When I worked on the DC-9 line at LGB (AKA the "C" Plant) for DACO we built a couple of DC-9s for Air Afrique. One of them was on the fuselage jigs one night when we had a decent earthquake and it got a little torqued and bent. The QC guys (recognizable by their bright orange ties - how to advertise you're coming - quick, look busy...) spent a day looking through lenses and whispering to some engineers who were busy with sliderules, then one of them asked my boss whose airplane this was, anyway. When the answer came, "Air Afrique," the immediate response was, "Build it."

I always figured that somewhere in the skies over West Africa a DC-9 was permanently porpoising or needing weird trim settings all the time.

This happened a few weeks before they dropped a DC-8 on its way to wing join. Oops.

EDITED TO ADD:

Out of curiosity I just googled RK's fleet history and no DC-9s are showing up. Since I remember this incident very clearly, I wonder if the airframes never got sold to RK, but to someone else. In the twilight of Douglas' existence (my story is from 1966) they were doing a lot of shifting and jinking around with the customers, so maybe someone else ended up with the bent bird. Apologies.