The location of the accident and the fact that it took place two months and one day after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in Manhattan initially spawned fears of another terrorist attack . Terrorism was officially ruled out as the cause by the National Transportation Safety Board ( NTSB ) , which instead attributed the disaster to the first officer 's overuse of rudder controls in response to wake turbulence from a Japan Airlines ( JAL ) Boeing 747-400 that took off minutes before it . According to the NTSB , the aggressive use of the rudder controls by the first officer caused the vertical stabilizer to snap off the plane , along with the plane 's two engines separating from intense forces before impact
September 11 attacks
September 11 attacks
American Airlines Flight 587