Airbus should be required to modify its flight control system on a popular wide-body aircraft to reduce the potential for dangerous rudder movements at high speed, US safety investigators said Friday.
The National Transportation Safety Board recommended the Federal Aviation Administration require the European aircraft maker to develop a more advanced rudder limiting system for its A300-600 family.
The safety board also asked the FAA to evaluate other passenger and cargo aircraft types to see if their flight control systems require similar changes.
The safety recommendation for Airbus is tied to an incident involving American Airlines Flight 903 over Florida in 1997 but grew out of the investigation of American Flight 587, an Airbus A300-600 that crashed in New York in 2001.
The safety board stressed the recommendation was not specific to the Flight 587 crash that killed 265 people. That probe centers partly on flight control sensitivity and rudder movements at much lower speeds.
American acknowledged "shortcomings" in the Airbus A300-600 rudder control system and said it had already retrained its pilots in how to deal with them.
Airbus spokeswoman Mary Anne Greczyn said the company was fully behind the recommended change, but did not have a cost estimate for the work.
"The good thing that will come from this is another level of safety when there are big changes in air speed due to aircraft upsets," Greczyn said.
FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said the agency would review the safety board action but had no additional comment.
In the 1997 incident, Flight 903 from Boston to Miami -- an A300-600 -- was nearly three miles above West Palm Beach, Florida, when it descended sharply, stalled several times, and rolled violently.
Investigators concluded the jet's speed also increased dramatically over a short period of time and the rudder exceeded its designed travel limit, which put dangerous stress on the tail fin.
The plane landed safety and the fin was removed five years later due to internal damage discovered as a result of the Flight 587 investigation.
Aerodynamic stresses and aircraft design standards as well as pilot action are also part of the Flight 587 investigation. The tail fin fell off the plane before it crashed into a residential area.
