8 weeks before May 25th, 1979, American Airlines Flight 191 was in for maintenance. American Airlines saved time by using a shortcut to safe procedures, and ended up damaging the pylon and developed cracks. On May 25th, 1979, at 3:02, American Airlines Flight 191 took of from runway 32R at Chicago O'Hare airport. The pylon gave way, and the engine swung upwards, damaging hydraulics, electronics and a whole chunk of the wing. The speed was reduced to V2, standard procedure at the time, but the worst thing you could do now. The slats were forced to retract but by the wind, and the airplane lost lift. Alarms gave way, and no-one knew the slats were retracted and couldn't extend them before the hydraulics ran out. The airplane went into a stall, with the alarms broken, and went out of control. It went spiralling down to earth, with no survivors.
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Fatal Occurrences: Book One
Non-FictionFatal Occurrences is a series explaining Aircraft Disasters. Book 1 reports the fatal occurrences that took place during the flight of American Airlines Flight 191 on May 25th, 1979.
