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American Airlines Flight 191

1970s in Chicago1979 in IllinoisAC with 0 elementsAccidents and incidents involving the McDonnell Douglas DC-10Airliner accidents and incidents caused by in-flight structural failure
Airliner accidents and incidents caused by maintenance errorsAirliner accidents and incidents in IllinoisAirliner accidents and incidents involving in-flight engine separationsAmerican Airlines accidents and incidentsAviation accidents and incidents in the United States in 1979Disasters in IllinoisHistory of ChicagoMay 1979 events in the United StatesO'Hare International AirportUse American English from February 2022Use mdy dates from April 2012

American Airlines Flight 191 was a regularly scheduled domestic passenger flight in the United States operated by American Airlines from O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois, to Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, California. On the afternoon of May 25, 1979, the McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10 operating this flight was taking off from runway 32R when its left engine detached, causing loss of control, and it crashed less than a mile (1.6 km) from the end of the runway. All 258 passengers and 13 crew on board were killed, along with two people on the ground. With 273 fatalities, it is the deadliest aviation accident to have occurred in the United States.The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) found that as the aircraft was beginning its takeoff rotation, engine number one (the left engine) separated from the left wing, flipping over the top of the wing and landing on the runway. As the engine separated from the aircraft, it severed hydraulic fluid lines that lock the wing's leading-edge slats in place and damaged a 3-foot (0.9 m) section of the left wing's leading edge. Aerodynamic forces acting on the wing resulted in an uncommanded retraction of the outboard slats. As the aircraft began to climb, the damaged left wing – with no engine – produced far less lift (stalled) than the right wing, which had its slats still deployed and its engine providing full takeoff thrust. The disrupted and unbalanced aerodynamics of the aircraft caused it to roll abruptly to the left until it was partially inverted, reaching a bank angle of 112°, before crashing in an open field by a trailer park near the end of the runway. The engine separation was attributed to damage to the pylon structure holding the engine to the wing, caused by improper maintenance procedures used at American Airlines.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article American Airlines Flight 191 (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

American Airlines Flight 191
Elk Grove Township

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N 42.009722222222 ° E -87.929166666667 °
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60124 Elk Grove Township
Illinois, United States
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O'Hare International Airport
O'Hare International Airport

Chicago O'Hare International Airport (IATA: ORD, ICAO: KORD, FAA LID: ORD), sometimes referred to as Chicago O'Hare, or simply O'Hare, is the main international airport serving Chicago, Illinois, located on the city's Northwest Side, approximately 17 miles (27 km) northwest of the Loop business district. Operated by the Chicago Department of Aviation and covering 7,627 acres (3,087 ha), O'Hare has non-stop flights to 214 destinations in North America, South America, the Caribbean, Europe, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Oceania, and the North Atlantic region as of November 2022. As of 2022, O'Hare is considered the world's most connected airport.Designed to be the successor to Chicago's Midway International Airport, itself nicknamed the "busiest square mile in the world," O'Hare began as an airfield serving a Douglas manufacturing plant for C-54 military transports during World War II. It was renamed Orchard Field Airport in the mid-1940s and assigned the IATA code ORD. In 1949, it was renamed after aviator Edward "Butch" O'Hare, the U.S. Navy's first Medal of Honor recipient during that war. As the first major airport planned after World War II, O'Hare's innovative design pioneered concepts such as concourses, direct highway access to the terminal, jet bridges, and underground refueling systems.O'Hare became famous during the jet age, holding the distinction as the world's busiest airport from 1963 to 1998; today, it is the world's fourth-busiest airport for passenger counts, serving 54 million passengers in 2021. In 2019, O'Hare had 919,704 aircraft movements, averaging 2,520 per day, the most of any airport in the world in part because of a large number of regional flights. On the ground, road access to the airport is offered by airport shuttle, bus, or taxis by Interstate 190 (Kennedy Expressway), which goes directly into the airport. O'Hare serves as a major hub for both United Airlines (which is headquartered in Willis Tower) and American Airlines. It is also a focus city for Spirit Airlines.