Known as the "Ermenonville air disaster", from the forest where the aircraft crashed, the accident resulted in the deaths of all 346 on board. When the arm of the latch actuator is fully extended, the hinge is pushed over-center, and the only way to bend the hinge back the other way is to retract the actuator arm. Mr. Peter Graham McDonald, 35, married, two children, professor and his wife Wendy, 34 Furthermore, Hurt believed that McDonnell Douglass lack of action to fix the floor meant that they were waiting for an excuse to make Convair pay for it. On 3 March 1974, the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 operating the flight crashed into the Ermenonville Forest, outside Paris, killing all 346 people on board." Mr. Mitsuo Yano, 23, bank management trainee Miss Patricia Margaret Rogers, 46, company 4irector Therefore, a failure of the hatch that resulted in a collapse of the floor could impair the controls. One of these accidents undoubtedly occurred on Turkish Airlines flight 981. American Airlines flight 96 touched down at high speed on its main landing gear, but within seconds the DC-10 began to veer to the right, rumbling off the runway and across the grass, headed straight for a cluster of airport buildings. On 3 March 1974, the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 operating the flight crashed into the Ermenonville Forest, outside Paris, killing all 346 people on board. Discover Boeing 777-300 ER Here is state-of-the-art passenger comfort above the clouds for you. The locking system was mechanically upgraded to prevent the handle from being forced closed without the pins in place, and the vent door was altered to be operated by the pins, thereby indicating when the pins, rather than the handle, were in the locked position. There were no survivors in the accident. The solution, in Applegates mind, was to make sure McDonnell Douglas changed the design of the floor as quickly as possible. Miss Martine Poisson, 18, student The incident investigators discovered that the rod connecting the pins to the handle was weak enough that it could be bent with repeated operation and some force being applied, allowing the baggage handler to close the handle with his knee in spite of the pins interfering with the torque tube flanges. Mr. Mark Dunsford Dottridge, 31, writer After the crash of Flight 981, the latching system was completely redesigned. Changes had also been made to the warning light switch, so that it would turn off the cockpit warning light even if the handle was not fully closed. Mr, Nigel John Norcliffe Roberts, 24, wine merchant Mr. John Steven Backhouse, 43, married, three children, insurance agent (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});
. Among the British passengers were members of an amateur rugby team from Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, who were returning from attending a Five Nations match between France and England and trade union leader James Conway. But before the office could finish drafting even this first most insignificant directive, Jackson McGowen, president of the Douglas division of McDonnell Douglas, telephoned FAA Administrator John Shaffer in order to intervene. The young nurses and paramedics who joined the search certainly thought they were going to be treating survivors. Mr. John Winston Winterton, 63, married, three children, industrialist and his wife Winifred, 61, company director The DC-10 operating this flight was less than a year old and was in excellent condition. Mr. Ernest John Gri0n, 42, married, five children, engineer Mr. Carlo Alberto Fontana, 38, married, one child, engineer This was in fact the most pressing concern for the NTSB, because while the cargo door was certainly dangerous, it was the collapse of the floor that was likely to lead to the loss of the airplane in such an event, and indeed the crew of flight 96 had only escaped disaster by the thinnest of margins. All the pilots fought with everything they had to pull out of the dive, but all their controls were useless; there was nothing they could do. If the latches were not properly closed, the pins would strike the torque tube flanges and the handle would remain open, visually indicating a problem. After an extended and chaotic boarding process, ground crews prepared flight 981 for departure shortly after noon. The DC-10 plowed through the trees for the better part of a kilometer, disintegrating utterly as it went, carving out a hellish trail of shattered pine trees, riven soil, and pulverized metal. Miss Franqoise Pauly, 26, teacher Mr. Graham Cecil Levet, 18, grain trading trainee Dan Applegate was Director of Product Engineering at Convair at the time. The crash was caused when an improperly secured cargo door at the rear of the plane broke off, causing an explosive decompression which severed cables necessary to control the aircraft. [3] This meant that after the explosion, the aircraft was uncontrollable.