American Airlines Flight 191

The aircraft crashed on takeoff from Chicago after the #1 engine and pylon separated from the wing during rotation. A leak in the hydraulic lines allowed the left-side slats to retract, while the right-side slats remained extended. This led to a stall on the left wing which resulted in the roll-over.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• airplane
• crash
• american
• airlines
• delta
• 191
• human
• error
• chicago
• may
• 1979
• boeing
• 737
• lockheed
• l-1011
• 767
• 777

[rb707guy]

Today at 30 years...it seems like yesterday. I lived near there and saw the smoke.

[rodstarr2001]

That was a really sad day.

[foilseal]

i was on this plain and it want bad at it looks

[bigvan98]

where did this actually occur? some people tell me it was north of interstate 90 and some people say south of 90 where the Chicago police have a training facility for dogs?

[GPWS339]

I'm from Bellwood, and I remember this day. I will never forget that flight, and those poor people. We sure had some bad times in that area. John Wayne Gacy, Our Lady of Angles School fire, and American Flight 191 are 3 tragedies that I will never forget. I don't hang on to them to "watch others suffer". I just wish for the millionth of a percentage chance that somehow these people know that someone cares.

[kld3169]

I lived in Elmhurst at that time. I remember walking back to school from a field trip to Roosevelt Elementary and seeing the blackest smoke up North from us..an image that I'll never forget.

[4wheelerDJ]

This happened on my 12th birthday. I will never forget it.

[jgulbro]

i live right next to o'hare and i remember seeing the plane flip and smash into the grown an seeing the huge fire ball go up and th big mushroom cloud go up.i was also in a plane that went off the runway.

[boazrg]

I was a passenger on a DC-10 out of NYC in 1974. We were aloft for 15 minutes when the pilot announced that the baggage door might not be secured. We returned to the airport. I was pissed off because I had looked forward to flying on the DC-10.

Several months later a Turkish DC-10 with almost 350 people on board crashed upon takeoff outside Paris when the baggage door popped open and tore off, damaging the tail and hydraulic lines, and making the plane impossible to control. A close shave!

[Kammerz10]

I still can't believe this. Another flight 191, A Delta flight 191 crashed in 1985 in Texas, luckily not all died. I can't imagine being on the plane or witnessing the crash.