John Mazor wrote:
The Air Transat rudder loss probably didn't result from any pilot inputs and
only involved the rudder, as far as I know, so that's a different case.


Maybe the co-pilot made a really go joke and the captain laughed so hard
that he accidentally extended one leg to the max, deflecting the rufdder
to the maximum while at cruise speed, causing rudder to break off ?

Would the FDR have data to gauge any sideways acceleration (however
momentary it might have been) indicating the the rudder did move in one
direction before breaking off ?

Could a fault in the hydrolics cause the rudder to deflect to max
position on one side at high speed ? If this were to happen, and the
pilot didn'T have his feet on the rudder pedals, if it fair to state the
the pilot woudln't have any feedback that this happened ?