_Airport,_NY,_USA.jpg) N103AA, the aircraft involved in the accident in June 1991 | |
| Accident | |
|---|---|
| Date | June 12, 1972 |
| Summary | Cargo door failure leading to rapid decompression |
| Site | Airspace above Windsor, Ontario |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10 |
| Operator | American Airlines |
| IATA flight No. | AA96 |
| ICAO flight No. | AAL96 |
| Call sign | AMERICAN 96 |
| Registration | N103AA |
| Flight origin | Los Angeles International Airport Los Angeles, California |
| Stopover | Detroit Metropolitan Airport Detroit, Michigan |
| Last stopover | Buffalo Niagara International Airport Buffalo, New York |
| Destination | LaGuardia Airport Queens, New York City, New York |
| Occupants | 67 |
| Passengers | 56 |
| Crew | 11 |
| Fatalities | 0 |
| Injuries | 11 (2 crew, 9 passengers)[1] |
| Survivors | 67 |
American Airlines Flight 96 (AA96/AAL96) was a regular domestic flight operated by American Airlines from Los Angeles to New York via Detroit and Buffalo. On June 12, 1972, the left rear cargo door of the McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10 operating the flight blew open and broke off above Windsor, Ontario, after takeoff from Detroit, Michigan; the accident is thus sometimes referred to as the Windsor incident, although according to the NTSB it is an accident, not an incident.[2]
The rapid decompression in the cargo hold caused a partial collapse of the passenger compartment floor, which in turn jammed or restricted some of the control cables which were connected to various flight control hydraulic actuators. The jamming of the rudder control cable caused the rudder to deflect to its maximum right position. The control cables to the number two engine in the tail were severed, causing that engine to shut down.[1] There was no rupture of any hydraulic system, so the pilots still had control of the ailerons, the right elevator, and the horizontal stabilizer. Because the right elevator cable was partially restricted, however, both pilots had to apply back pressure on the yoke for the landing flare. Additionally, the approach and landing had to be made at high speed to prevent the sink rate from becoming too high. The tendency to turn right was offset by using 45 degrees of left aileron, combined with an asymmetrical thrust of the two wing engines. In spite of the partial restriction of the controls, the pilots managed to return to Detroit Metropolitan Airport and land safely, with no major injuries.[3]
The cause was traced to the cargo door latching system, which had failed to close and latch the door completely without any indication to the crew that it was not safely closed. A separate locking system was supposed to ensure this could not happen but proved to be inadequate. McDonnell Douglas instituted a number of minor changes to the system in an attempt to avoid a repeat. These were unsuccessful, however; on March 3, 1974, the rear cargo door of Turkish Airlines Flight 981 experienced the same failure and blew open, causing the aircraft to lose all control and crash in a forest near Paris, France. This crash killed all 346 people on board, making it the deadliest in aviation history until the 1977 Tenerife airport disaster and the deadliest single-aircraft crash until the 1985 crash of Japan Airlines Flight 123.[3]
- ^ a b Cite error: The named reference
NTSBwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Faith, Nicholas (1996). Black Box: The Air-crash Detectives - why Air Safety is No Accident. London: Boxtree. pp. 157–158. ISBN 978-0-7522-1084-1.
- ^ a b Ranter, Harro. "ASN Aircraft accident McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10 N103AA Windsor, ON". aviation-safety.net. Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved July 6, 2020.