weights. When the shroud doors failed, the conditions were further aggravated by turbulence from the then exposed gap the fin and the rudder.
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