Six Rudder Kicks, Sixty Seconds: How Flight 587 Fell Apart

Aviation Survival Stories · Jul 22, 2026 · 18m

Six Rudder Kicks, Sixty Seconds: How Flight 587 Fell Apart

A single pilot input - six rapid rudder pedal movements in sixty seconds - preceded the loss of an airliner's entire vertical tail and the deaths of 260 people. The aircraft remained airborne for a minute after the first shove; what caused routine wake turbulence to become a catastrophe over Jamaica Bay and Belle Harbor, Queens?

In this episode, we tell what unfolded from takeoff at JFK through the exact sequence recorded by the flight data recorder, and why investigators eventually pointed to a training manual rather than terrorism…