Northwest Airlines Flight 85

Information
Northwest Airlines Flight 85 was a flight from Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport in the United States to Narita International Airport in Japan. On October 9, 2002, the Boeing 747-400 carrying out the flight experienced a lower rudder hardover event, when the flight was over the Bering Sea. A rudder hardover is when the aircraft's rudder deflects to its travel limit without crew input. The 747's hardover gave full left lower rudder, requiring the pilots to use full right upper rudder and right aileron to maintain attitude and course. The flight diverted to Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. No passengers or crew were injured, but the incident resulted in an airworthiness directive to prevent the possibility of a future accident.

Pilots
The pilots consisted of Junior Captain Frank Geib, First Officer Mike Fagan, Senior Captain John Hanson and First Officer David Smith.

Background
The flight departed Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport at 2:30 PM Eastern Daylight Time. The incident occurred at 5:40 PM Alaska Daylight Time, around 7 hours into the flight. At the time of the incident, junior captain Frank Geib and first officer Mike Fagan had just taken control of the aircraft, allowing senior captain John Hanson and first officer David Smith to rest. Flight 85's captain said that the event occurred at flight level 350 (35,000 feet/11,000 meters).

The aircraft suddenly went into a 30 to 40 degree left bank. Geib initially believed that an engine failed. Hanson re-entered the cockpit and continued to fly the aircraft by hand with Fagan. Geib declared an emergency and began a diversion to Anchorage. While trying to declare the emergency, the plane was in a communications dead zone between North America and Asia. Even with a weak signal, they contacted another Northwest Airlines flight, Flight 19, who helped Flight 85 declare the emergency since they were closer to Alaska. Flight 85's captain reported that none of the emergency procedures available could correct the problem. The pilots established a conference call with Northwest Airlines at the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, and the Northwest employees there were unable to find a solution to the sudden bank. The flight crew took back control of the aircraft and landed at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. To steer the aircraft, they had to use the ailerons and asymmetric engine thrust, applying more engine power to one side than the other.

Hanson said that crew resource management (CRM) contributed to the flight's safe landing at Anchorage; he said "This was a classic application of CRM. We were blessed and lucky that we had full flight crew augmentation. We had four pilots to work together in the cockpit. We had an excellent group of flight attendants on board; that became important later because we briefed this as a ‘red’ emergency, which means there’s at least a solid chance you’re going to have to evacuate. We weren’t sure we were going to be able to keep the airplane on the runway." The incident did not initially receive media attention.