Originally Posted by
pinniped
Weren't these aircraft considered by pilots as very difficult to fly? I don't know if that counts as a "safety issue" of the design itself or not, but I guess if all things were equal I'd rather be on a type that pilots are more comfortable with.
The MD-11 successor was considered a real handful on the flight deck. It had a tendency to porpoise in the air. I believe only KLM still operates the MD-11 in pax mode. It never hit its promised performance numbers either.
The DC-10, though, was a real brick and a lot of fun to fly in... once it got over its teething problems in the 1970s. There were several fatal hull losses attributed to design flaws (Google AA 96, TK 981, AA 191) in the early going. After they were corrected the DC-10 had a good safety record.
Northwest used to fly 4 or 5 per day between SEA and MSP... I miss them.