[3]. Mr. Junichi Goto, 23, bank management trainee The aircraft hit the tree tops at about 434 knots (500 mph; 800 km/h) at a negative 4 degree pitch angle; the wings broke up, spilling and igniting fuel, exploding and killing the remaining 340 passenger and crew on board on board. Although Convair informed McDonnell Douglas of the potential problem, Douglas ignored these concerns, because rectification of what Douglas considered to be a small problem with a low probability of occurrence would have seriously disrupted the delivery schedule of the aircraft, and caused Douglas to lose sales. Mr. Anthony Price, 39, businessman Mr. Robert Arthur Milne, 36, married, compositor and his wife Pauline, 35, design artist Upon closing the DC-10s cargo door, hook-shaped latches attached to the bottom of the door grasp round latch spools attached to the doorframe. Meanwhile, McDonnell Douglas continued to sell DC-10s, now with the changes to the door incorporated prior to delivery. Miss Danielle N Guyen Thi, 22, student, , May they rest without remorse May my deed change the way we fly Bruno Druesne. The NTSB's investigation into Flight 96 found that the handlers had forced the locking handle closed, in spite of the fact that the latches had not engaged fully because of an electrical problem. Among the passengers was Dr. Wayne Wilcox, a cultural attach of the Embassy of the United States in London, his wife, and two of his four children. The plane that crashed as Flight 981, TC-JAV, or "Ship 29", had been ordered from McDonnell-Douglas three months after the service bulletin was issued, and was delivered to Turkish Airlines another three months after that. The cargo door design flaw, and the consequences of a resulting in-flight decompression, had been noted by Convair engineer Dan Applegate in a 1972 memo. The control cables for the rear control surfaces of the DC-10 were routed under the floor. But the worst did not come. The case should have been open and shut, the resulting design changes uncontroversial. Mr. Mario Jorge de Souza Castanon, 26, architect Only later that day did airport officials inform police and the press that the actual number of people on board was at least 344. The plane was diving ever more steeply toward the ground, spiraling downward faster and faster, hurtling toward the fields, forests, and villages below. Iberia, British Airways IB-3811 | IB-3176 | BA-848 . Mr. Oktay Cebeci, 35, electronics engineer The plane had landed at Orly Airport, Paris, where it was to drop off a group of passengers and continue on its way. This created a pressure differential between the cabin and the hold which amounted to several tons per square meter, a force that the floor was not designed to withstand. (A few such vents already existed for air circulation purposes, but they were too small to handle an explosive decompression.) With the morbid stoicism of an experienced police officer, he duly noted the presence of a pair of hands, detached from their owners, but apparently still clasped in a final embrace. The aircraft left Orly at 12:32 pm, bound for Heathrow. Miss Susan Mary Burn, 23, secretary The aircraft almost immediately attained a 20-degree, nose-down attitude, and started picking up speed, while Captain Berkz and First Officer Ulusman struggled to regain control. Select a . A dense, white fog filled the plane as water vapor instantly condensed out of the air. Mr. John Patrick McClinton, 26, sales representative Mr. Patrick John Hutton, 43, married, physicist and his wife Anne Elizabeth, 40, secretary When the locking pins were in place, any rotation of the latches would cause the torque tube flanges to contact the locking pins, making further rotation impossible. May they rest without remorse May my deed change the way we fly , Memorial to the Crew and passengers ofTC-JAV, Association of Families of the Victims of Flight THY-98, Comments / Commentaires sur la catastrophe, Pour les visiteurs souhaitant soumettre des documentations, des commentaires ou crer un contact avec les familles de victimes, merci de cliquer ici. The pilot in command was Nejat (or Mejat) Berkoz, age 44, a former Turkish Air Force pilot and had a total of 7,783 flight hours, and has been with Turkish Airlines for six years. Instead, the hatch was designed to open outward, allowing cargo to be stored directly behind it. But while Lockheed wanted the L-1011 to advance the state of the industry and introduce radical new technological concepts, McDonnell Douglas preferred to stick with what it already understood: dont try anything that hasnt been tried before, and get it done quickly. However, Mahmoudi had not been instructed about the purpose of the indicator window; he had been told that as long as the door latch handle stowed correctly and the vent flap closed at the same time, the door was safely latched. Mr. Takashi Kamiya, 24, bank management trainee If the hinges are not over-center, the locking pins will run into flanges on the hinges and come to a stop, preventing the handle from moving to the locked position. Mr. Takashi Ogura, 22, trading company management trainee However, the