As I said, I drove by next morning, and the storage tanks were right next to the crash site. The plane did not come down on top of a trailer park. It crashed into an empty field next to a trailer park.
Well, I guess you'd know better than I then... considering I wasnt even around then.
This was during the time AA had live video feeds from inside the cockpit (remeber those day's?)---I am sure the crash was one of the major reasons they discontinued these feeds.
Actually, the live video feeds continued for at least 5 years after the disaster. I remember many a DC-10 Heavy flight with both the Bird's Eye View on takeoff and landing and the live air-to-ground communications channel being one of the audio selections.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AAPlatinum
Actually, the live video feeds continued for at least 5 years after the disaster. I remember many a DC-10 Heavy flight with both the Bird's Eye View on takeoff and landing and the live air-to-ground communications channel being one of the audio selections.
Yup, I remember those as well. They did seem to continue for quite some time. I recall that the audio (channel 9 ?) continued for even longer on some narrowbodies
When the left wing stalled the pilots had lost control of the aircraft. They hit the empty field on nothing more than the good luck of the people in the trailer park.
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I very clearly remember listening to ATC on an AA 767-200 routing JFK-SFO in the summer of 1987. I also remember the cockpitt view on the DC-10 from the same time. I swear it was around in 1987.
I didn't realize that the AA 191 crash happened on my parents' 5th wedding anniversary.
Also, an odd coincidence, the Delta L-1011 that crashed at DFW in August 1985 was also flight 191.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LarryJ
Strange thing about this flight number. AA191 isn't the only major crash of a flight 191. Delta 191 was the L1011 that crashed due to windshear while trying to land at DFW in August 1985.
There was also a fatal crash of Prinair Flight 191 as well as the fatal X15 Flight 191 on November 15, 1967.
Tonight (Thursday May 27) the show "Time Machine" on the History Channel will explore AA 191 in depth, 8-9:30pm Eastern Time.
Quote:
The Crash of Flight 191
What happens when an airline and federal agency detect a design or mechanical flaw in an airliner and choose to ignore the "acceptable risk" because it's costly to fix and may not cause a problem? On May 25, 1979, 271 people fastened their seatbelts for a flight from Chicago to LA. Almost as soon as the DC-10 took off, it plummeted to earth, exploding in flames. It's a story of greed and deceit, arrogance and spin control, and how the fallout brought aviation giant McDonnell-Douglas to its knees.
It looks like an all-aviation evening on THC: "Plane Crashes" on Modern Marvels starts at 7, and the 191 show is followed by "Broken Wings," a documentary about aviation archaeology.
I remember playing in my back yard at the time, we sat down to eat some watermelon at the picnic table and we heard a distant rumble. Then we saw the black smoke ... I was 9 at the time.
My pet parakeet was eaten by my dog the next day .
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Before AA closed their City Ticket Offices, I would go to the one near work at Presidential Towers. The woman who worked there was the agent at ORD who actually closed the door to that flight before it took off. She would talk for hours about it when she wasn't busy at the office. Incredible stories. And very sad...
That aircraft never had a chance -- when the left engine detached it took crucial control systems and surfaces with it. Incredibly sad, but mercifully quick.
AA191 led to the temporary pulling of the DC10's US airworthiness certificate in the summer of '79. I was a junior law clerk at a firm in a Boston high-rise and for weeks we'd look out our windows, across the harbor to the Logan apron, where all these parked, stranded DC10s were lined up staring back at us.
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No blanket, no IFE, no laptop, no iPod, no book, no standing, no carryon. Threat level now at Berserk. Enjoy your flight.
