American Airlines flight 191

Having taken off from Chicago's O' Hare International Airport, the plane carried 270 passengers and crew for its flight that day. At 3:02 PM MST that fateful day, the plane was seen taking off.

Witnesses suddenly saw the plane throwing flames from its left engine. Eventually, the left engine fell and the plane lost its balance, turning towards the weakened left side of the plane in a 90 degree angle. Soon after, the plane fell to the ground, crashing into an apartment complex and blowing up, also costing the lives of 2 apartment residents, in addition to the lives of all in the airplane.

As it turns out, tower controllers had seen parts of the plane's left engine's pylon fall during the take-off, at 6,000 feet. As a consequence, the engine was ripped off the jet seconds later, and it ripped out all the hydraulic systems leading to the edge slats, and causing pressure to leak out.

The tower of control tried to clear off American flight 191 into an emergency landing, but Captain Walter Lux[?], First Officer James Dillard[?] and First Engineer Alfred Udovich[?] were occupied trying to make the plane stay on the air.

Many problems with DC-10s were discovered as a cause of the accident, including problems in the wings and engines areas. Since this tragedy happened just after a Western Airlines DC-10 had crashed in Mexico City and six years after a Turkish Airlines DC-10 crashed in Paris, the FAA quickly ordered all DC-10s to be stored until all problems were solved. The result of the problem solving was an arguably more efficient and safe DC-10.

The tragedy of May 25, 1979 in Chicago remains the largest single-aircraft air tragedy in United States history