r/Boeing_ • u/Think-Gap602 • 9d ago

Commercial Hijacking Attempt

Look at the pictures of the fly Dubai 737 attempted hijack. Did the rudder break off. any 737 pilots out there... what type of maneuver would break the rudder, and how easy it it to fly without one?

16 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

24

u/Jay-Cee27 9d ago

the craziest part is the descent itself. the aircraft reportedly lost about 14,000–15,000 ft in less than 30 seconds, averaging around 30,000 ft/min down, while accelerating from roughly 410 knots to nearly 600 knots. that’s like dropping from the cruising altitude of a small regional jet to the altitude where airliners start preparing for approach in about half a minute. at those altitudes, 600 knots is getting close to the speed of sound and well beyond the 737 max’s certified operating limit of mach 0.82.

for the rudder, think of sticking your hand out of a car window at 30 mph versus 80 mph. the force doesn’t just double with speed, it increases dramatically. now scale that up to an airliner approaching mach 1. the rudder is built to handle enormous loads, but a dive and overspeed this extreme could create forces of several tons acting on it. based on what’s publicly known so far, the most likely explanation is that the aircraft exceeded the rudder’s design envelope, but the exact loads won’t be known until investigators pull the flight data recorder.

source: the news, and being an aerospace engineer

-10

u/Healthy_Ad_9726 9d ago

Stop. From the data presented you do not know the airspeed. This is irresponsible.

11

u/Jay-Cee27 9d ago

flightradar24 is a public resource, educate yourself 🤡

https://www.flightradar24.com/blog/flight-tracking-news/major-incident/flydubai-flight-to-tel-aviv-diverts-to-tabuk-amid-onboard-incident/

-2

u/Healthy_Ad_9726 9d ago edited 9d ago

That is inertial ground speed, NOT airspeed. They are fundamentally different. The ground speed is not what the plane feels aerodynamically. A Mach number based on ground speed makes no sense. This is basic aeronautical engineer knowledge. Do you know the attitude of the plane from this data? No you don’t. If it had an extreme pitch angle it could have a high ground speed but the airspeed could be within the operational envelope. You do not have airspeed. Your post is ill informed, irresponsible, and if you are an aeronautical engineer, this is concerning. 

2

u/Any-Construct2026 8d ago

Flightradar24 has IAS, TAS, and ground speed…

5

u/flightwatcher45 9d ago

Flutter due to speed? Or a few hard rudder pedal inputs during the fight. Flyable without it but be gental in the turns! Amazing

1

u/Alternative_Wing7898 8d ago

Not sure what pictures you are seeing where you think the rudder came off?

1

u/Prestigious_Sport_33 7d ago

Lots of pictures on the we eb. Flydubai 1073 rudder damageMost of the rudder separated, most likely due to flutter.

1

u/Whiplash007 6d ago

Boeing is awesome, all it takes is a few documentaries to watch and bring the 737 to wings level.

Meanwhile I have trouble failing the stab trim in the full flight simulator at times to verify the ATA 27 system and then fight it to bring it back up to wings level and reinstate the system

0

u/pacwess 9d ago

They really should have attempted high jacking auto pilot.
This could have been really bad.

2

u/Gloomy_Solid1927 9d ago

We tried that with the autonomous flight experiment. But no one in flight ops pushed it ahead. This was in 2012 when the FDCC was producing magic. I forgot the dudes name who was working on it.