Flights Gone Wrong

Real stories. Deeper understanding.

Tomasz Wren

Engineering and what failed

Tomasz Wren covers the engineering side of air accidents: the part that failed, how it failed and what the design, maintenance or materials had to do with it. His guides walk through each failure step by step, explain the hardware in plain comparisons, and keep to the wording of the final report, including its "probably" and "most likely". He is most at home with structures, engines, fire and pressurisation, and ends every piece with the fix: the design change, inspection or directive that followed.

Writes about

  • Structural failures
  • Engines and systems
  • Maintenance errors
  • In-flight fire
  • Decompression
  • Icing
  • Bird strikes
  • Flight recorders

Tomasz Wren is a house byline of the Flights Gone Wrong editorial team. Drafts are prepared with software help, and every fact is checked against the sources cited on the page. How we check facts

By Tomasz

7 guides

  • DC-10 Crashes and the Fixes: Cargo Door, Flight 191, Sioux City

    Aircraft

    In its first decade the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 suffered a cargo door failure that was ignored until it killed 346 people, then a maintenance shortcut that brought down American Airlines Flight 191 and grounded the type. This guide covers those accidents, the crew who brought United 232 to Sioux City, and what the DC-10’s record looks like after the fixes.

    7 min read

  • Bird Strikes Explained: How Often They Happen and the Defences

    Causes

    Aircraft in the US reported more than 24,000 wildlife strikes in 2025, but only a few per cent of those strikes cause damage, and very few have ever brought an airliner down. When one does, it is usually large birds in a flock hitting more than one engine, as on US Airways Flight 1549, which the crew ditched on the Hudson River in 2009 with all 155 people on board surviving.

    7 min read

  • Black Boxes Explained: How Flight Recorders Survive a Crash

    Investigations

    A black box survives a crash because its memory sits inside an armoured, insulated case built to withstand an impact of 3,400 g, a fire of 1,100 °C for 30 minutes and deep water. This guide explains the two recorders, why they are orange, how long they record and what they have told investigators.

    7 min read

  • Lockheed L-1011 TriStar Crashes and Its Safety Record Explained

    Aircraft

    The Lockheed L-1011 TriStar was built in small numbers and had few fatal accidents, but several of its incidents became landmark cases for crews and investigators. This guide covers the TriStar events on this site, its record against the rival DC-10, and why the type disappeared.

    6 min read

  • Plane Crashes Caused by Maintenance Errors, and the Lessons

    Causes

    Some of the best-known air accidents began in a hangar, not a cockpit: a seal left off, a part that did not match, a crack nobody found. This guide walks through six cases on this site, what the investigators found, and how maintenance work has changed since.

    10 min read

  • Explosive vs Rapid Decompression: What Happens to a Cabin

    Causes

    An explosive decompression happens faster than your lungs can let air out, in under half a second; a rapid one is slower than that; a slow one can be so gradual nobody notices. The FAA warns that the slow kind is the most dangerous, and two accidents on this site, Aloha Airlines Flight 243 and Helios Airways Flight 522, show why.

    8 min read

  • In-Flight Fire Accidents: Swissair 111, TWA 800 and What Changed

    Causes

    A fire on board leaves a crew very little time, and the most dangerous fires start where nobody can see them: above a cockpit ceiling, in a cargo hold or inside a fuel tank. The investigations into Swissair 111, Swissair 551 and TWA 800 changed what airliners are built from, how fuel tanks are protected and how crews are told to respond to smoke.

    8 min read