Assignment#2

Airline Maintenance and Management

Submitted by:

Muhammad Adan Riaz-(F2017001003)

Submitted to:

Sir Furqan Hussain

Institute of Aviation Studies

University of Management and Technology, Lahore

 Conclusion
American Airlines Flight 191 was a scheduled commercial flight from O'Hare
International Airport in Chicago to Los Angeles International Airport. The aircraft used
was a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10. On May 25, 1979, the aircraft crashed into an
open field in Des Plaines, Illinois. All 271 people (258 passengers and 13 crew
members) on the flight were killed. Two people on the ground were killed and five others
were hurt. The crash was caused by the loss of one of the engines, which caused
damage to the left wing. The loss of the engine happened because of bad maintenance
to the aircraft that had been done eight weeks before the crash.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) found that as the aircraft was

beginning its takeoff rotation, engine number one (the left engine) separated from the
left wing, flipping over the top of the wing and landing on the runway. As the engine
separated from the aircraft, it severed hydraulic fluid lines that lock the wing's leading-
edge slats in place and damaged a 3-foot (0.9 m) section of the left wing's leading edge.
Aerodynamic forces acting on the wing resulted in an uncommanded retraction of the
outboard slats. As the aircraft began to climb, the damaged left wing with no engine
produced far less lift (stalled) than the right wing, with its slats still deployed and its
engine providing full takeoff thrust. The disrupted and unbalanced aerodynamics of the
aircraft caused it to roll abruptly to the left until it was partially inverted, reaching a bank
angle of 112°, before crashing in an open field by a trailer park near the end of the
runway. The engine separation was attributed to damage to the pylon structure holding
the engine to the wing, caused by improper maintenance procedures used at American
Airlines.