depressurization of the cargo hold would not have been catastrophic were it not for one critical side effect. Mr. Ahmet Oral, 27, student However, the Aircraft was just past 11,000 feet (3,300 meters) when an explosion sounded from the cabin. Nor could it have been done the stamps were dated July 18th 1972, before any instructions for the repair had even been drafted. Mr. Ivor John Bradley, 46, married, two children, marketing director It turned out that the sheer number of passengers probably made the difference between a repeat of the Windsor incident and the total disaster which actually occurred. Miss Sukran Mihlar, 17, student Germanwings Flight 9525 was a scheduled international passenger flight from Barcelona-El Prat Airport in Spain to Dsseldorf Airport in Germany. Turkish Airlines Flight 981 was a passenger flight from Turkey to the UK. Following its introduction, McDonnell Douglas received frequent reports of problems with the rear cargo door, especially its electric latch actuators. Furthermore, the instructions on the plane regarding the indicator window were printed in English and Turkish, but Algerian-born Mahmoudi, who was fluent in three other languages, could read neither of these. (981 kilometers). And Turkish Airlines seemed like the easiest place to begin. B. The DC-10 began to flight smootly with the effect of the speed, but they had lost too much altitude. Of course, he could not have known that the consequences would be fatal. In keeping with its overall design philosophy, Lockheed devised an ingenious system that turned the rear cargo door into a semi-plug door. Pour les visiteurs souhaitant soumettre des documentations, des commentaires ou crer un contact avec les familles de victimes, merci de cliquer ici All rights reserved, aviation related posts, aviation pioneers and aviation accidents, 12 November 1996 Charkhi Dadri Mid-air Collision, Japan Airlines Flight 123 12th August 1985, Pegasus Airlines Flight 8622 Trabzon Turkey, Airports of Germany and Numbers Between 2015-2021, Martinair Flight 138: Sri Lankas Deadliest Airplane Crash, Lauda Air Flight 004: The Plane That Exploded Mid-Air, Korean Airlines Flight 007: The Shootdown, China Airlines Flight 140: The Deadly Go-Around, Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 17 July 2014, Nine Eleven The Greatest Tragedy in Aviation History, United Airlines Flight 718 & TWA Flight 2: The Grand Canyon Mid-air Collision 1956, Germanwings Flight 9525: A Horrid Tragedy, Tenerife Airport Disaster 27 March 1977. Mr. Mustafa Serafettin Ozturk, 41, married, three children, office worker Mrs, Bessie Yietoria Brown, 55, married, one child, traffic warden It looks like were going to hit the ground! Berkz shouted. To this day, this is the deadliest incident on French soil and the fourth deadliest accident in the history of civil aviation. 53, and their daughter Alejandra Maria, 15, student, AUSTRALIAN Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for TURKISH AIRLINES B777 PROFILE SERVICES BROCHURE 2013 ROUTE MAP A330 B737 at the best online prices at eBay! incomplete application of Service Bulletin 52-37; incorrect modifications and adjustments which led, in particular, to insufficient protrusion of the lock pins and to the switching off of the flight deck visual warning light before the door was locked; the circumstances of the closure of the door during the stop at Orly, and, in particular, the absence of any visual inspection, through the view port, to verify that the lock pins were effectively engaged, although at the time of the accident inspection was rendered difficult by the inadequate diameter of the view port. In the case of a plug door, this actually seals the door more tightly. This was especially problematic given that the mechanism was extremely weak, and the torque tube would bend under as little as 80 pounds (355 Newtons) of force, well within the capability of the average human. After all, if Lockheed captured this new market, McDonnell Douglas would probably cease to exist; everything thus depended on the success of the new plane: the DC-10. But in this case, the engineer who the FAA had assigned to certify the vent door was the same man who had conducted the tests of the door on behalf of McDonnell Douglas. Mr. Abel Roger Donnat, 21, assistant personnel manager Mr. Robert Anthony Breton, 33, married, three children, accountant At 11:02 that morning, Turkish Airlines flight 981, a regular DC-10 service from Istanbul to London via Paris, arrived at Orly Airport with a load of 167 passengers. Mr, Michael Frederick Townshend, 43, bank manager He accelerated the engines back to full power, but the number two engine in the tail refused to respond. Mrs. Sarah Elizabeth Rosher, 71, widow, one child, merchant and Mrs. Roshers daughter Mrs. Sarah Elizabeth Sykes, S2, widow, one child Miss Linda Woods, Z7, commercial artist Mr. Robert James Gillman, 21, trainee print buyer Her companion, who had herself been thrown to the ground by the force of the blast, came to her aid, and together they managed