American Airlines Flight 191 Crash Fire Radio Communications

[RenegadeChauffeur]

This incident effected me indirectly in two ways: 1) A girl in my pre-school class lost both her parents on that flight (try explaining death to a group of 4 year olds) and my late stepdad was one of the responding firefighters from the suburban fire departments that sad day. He told me some stories I cant repeat here. The memorial for the people killed that day as dedicated today, with NO HELP from AA. May the 273 people who died that May day 32 years ago rest in peace.

[resqone100]

this was my first week at Des Plaines FD. this is only the radio from Elk Grove Village, Elk Grove Township,Mount Prospect and Arlington Hts.

There were also tapes from the Des Plaines / Rosemont Channel, and elsewhere on Youtube is the Chicago tapes. Something I will never forget.

[alexgonick]

this is hard to listen too. R.I.P ALL WHO PARISHED.

[alany3875]

Good grief at all the radio traffic!!! Just run the damn call.

[Scorpion1054]

I was a kid in 1979 and remember watching tv and CBS broke in and reported that a DC-10 crashed on take-off out of Chicago. Sad day.

[138ozzilla]

My wife died aboard this crash. 5.25.11 is the 32nd anniversary of this which is still the worse crash of a commercial airplane in US history. FINALLY after 32 years there is suppose to be a Memorial built by the fall of 2011. I can't believe it took 32 years!

[ChristopherSaindon]

@138ozzilla I'm so sorry for your loss 32 years but I remember it like yesterday. I was 9 and we had a family friend we had sent off with wishes for a great Holiday weekend. I remember the first news report and my mother breaking down crying immediately. It didn't sink in for me until the next day. You lost your wife and I cant imagine that; I am so very sorry. The memorial is long overdue and I'll be saying a prayer there as soon as it's complete and I wont forget her :-)

[johnblaster]

@138ozzilla you must have been about the age I am now. i can't even imagine what that must have been like for you. that's terrible. i'm very sorry.

[definealways]

Gives me chills to listen to this.

[nese67]

I lived in Schiller Park..MAY 25TH 1979 I WILL NEVER FORGET THIS!! Was VERY close to this..I was 11 years old

[mrMehumatti]

@nese67 I lived inside the plane.... I was 112 years old. Never will forget this.

[steve51704000]

I knew one of the passengers, and a second passenger (who I didn't know) also went to our church. They both died that day. A third (potential) passenger who I also knew had canceled that flight, and taken an earlier flight from Chicago to L.A. Also, I know for a fact that the aircraft was on its way in for maintenance at LAX that day! My good friend's father was an A.A. mechanic and was waiting to work on that DC-10 as soon as it arrived.

[Kammerz10]

@steve51704000 Oh that's so sad. Wow you had alot of connections to it. I read in a book about a guy who was supposed to be on this flight, but missed it for some reason. Then guess what? He dies in the '85 crash in Texas! (which my ex b/f witnessed when he lived there).

[Kammerz10]

@Kammerz10 PS-Oh, the Delta flight # in the '85 crash? 191!!!

[3338MAN]

My brother Ralphie was driving up Elmhurst after his shift in Northlake, going to his girlfriend's or something as he always did on Friday. He saw the DC-10 turn and it looked to him from like a mile away it was going to crash onto Elmhurst in front of him. He literally shit his pants. No joke. He came up all shook up and told us what had just happened. We didn't know yet. Our house was soundproof due to O'Hare nearby. We thought he was joking and making one up because of his messed pants.

[Kammerz10]

Very scary. NO survivors.

[steve51704000]

@Kammerz10 - massive fireball on impact! There was at least 20,000 Gallons of jet fuel in that aircraft when it hit the ground.

[Kammerz10]

@steve51704000 OMG, that's almost impossible to comprehend. People talk so much about the Lockerbie crash, 9/11, the TWA 800, but this is the WORST one. I've never seen a plane explode so close to the runway. Even the Teneriffe disaster seems to be not as horrible as this. In fact, it reminds me of the 9/11 towers it became a fireball so fast.

[charliem989]

I grew up in Elk Grove, so this is really powerful for me

[pljenkins522]

Knuckleheads.. This had nothing to do with pilot error. The crew did exactly what they were supposed to do when an engine fails. What the crew didn't, and thanks to the damage couldn't have known, was the port slats lost pressure and retracted, stalling the port wing and spinning the airplane.

