Plane Door Gets Ripped Off Mid-Air | American Airlines Flight 96

On the 12th of June, 1972 , American Airlines flight 96, a McDonnel Douglas DC10-10, suffered a sudden depressurisation when its rear cargo-door detached inflight over Windsor, Ontario.
This explosive failure partly disabled the aircrafts flight controls as well as one engine. The Pilots and Cabin-crew managed to get the stricken aircraft down safely on the ground, saving everybody onboard.
In this episode I will explain what happened and WHY.

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Below you will find the links to videos and sources used in this episode. Enjoy checking them out!
DC-10 Cabin @Den14


DC10 Schematic @Daryl Carpenter

DC10 Cabin: @Wolodymir Nelowkin

DC10 Lounge: @FlyerTalk

DC10 Door Image: @raildriverpone

Schematic: @Bruno Druesne

Schematic: @Bruno Druesne

DC-10 American: @Frank C. Duarte Jr.

Schematic: @Bruno Druesne

DC-10 Cockpit: @Nigel Musgrove

Oxygen Masks: @ 17crossfeed

DC-10 Cockpit: @Eric Salard

Cabin Crew: @ Keith Lovegrove

AD Example: @FAA via Twitter

Service Bulletin @FAA

00:00 – Intro
01:05 - Chapter 1: Flight Overview
02:18 - Chapter 2: DC-10-10 Door Design
06:23 - Chapter 3: The First Leg
07:45 - Chapter 4: Clearance / Takeoff
11:28 - Chapter 5: Emergency Landing
16:28 - Chapter 6: How did this Happen?
20:30 – The Final Chapter: Conclusions
22:42 – Exclusive Nord VPN Offer!
23:38 – Outro (with special message)

[paullievens]

My father was on AA Flight 96. He, and I assume, the other passengers, used to get a Christmas card from Capt. Bryce McCormack every year.

[MrFlamingpride]

That DC-10, man... So many accidents with so many different causes. I can't believe even a piece of metal from one ended up destroying and decommissioning the Concorde! What a cursed aircraft!!!!

[emaguire]

Absolutely crazy that the mandate to fix these problems on the DC-10 was reduced to a “service bulletin”, especially considering just 2 years later Turkish Air Flight 981 crashed because of the exact same cargo door problem. 346 people died.

[andriiperevodchyk]

These stories sound much more relevant from you than from any TV show with tense music and sensational language. Thanks for doing this series!

[esphilee]

This is much better than those Discovery Channel’s documentary. Concise, informative, straight to the point, most of all, no repeating the same sentence over and over again for 1 hour.

Thank you.

[robertsmelt]

A British friend of mine worked for McDonnell Douglas for 17 years. He said the problems started when they stopped listening to engineers and let accountants drive the engineering. Friend was pretty senior, in charge of 400 staff.

[ronhunt]

I knew Captain McCormick and had the honor of flying First Officer for Captain Page Whitney many times on the 727 - both great individuals and fantastic pilots! Great factual video!

[TimothyChapman]

One of my tech teachers had this saying "you can force it in wrong, but you can't put it in wrong" (referring to computer parts that are plugged into the motherboard). I believe that it equally applies here. Having to force the door closed should have been a huge red flag. But I'm glad that everyone got off the plane alive.

[RealEngineering]

Great video. Loved the engineering elements

[dbackscott]

You posted earlier wondering if these types of videos are worthwhile. I’m a civil engineer in my “day job.” A lot of the safety developments, advancements in professional ethics, and discoveries about material/structural behavior, etc. have come from studying and discussing accidents and disasters. Some examples that immediately come to mind are the Kansas City Hyatt walkway collapse, the Challenger space shuttle explosion, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge failure, the Winter Park Florida sinkhole of 1981, and various dam failures. These and many more were all talked about at length during my university engineering courses.

[dougrobinson]

I am amazed at how cool you pilots are when something catastrophic happens. I remember the woman pilot when the 737 engine exploded. She was so cool. She said as long as you have altitude and options things will be ok.

[barryboos]

I’m a very, very nervous flyer who loves aviation. I’ve flown in gliders, I started my PPL, I’ve been flying since I was 2 months old. Then, out of nowhere, I developed an extreme phobia. I didn’t fly for 7 years. Now I can, and do, but I still need anti anxiety meds. These videos are incredibly helpful for me. I have a solid amateur knowledge of aviation, but seeing how even super unlikely events trigger re-engineering, re-training and new processes is incredibly reassuring. They’re also a fascinating watch! Thank you 😊

[Tommyr]

I have no idea why I love these aircraft accident/incident videos so much. I always love when a new one gets uploaded.

[agentcrm]

Moral of the story, if you have to brute force a latch. There's probably something wrong.

[qwpz]

This is so much more facts and less "crap" and "drama" than Mayday/Air crash investigation. I love it!

[helenamondragon]

I love that you always acknowledge the work of the cabin crew in these videos :) Another great one!

[CodeZero]

My favorite videos are about air incidents where everything ends up ok for the people onboard. I love to learn about how planes work and what can go wrong. But it is so depressing when people focus only on deadly incidents. Thank you for making these videos, they make me a much less anxious traveler and help a lot with quarantine boredom!

[porthose]

Using the asymmetric reverse thrust after touchdown is a strategy I'd not heard of before. Brilliant!

[vartsn]

24000 hours total flying time, what a legend!

[WingingItCrypto]

The craziest thing about this accident is the fact that it could've been avoided entirely if the mechanic had taken the issue seriously