One of my former bosses (a Ph.D. whose specialty was aircraft structures and whose technical expertise I greatly respected) refused to travel if any leg of a proposed trip was operated with a DC-10. He was adamant that there were many structural flaws in that aircraft (as originally designed). He would not fly on one ... and told everyone so, particular after the AA Flight 191 out of ORD where an engine separated from the wing shortly after takeoff. (NTSB concluded that separation was the result of a maintenance error, but my boss's view was that it was a flaw the structural design was not tolerant to that particular maintenance error.)

Caveat: While I can't believe it affected his judgement, I do need to caveat his view with the fact that he worked for Lockheed-California in the late 60's and early 70's (i.e., the time frame when the DC-10 and L-1011 were being designed and developed). Working on the L-1011 was never his primary job, but he was brought into provide expert consultation related to the design of the L-1011 empenage.