New York - US Federal investigators are focusing on the tail fin of American Airlines Flight 587 and the possibility that turbulence from another jet caused the airliner to break apart moments after take-off on Monday, killing 265 people, reports Elaine Lafferty.
The use of composite in the tail and wake turbulence are considered to be two principal factors in the crash, investigators said. Composite is a non-metal, graphite-like substance. American Airlines decided to inspect that part on all 34 of its surviving A300 aircraft. "We'll be looking very carefully at how the tail failed," said a National Transportation Safety Board member, Mr George Black.
"This would be the most catastrophic in-flight disaster we've ever had. We've never had a modern civilian jetliner come apart in flight. It is so unbelievably catastrophic what happened," a former Transportation Department inspector general Ms Mary Schiavo, said.