File:American Airlines Flight 96 - Landing Animation

Description
American Airlines Flight 96, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10 was a flight between Los Angeles and New York (LaGuardia) with two stopovers in Detroit and Buffalo on June 12, 1972 with 67 passengers and crew members on board.

The Incident: After a four hour flight from Los Angeles, at 6:36pm the plane landed in Detroit. The majority of passengers left the plane there, while only a small amount of people boarded the aircraft. Flight 96 departed Detroit at 7:20pm. 5 minutes after takeoff, the cargo door was ripped off in mid-flight causing a rapid decompression and the cockpit windows to be smashed. The crew flying the plane believed at first that the plane had been involved in a mid-air collision. Engine 2 failed, but the two other engines were still operating. The pilots were able to level off and stabilise the speed to 250 knots. The damaged aircraft returned for a safe landing in Detroit and there were no deaths on board. The accident was caused by a design flaw in the cargo door which didn't allow the door to be locked properly. It was also discovered that all DC-10s were at risk of this problem. McDonnell Douglas made small changes to the system, however this proved unsuccessful as the same thing happened again on Turkish Airlines Flight 981, killing all 346 people on board.

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