Nation: Debacle of the DC-10

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Disturbing long-range questions about the worst air disaster in U.S. history

We are a little uneasy. We have no handle on this one yet. Was it aging metal in a high-time machine? Was it stress? And what kind of stress? Was it quality control of the metal? And if we find out, what kind of fix can we ask to have made? We don't know.

Those worried—and worrisome —comments came last week from a member of a band of experts who normally know all the answers: the National Transportation Safety Board's "go teams" of plane-crash investigators. Over the years they have been able to pinpoint a "probable cause" in 97% of all U.S. air accidents. Yet even these legendary investigators remained in doubt about the precise cause of the worst U.S. air tragedy in history—the crash of an American Airlines DC-10 jumbo jet near Chicago's O'Hare International Airport on Memorial Day weekend that killed 275. While the experts hunted for both a cause and a cure, 138 DC-10s in the U.S. and 132 more around the world were grounded. As the airlines using DC-10s lost an estimated $5 million a day, the public developed new doubts about the industry's vaunted competence and, equally important, the ability of its federal regulators to protect travelers against disaster.

After vacillating for twelve days, Federal Aviation Administrator Langhorne Bond last week issued an "emergency order of suspension" that indefinitely lifted the design certificate of the DC-10s in the U.S. The grounding was voluntarily followed by all but one airline outside the U.S. (Venezuela's Viasa, which uses five DC-10s). A total of 41 airlines that normally carry 60,000 passengers a day on the $40 million plane built by the McDonnell Douglas Corp. had suddenly lost key portions of their fleets. The initial result was confusion and tedious delays in airport terminals as travelers scrambled to get seats on other flights and airlines struggled to shift their available aircraft to plug the gaps left by the grounded planes. The crisis created turmoil in an industry that depends heavily upon the public's overcoming any fear of flying. What was more, the events clouded the financial future of McDonnell Douglas (see box).

There have been few heroes in the distressing developments since the accident. The primary issue throughout has been why the left engine on the three-engine jetliner literally took off on its own as the 120-ton airplane was rising from the runway at O'Hare. The four-ton engine, exerting a thrust of 40,000 Ibs., had ripped away with the pylon that attached it to the wing. Climbing, the engine apparently tore into the wing, severing at least two of the three hydraulic pressure lines embedded near the forward edge. The loss of the engine, its hydraulic pumps and the hydraulic lines that power vital controls rendered the craft uncontrollable.