Olson's Lie

["Robert L Bass" <no-sales-spam@bassburglaralarms>]

Besides the utter absurdity of Olson's tale of aerobatics in a "borrowed" 737 airplane, there are a few things which he (having
never been a pilot) got totally wrong.

He claimed that the airplane was moving at a relatively slow speed (after I pointed out that a rudder "hard-over" at flight speed
would likely have damaged the rudder control unit.  The following is from a report of "The Flight Control Engineering and Test
Evaluation Board (ETEB)" after they tested the problem with 737 rudder operation.

"3 March 1991, UA585, a 737-200Adv crashed on approach to Colorado Springs. The aircraft departed from controlled flight
approximately 1,000 feet above the ground and struck an open field."

"8 Sep 1994, US427, a 737-300 was approaching Philadelphia Runway 28R when ATC reported traffic in the area, which was confirmed in
sight by the First Officer. At that moment the aircraft was levelling of at 6000ft (speed 190kts) and rolling out of a 15deg left
turn (roll rate 2deg/sec) with flaps at 1, the gear still retracted and autopilot and auto-throttle systems engaged. The aircraft
then suddenly entered the wake vortex of a Delta Airlines Boeing 727 that preceded it by approx. 69 seconds (4,2mls). Over the next
3 seconds the aircraft rolled left to approx. 18deg of bank. The autopilot attempted to initiate a roll back to the right as the
aircraft went in and out of a wake vortex core, resulting in two loud "thumps". The First Officer then manually overrode the
autopilot without disengaging it by putting in a large right-wheel command at a rate of 150deg/sec. The airplane started rolling
back to the right at an acceleration that peaked 36deg/sec, but the aircraft never reached a wings level attitude. At 19.03:01 the
aircraft's heading slewed suddenly and dramatically to the left (full left rudder deflection). Within a second of the yaw onset the
roll attitude suddenly began to increase to the left, reaching 30deg. The aircraft pitched down, continuing to roll through 55deg
left bank. At 19.03:07 the pitch attitude approached -20deg, the left bank increased to 70deg and the descent rate reached
3600f/min. At this point, the aircraft stalled. Left roll and yaw continued, and the aircraft rolled through inverted flight as the
nose reached 90deg down, approx. 3600ft above the ground. The 737 continued to roll, but the nose began to rise. At 2000ft above the
ground the aircraft's attitude passed 40deg nose low and 15deg left bank. The left roll hesitated briefly, but continued and the
nose again dropped. The plane descended fast and impacted the ground nose first at 261kts in an 80deg nose down, 60deg left bank
attitude and with significant sideslip. All 132 on board were killed."

"In 1996 the crew of an Eastwind Airlines flight 517 briefly lost control of their 737 as they approached Richmond, Va."

"Mar 1999 - The NTSB release a report that says although there was no hard physical evidence, both crashes were probably caused by
an abrupt rudder movement that... sent the planes spiralling into an uncontrollable dive."

"At the point of the USAir 427 upset, the aircraft was configured at Flaps 1 and 190kts, which combined with the g of the attempted
recovery manoeuvre would have made recovery almost impossible."

"...in 1984, Boeing found that at a speed of 190 knots and the flap-one setting, the plane could not overcome a full rudder
deflection by using the ailerons, as would normally be the case."

"During the study, the ETEB brought in 10 flight crews from 4 airlines on 737s to 'fly' the simulator connected to the fin rig. They
used the existing recovery procedures to deal with about 40 different rudder failure modes. They found, as expected, that any rudder
hardover while taking off or landing, moving slowly and at low altitude, would be catastrophic. And they found that these pilots,
who fly the 737s routinely for airlines and had normal training, performed poorly in trouble-shooting rudder problems."

"The major finding of both reports is that the Boeing 737 rudder control system has numerous potential failure modes that represent
an unacceptable risk to the travelling public. The ETEB found dozens of single failures and jams and latent failures in the 737
rudder system, in addition to the single point of failure we identified in our accident report, that can result in the loss of
control of the airplane."

In simple terms, if Olson ever tried what he claimed, he'd be dead.


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