When an engine ripped off a DC-10 at O'Hare it killed 273 people, and changed air travel forever
CHICAGO - As 258 passengers filed on to American Airlines Flight 191 at O'Hare International Airport the Friday before Memorial Day in 1979, nothing suggested that they would never reach Los Angeles.
They would have listened to the flight attendant instruct them how to buckle the seat belt and where to find the emergency exits.
None of that would matter.
As the three-engine McDonnell Douglas DC-10 accelerated down the runway, reaching takeoff speed, the left engine broke away, vaulting over the aircraft's wing. The pilots heard a thunk.
"Damn," one of the pilots said.
It would be the last word captured by the cockpit voice recorder.
The plane continued to rise, its wings level, despite the nearly 13,500 pounds suddenly missing from its left side. But as it reached 300 feet, the plane slowed and rolled left until it began to overturn, its nose tipping down.
After just 31 seconds of flight, the plane plunged back to earth, killing all the passengers and 13 crew members on board.
The wreckage strafed an open field and mobile home park, scattering debris and erupting into flames. Bodies were burned beyond recognition.
Forty years later, the crash of Flight 191 remains the deadliest passenger airline accident on U.S. soil.
Its legacy helped spur reforms that contributed to a vast improvement in commercial aviation safety.
"It had a lasting impact on how aircraft maintenance is overseen," said former Federal Aviation Administration chief of staff
