American Airlines Flight 191 Research Paper

On Friday, May 25, 1979, American Airlines Flight 191 took off from Chicago-O’Hare International Airport on a routine trip to Los Angeles International Airport. Just 30 seconds into flight, the airplane, a McDonnell-Douglas DC-10 aircraft, began to stall, which resulted in a nose dive and the aircraft crashed into an open field just 4600 feet northwest of the end of the runway. Weather conditions on the day of the flight were clear, with visibility reported up to 15 miles. The investigation into the failure determined the crash was caused by a damaged pylon assembly. The crash resulted in loss of life for the 271 people on board and 2 on the ground.

During the takeoff of Flight 191, the engine and pylon assembly separated from the left wing, and fell onto the runway. This separation ripped out electrical and hydraulic systems in the left wing. The electrical system in the left wing controlled the captain’s flight director instrument, stall warning system and slat disagreement warning lights. The hydraulic lines and follow up cables of the drive actuator for the left wing’s outboard leading edge slat were severed, and the slats retracted during climb out. This caused an asymmetric stall and subsequent loss of control of the aircraft. Because of the loss of slat disagreement light and loss of the stall warning system, the flight crew never received warning of the stall. …show more content…
The length of the fracture was determined to be approximately 13