Engineering Disasters: Cracked Fitting Brings Down DC-10

[drawoh]

Design News has been doing articles lately on engineering disasters. This one tells how a cracked fitting brought down a DC-10. A forklift was involved. There is a discussion in the article about how designers have to take stuff like this into account.

There are all sorts of articles on fork lifts here on Eng-Tips, with this, thread507-374957, being the most recent.

--
JHG

 

[JohnRBaker]

Yes, I remember that incident. If I recall correctly, the airline (I think is was American Airlines) got it's arse sued from here to Sunday for not following the proscribed procedure for lifting and positioning an engine while it was being reattached to the pylon.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Digital Factory
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[IRstuff]

1979 was a bad year for DC-10s. I think there were 3 crashes, two, including the Chicago flight, where all passengers were lost, while the third killed a substantial number of people. I think that was also the year that a foreign airline paid for their plane with barter. We got cans of 5 lb ham for several major holidays.

TTFN
faq731-376

Need help writing a question or understanding a reply? forum1529

Of course I can. I can do anything. I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

 

[Hoxton]

I don't know about further DC10 incidents in 1979, but there was the infamous crash of a Turkish Airlines DC10 in 1974. The cargo door opened outwards and was not like a passenger door which is a plug door (the door being smaller than the aperture).

Thus the latches are critical in securing the door. The latches were not secured correctly and the door opened during ascent.

The pressure difference between the passenger cabin and the cargo bay caused the rear section of the floor to collapse. Unfortunately the engine and flight control cables ran under the floor and were severed. The pilots could not control the plane and it crashed into a forest north of Paris.

 

[JohnRBaker]

Yes, I remember the deal on the canned hams. They were Danish hams as the airline was Scandinavian Airlines when they bought some of the new MD-80's.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Digital Factory
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[JedClampett]

I lived in Chicago in the 70's and 80's. I left work early that day and went to the dentist that day and still remember a plume of smoke on the northwest horizon (I live south and east of the airport). I never did figure out if it was the plane or not. It still creeps me out.
The other rememberance I had was that immediately after the crash, they said it was a cargo plane. I guess when the firemen put out the fire, there were no signs of people in the plane.