to scramble to safety. The English rugby team took an Air France Boeing 727 instead of the doomed aircraft. The Flight and The Accident. To turn left, the ailerons increase the angle of attack of the right wing and reduce the angle of attack of the left wing, causing the right wing to generate more lift and turn the plane. Nevertheless, McDonnell Douglas told Turkish Airlines that the modifications to the door were complete, and the work cards for both tasks were stamped by McDonnell Douglas inspectors, even though the work was not done. Mr. Ronald Mark Sanders, 46, married, one child, jewelry representative and his And unless major systemic improvements are made, such as drastically increasing funding for FAA oversight, such a sequence of events may yet happen again. See airlines, aircrafts, flight time and distance, flight schedules and timetables. What happened? he shouted. Mr. William Claude Dack, 39, married, three children, sales manager The terrifying result of the mis-rigging is, however, well-established. Everything that wasnt tied down rushed toward the back of the plane, where, to the immense horror of the cabin crew, a gaping hole had opened in the floor, through which clouds could be seen hurtling past at great speed. But then, thinking quickly and without waiting for instructions, First Officer Peter Whitney increased reverse thrust on the left engine while simultaneously moving the right engine to forward thrust, causing the plane to veer back to the left. Employees at British European Airways had gone on strike in order to secure higher pay ahead of a planned merger with BOAC, and all across Europe, passengers who had been scheduled with BEA were making their way to Paris to find a flight, any flight, back to London. Flight TK70 Reg: TC-JJU. The pilots, Captain Nejat Berkz, First Officer Oral Ulusman, and Flight Engineer Erhan zer, had no idea what hit them. The Most Deadly Plane Crash in History- Turkish Airlines Flight 981 | by Chronicler | Lessons from History | Medium 500 Apologies, but something went wrong on our end. But American Airlines had requested an electric actuator because it was lighter and easier to maintain, so McDonnell Douglas acquiesced. He also had flown the Fokker F27 and the McDonnell Douglas DC-9. As every policeman and firefighter in Senlis rushed into the Ermenonville Forest, Lannier didnt know what to expect. Technological advances were able to eliminate most of these problems, though. Dirt and dust blasted upward into McCormicks face, temporarily blinding him. After a while, the plane started giving an overspeed warning. Most probably someone had attempted to extend the lock tube but simply twisted it the wrong way. But as he held down the button to drive the latch actuator, the voltage dropped and the actuator stopped before the hinges could move over-center. (Four survived JAL 123, as did 61 from Pan Am 1736 on Tenerife.). Mr. Junze Kato, 22, trading company management trainee Less than two years later, on March 3, 1974, a sudden, forceful blowout tore through Turk Hava Yollari (THY) Flight 981 from Paris to London. No one, not even the experienced police captain, could have been prepared for what they actually found. Mr. Rasiklal N. Kothary, 40, married, one child, textile industrialist Mr. Ashok Ramanlal Shah, 37, married, three children, industrialist, MOROCCAN By: Jeremy Barnes, Jennifer Marino, and Manny Rodriguez-TurellProblem IdentificationOn March,3, 1974, just outside of Paris, France, Turkish Airlines flight 981 crashed due to the decompression of the cargo door, killing all 346 passengers. if it had crashed with 11 crew and 117 passengers being lost, not 11 crew and 335 passengers or would the 215 fewer passengers have made a difference? Additionally, the FAA ordered further changes to all aircraft with outward-opening doors, including the DC-10, Lockheed L-1011, and Boeing 747, requiring that vents be cut into the cabin floor to allow pressures to equalise in the event of a blown-out door. As the National Transportation Safety Board began its investigation, their first priority was to examine the cargo door to understand why it had come open. Mr. Malcolm Harry Jackson, 29, married, three children, fashion buyer Mr. Mose Uziyel, 24, married, one child, chemical engineer and his wife Rasel, 24, and their daughter Liat, 9 months The cabin blew out! First Officer Ulusman exclaimed. Mrs, Jessica Emma Maney, 64, married, one child, merchant and her sister-in-law A McDonnell Douglas DC-10, flying as American Airlines Flight 96, had experienced an explosive decompression in the aft cargo hold in June 1972. via Tirana 3h 50. Mr. Yoshiro Kumexawa, 23, bank management trainee choose Qatar Airways, which departs at 09:25 The last flight for this route is Vueling, Turkish Airlines, departing at 22:40 Zagreb Airport . Technically this might have been true, but it missed a rather more salient point: that a door which could fail violently, possibly resulting in the loss of the airplane, if one lowly mechanic deviated slightly from