American Airlines Flight 191: The 1979 Crash That Grounded DC-10s

This short documentary on American Airlines Flight 191 begins with how American Airlines came to choose the DC-10 and ends with the memorial near O'Hare.

American and the DC-10

The video explains why American picked the DC-10 as its premier jetliner in the early 1970s and recalls an earlier incident: in 1972, shortly after delivery, a DC-10 flying as American Airlines Flight 96 lost its cargo door but returned safely.

The flight

Flight 191 had 271 people on board, 258 passengers and 13 crew, for a flight of about five hours to Los Angeles. The crew were Captain Walter Lux, 53, First Officer James Dillard, 49, and Flight Engineer Alfred Udovich, 56. They were cleared for takeoff at 3:04 p.m. At rotation there was a shudder and a metallic snap. Captain Lux said only "Damn" before the instruments went dead. A controller in the tower saw the left engine separate and hit the runway. The aircraft rolled onto its side, was photographed by bystanders, and crashed near the airport. Two people on the ground were also killed, and burning debris damaged a trailer park.

The investigation

The video explains that the FAA suspended the DC-10's certificate and that foreign DC-10s were kept out of US airspace, and how newspaper photographs of the crash damaged the aircraft's reputation. Investigators found that the engine had been maintained at American's facility in Tulsa, where the engine and pylon were removed and refitted as one unit using a forklift, a method that could damage the pylon. It explains that an aircraft can fly on two engines, and that hydraulic fluid found by investigators pointed to the loss of the slats on the left wing, which led to the stall and roll.

Afterwards

The NTSB concluded that the maintenance procedure was the root cause and that the crew had acted appropriately with what they knew. The video says American Airlines was fined and that the FAA tightened maintenance rules. American flew the DC-10 until about 2000. A permanent memorial was built in 2011.

Note: the video says the left wing's flaps and slats reverted to a neutral position. The NTSB found that the outboard leading edge slats on the left wing retracted after their hydraulic lines were cut.