[timsk]

@pljenkins522 yep. the crew followed procedures, which were wrong. But the real cause was the negligence of the american repair crew/engineers when they took the short cut to inspect the engine mount joints.

[bokabeed]

I wonder what it must have been like to be on Ambulance 321. From what I can tell they were very first responders. No wander they were so frantic sounding. It kinda sounded like a newbie medic though.

[RonyMexico]

@bokabeed hey, asshole, what could you possibly know about being a medic? you'd be the type who would shit his pants at the sight of a mass casualty incident, fuckin pussy

[MyGetit]

MyGetit

This was pilot error also that cut the engines before the crash. I was less than 25 yards from impact.

[canktm25]

with the slats retracting there was no turning back anyway...that interesting what your saying though..the media dosen't tell the whole story.

[FURPu2]

Can't blame the flight crew, sorry. Procedure at the time was to trade airspeed for altitude. When they slowed to V2, that was it. All left system hydraulic plumming and left electrical wiring ran forward of the front wing spar. All were ripped apart as the engine detached and went back over the wing. All that mist you see comming out of the left wing area in the famous picture is most likely Skydrol (hydraulic fluid).

[phugoid306]

It was NOT pilot error!

For one, the crew did not know that the engine was gone, and the lost engine damaged the slats of the left wing. So, they followed procedure when theres a problem w an engine on takeoff. Which is to reduce power slightly on the main engine to procede with a possible return to airport...... BUT while all this is going on the left wing all of a sudden loses lift because the slats and flaps failed because of lost hydraulic fluid. hencew the sudden bank to the left,& stall

[canktm25]

all this death because some guy on a fork lift jamed the engine an pylon assembly onto the wing to save time! my father knew one of the passengers on the plane he was going to a book convention

[FURPu2]

Well, not quite. AA like all the other airlines are always looking to cut costs. It was deemed cheaper to remove the engine from the wing with the pylon still attached instead of removing the engine from the pylon; this was not standard procedure. I know two guys that removed THAT engine from N110AA. They were instructed by management to use this non standard procedure. The crew chief in charge of the engine change killed himself, while AA made money on the crash from the insurance settlement.

[canktm25]

sorry...that figure's..a managment call..while the media doesn't tell the whole story..

[GodsOutlaw1964]

interesting and sad

[IBMeddling]

I pass by this trailer park every weekday to work. At the beginning you hear ... "standard oil," There are some oil tanks next to the trailer park on Elmhurst road and Touhy, They probably thought that exploded.

[nese67]

hi bearsfgan,yeh wow what a spooky coincadence!..I was 11 years old,I lived in Schiller PARK NOT FAR FROM CRASH,IT WAS THE MOST SCARIEST THING I SEEN ON TV..I believe we saw the smoke too!We moved to Bartlett in June..just after this.Gawd!!Soo many people!..Yeh I seen the story on this,that poor pilot,he took this flight as a favor for another pilot,this was before the memorial day weekend,so sad,my sympathy to his son & family,even though it was so long ago,I will NEVER forget this.

[bearsfan0809]

Was on the kennedy when I was 13 driving up to our summer home saw the plane take off above the buildings then saw it turn and nose dive where the nose and the tip of the wing touched at the same time. Huge smoke like a nuck! Most spooky thing was my wife whom I met 8 years later well her sisters husband was the pilot (walter lux) his sone mike later named his first boy after him... very strange

[dtetz]

Lindsey Wagner was supposed to be on it but she felt uneasy and did not get on, read it in a biography

[nese67]

hi dtetz, Yes I remember hearing that,wow she felt uineasy..and to witness that really happe3ning after feeling that before hand..wow!..I lived in Schiller Park,the man I met 12 yrs later said he seen it driving home on expressway after working in the city with his friend.He seen the explosion!

[swoop187187]

Your dad couldnt have been comming home from vietnam when this happend.

[koramu443]

haha, my father was supose to be on this plane, but he fell asleep on in the airport on the way home from the Vietnam war

x]

[npango85]

yea, im sure, considering american involvement ended for the most part in 1973 and completly ended in 1975 when saigon fell, nice try dumbass

[oinb]

the plane take off from O'hare how your dad come from vietnam?

[nese67]

Hi Koramu, This was in '79 wayy after Vietnam War.why the ha,ha..nothin' funny about this,I witnessed it & lived nearby (schiller park0I was 11 yrs old,very terrifying.

[1974rail]

do you have more radio commincations from the crash?

[mogirldotnet]

Sad. That was a mess. But it couldn't have been helped.