proper procedure, was quite simply an accident waiting to happen. The plane was a 1-year-old Mcdonnell Douglas DC-10. Many. Ground personnel had to latch the doors manually using a crank. Mr. Tomo-o Ishikawa, 23, trading company management trainee [7], Other passengers included Dr. Wayne Ayres Wilcox, a cultural attach of the Embassy of the United States in London, his wife Ouida Rae (Neill) Wilcox, and two of his four children, as well as 48 Japanese university graduates who were touring Europe, and planning to join Japanese firms after their tour. It took a painstaking inquires into twenty-one countries to produce the full catalog of victims. Mr. Tadaharu Sakat, 22, bank management trainee . Mr. Bryan Graham Ellis, 3S, married, two children, company director It was normally the duty of either the airliner's flight engineer or the chief ground engineer of Turkish Airlines to ensure that all cargo and passenger doors were securely closed before takeoff. Turkish Airlines Flight 981. The First Officer was Oral Ulusman, age 38, he had been with Turkish Airlines for five years at the time of the accident, with a total of 5,589 flight hours. Captain Berkz tried to pull up, but there was no response. Mrs. Vildan Yardimci, 24, married, civil servant [2] An investigation after the crash found out that one of the cargo doors at the rear of the aircraft was not properly closed and secured. There are no survivors.. To avoid bankruptcy, the company agreed to a purchase offer from the McDonnell Aircraft Corporation, a prominent defense contractor which promised to shake up the management and get the production lines rolling again. Mr. Ronald William Delaney, 47, married, three children, merchant Mr. Halil Bengi, 26, married, one child, merchant and his wife Yildiz Saime, 24, rcceptionist Mr. Wayne Ayres Wilcox, 41, married, four children, cultural affairs officer and Miss Lucie Ludmilla Loubenzow, 26, secretary When the door blew off, the primary as well as both sets of backup control cables that ran beneath the section of floor that was blown out were completely severed. To verify this Passenger list, you can visit the website aerosteles which provides a detail of the monument. [12] The memo was written after American Airlines Flight 96, another DC-10, had a rear cargo door failure identical to the one that occurred on Flight 981, causing an explosive decompression. The day I awoken, I grieved for my soul. Mr. David George Scott, 27, bakery worker Turkish 981 air crash civil aviation disasters PSA 182 Delta N3305L United 173 Eastern 401 Turkish 981 BEA 548 Capitol N4909C KLM 4805 / Pan Am 1736 Air New Zealand 901 It was March of 1974 and British European Airways ground crews had gone on strike. Due to their shape, when the latches were in the proper position, internal pressure on the hatch did not place any torque on them that could cause them to open; they actually seated further onto the pins. 38 passengers were Japanese university graduates who were touring Europe and were planning to join Japanese firms after the end of their tour. While designing their respective airplanes, McDonnell Douglas and Lockheed took very different approaches to this problem. What Is SID Standard Instrument Departure . 44 passengers and four crew members came from Turkey. And then, like thunder out of a clear sky, a powerful explosion rocked the plane. Turkish Airlines Flight 981 was a regular flight operated by Turkish Airlines, from Istanbul to London Heathrow, with a stopover in Paris. Mr. Hiroshi Tsuchiya, 23, bank management trainee Mr. Graham Milton Wood, 37, married, three children, insurance broker and his wife Margaret Rosemary, 33 The lock tube was nearly 8mm short of the correct position, which meant that the locking pins only partially overlapped the flanges even at full extension, instead of passing beyond them. Mr. Kenneth Christopher Doran, 60, married, retired air force officer and his wife Phyllis Gertrude, 52, two children Mr. Masaki Imazeki, 23, bank management trainee All 346 passengers were killed upon impact (ASN, 2008). . For Visitors willing to post documentations or to create links between families in the idea of establishing a living Association. An Airworthiness Directive was immediately issued by the Federal Aviation Administration (FFA),[3] calling for strengthening the load floor and control cables. Mrs. Isobel Kennedy Griffin, 52, widow, two children, shop assistant The plane began to descend and fall rapidly. Somehow, Turkish Airlines flew this plane for 15 months without the cargo door coming open in flight. The day after the crash, French investigators were made aware of the fact that most of the cargo door, various chunks of the cabin floor, several seats, and the bodies of six Japanese passengers had been found in a farmers field near the village of Saint-Pathus. Similarities to American Airlines Flight 96, The reason the control cables were not completely severed on. The latch of the DC-10 is a study in human factors, interface design, and engineering responsibility.