Deadliest Plane Crash In US History: American Airlines 191 From Chicago

May 25th, 1979, near Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, marks one of, if not the deadliest, aviation accident in US history.

Nearly 46 years ago, this disaster claimed the lives of 273 people, with 258 being passengers, 13 crew members, and 2 individuals on the ground. This is the deadliest aviation accident in US history.

Deadliest Plane Crash In US History: American Airlines 191 From Chicago

Around 3:05pm at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, American Airlines flight 191 was scheduled a regular domestic passenger flight to Los Angeles, California.

As they're gaining speed down the runway, an air traffic controller witnessed one of the engines detach, flip over the wing, and crash onto the runway.

What happened next is unbelievable and very tragic.

The engine that had broken off, however, had severed hydraulic lines that controlled leading-edge slats designed to lower a wing’s stall speed, ripped a section from the front of the wing, and disabled instruments that would have informed Lux of the precise situation. Hydraulic fluid drained away, wing slats retracted, and the unbalanced DC-10 cartwheeled and slammed into a building after being aloft for just 31 seconds and attaining an altitude of only 325 feet (99 m). [Britannica]

As a result of the fiery crash, all 258 passengers and 13 crew members aboard the flight were killed on impact.  Plus, 2 car mechanics on the ground were also killed at the crash site.

The crash was so massive that debris flew over to a nearby trailer park.

What caused the plane to crash?

During an engine change, months prior to this flight on May 25th, 1979, a mounting pylon had been damaged by a forklift.

This American Airlines plane was a three-engine McDonnell Douglas DC-10 Jet.  Multiple fatal accidents involving DC-10 jets had occurred within a short time span of this crash, which led to all DC-10's to stop operations until maintenance was improved, and design flaws were refined.

These were the cockpit crew on board: Captain Walter Lux (53), First Officer James Dillard (49), and Flight Engineer Alfred Udovich (56).

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Watch more about this tragic plane crash below.