American Airlines Flight 191 was a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10 passenger flight regularly operating between O’Hare and Los Angeles. It had logged over 20,000 hours for seven years since its delivery to the AA in 1972. On May 25, 1979, at around 15:02, it crashed after take-off killing all on-board (Mitchell). The essay assesses the background, crew information, airport layout, and the site where the crash occurred.
As Flight 191 took off from the O'Hare International Airport, one of its engines, pylon assembly, and roughly three feet of the left wing toward the edge separated from the aircraft leading to the crash. Investigations revealed that, as the airplane carried out the takeoff rotation, the first engine separated and flipped toward
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To be more specific, Captain Walter Lux had great experience operating DC-10 for AA for eight years after its introduction. Besides, he had logged 22,000 hours with around 3,000 spent operating DC-10. Moreover, he had qualifications to operate another seventeen aircrafts, including Boeing 727, DC-7, and DC-6. Other crew with him, including James Dillard, the first officer, and Alfred Udovich, the flight engineers had immense experience with a total of over 25,000 flying hours for both with around 1,830 in the DC-10 (Mitchell 1). Therefore, the experienced crew had the significant know-how of flight operations.
The Flight 191 operated from Gate K5 of the airport. After clearance, it used the runway 32R heading northeast of the airport. One of Ravenswood Airport was located approximately 1,400 m from the end of runway 32R. Down the runway, the flight revealed normal ration sequence, and after take-off, it rolled sharply on the left. The accident site was around three kilometres from O’Hare International Airport at Des Plaines (Mitchell). Toward the end of the runway, the jet fell on a hangar at Ravenswood Airport caught fire and damaged the nearby park for trailers as the jet wreckage fell on