1989 – British Airways Concorde flying from Christchurch to Sydney. G-BOAF, was operating a charter flight from Christchurch, New Zealand to Sydney, Australia. The aircraft lost the upper part of its rudder early in the flight.
She was climbing and at approximately Mach 1.7 at FL440, the pilots heard a bang, which they thought came from under the flight deck floor. With no instrumentation warnings, they believed it to be caused by an engine surge and continued the flight normally.
Airframe vibrations were felt when the aircraft slowed to Mach 1.4, and the pilots attempted to reduce thrust on each engine, but with no difference. After around 2.5 minutes, and when speed had reduced to Mach 1.0, vibrations ceased
Far from being a major incident, or even requiring an emergency landing, the crew experienced no warnings or handling difficulties. The flight went on to land normally before the ground crew in Sydney noticed the problem.
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