Rudder

Now there's some rudder, no

rudder.

Rudder.

Now that's the tiller.

I bet you at this point.

In their final report on the accident, they concluded that the captain's excessive use of reverse thrust had disrupted the airflow over the rudder in a phenomenon known as rudder blanking.

This had led to a loss of directional control, which was not possible to recover from.

Rudder blanking had been a known issue on MD-80 series aircraft for decades.

In fact, all pilots flying the type had been explicitly trained not to use excessive reverse thrust on landing, especially on wet or icy runways.

Why had this captain failed to put this training to use? Investigators determined that the captain's uncertainty throughout the approach that he would be able to land on the runway had made him stressed, and focused his mind on stopping the aircraft above all else.

I c- I always remember him cranking, kicking the rudder pedals when the ball was, like, a fraction out, right? And-

[laughs]

... um, but I'm telling you, like, "Rudder, rudder," that's all I heard, and he's kicking the pedals and he's hitting, you know, tapping the glass, and just being an ass.

But you know what? To this day, I, I hawk that ball all the time, right? Especially in the P-3, because that's a little more important to not, with four big props-

Yeah