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Chicago Air Crash
Chicago Air Crash
Chicago Air Crash
Vital statistics
Series Seconds from Disaster
Title Chicago Air Crash
Airdate November 29, 2006
Disaster American Airlines Flight 191
Date May 25, 1979
Kind Air and Space
Nature Faulty Maintenance, Metal Fatigue, Hydraulic Fluid Loss
Fatalities 273

Chicago Air Crash is the 41th episode of Seconds from Disaster and search how the worst single-plane crash in the United States occurred.

Plot[]

American Airlines Flight 191, a DC-10, takes-off from Chicago's O'Hare Airport. As the aircraft lifts off the runway the engine breaks free from the left wing and flies over and behind it, smashing onto the runway and leaving a gash in the wing leading edge. A leak of hydraulic fluid from the damaged wing leads to loss of hydraulic pressure, in turn causing the left wing slats to retract, depriving that wing of lift. The resulting asymmetric condition of the wings causes the DC-10 to roll rapidly to the left, becoming almost inverted. It crashes into a trailer park, killing all on board plus two on the ground. The cause is found to lie in time- and money-saving maintenance methods adopted by the airline, with the non-redundant design of the controls operating the DC-10's flying surfaces being a contributing factor.

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