British RJ-70 N833BE

Summary

On 25 July 1995 at about 13:24 local time, a British RJ-70 registered N833BE, operated by Business Express, was involved in an incident near New York, New York, United States. 24 people were on board and nobody was injured. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

25 July 1995 at 13:24

Classification

Incident

Location

New York, New York, United States

Nearest airport

John F. Kennedy (JFK)

Coordinates

40.6509, -73.7895

Aircraft

British RJ-70

Registration

N833BE

Category

Airplane

Engines

4

Operator

Business Express

Operating rule

Part 121: Air Carrier

Purpose of flight

Unknown

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Cleveland → Unknown

Aircraft damage

Not recorded

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

NYC95IA178

Nobody was injured.

the aileron interconnect became uncoupled, when an abrupt and/or large aileron movement was made in response to a wake turbulence encounter, while on a VOR approach with the autopilot engaged. A factor relating to the incident was: inadequate in-flight planning/decision by the aircrew, which allowed the wake turbulence encounter.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

The Avro RJ-70 was on approach, about 1500 ft agl, with the auto-pilot engaged, when it encountered wake turbulence from a preceding Airbus 340 and rolled left. The flying pilot, who occupied the right seat, reached for the yoke to disconnect the auto-pilot and to apply corrective aileron input. He applied large and/or abrupt movement of the ailerons before achieving an auto-pilot disconnect. The ailerons uncoupled, after which, the pilot continued with the approach and landed without further incident. A postincident test revealed that the breakaway forces for the aileron interconnect detent strut were within the manufacturer's specification. The manufacturer reported that movement of the aileron flight controls from the side opposite of the engaged auto-pilot servo could result in an aileron uncoupling. Once uncoupled, the left yoke controlled the left aileron and roll spoiler, and the right yoke controlled the right aileron and roll spoiler.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.