Delta Air Lines Flight 191
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Delta Air Lines Flight 191 was an airline service from Fort Lauderdale, Florida's Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, bound for Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, California, by way of Dallas, Texas. On the afternoon of August 2, 1985, Flight 191 crashed at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, killing 8 of 11 crew members and 128 of the 152 passengers on board and 1 person on the ground.
The airplane used on that day was N726DA, a Lockheed L-1011, a staple on Delta's fleet. The flight was piloted by Captain Edward Conners, First Officer Rudolph Price and Second Officer Nick Nassick.
As the plane flew over Louisiana, a thunderstorm formed. The plane began its descent procedures over Louisiana, heading over the planned descent route. Captain Conners then recognized the forming thunderstorm and decided to change the plane's heading to give passengers a smoother ride.
At Dallas, weather was also poor and an updraft formed, as well as a powerful thunderstorm. Because the storm appeared in the shape of white clouds, it was almost impossible to detect for Flight 191's crew.
At about 1500 feet (460 m), First Officer Price reported seeing lightning in one of the clouds ahead of them.
At 800 feet (240 m) before landing, the plane started picking up speed, without the crew's intervention. Although it was supposed to land at 149 knots (276 km/h), it began to accelerate to 173 knots (320 km/h). Captain Price tried to stabilize the plane's speed, but Captain Conners had recognized the plane's speed movement was a sign of wind shear, and he warned Price to watch the speed. Suddenly, the plane dropped from 173 to 133 knots (320 to 246 km/h), and First Officer Price pushed on the throttles, giving the plane a temporary lift in speed. However, more trouble loomed when the plane suddenly dropped to 119 knots (220 km/h), and Captain Conners said "Hang on to the son of a bitch!"
As the First Officer tried to avoid a stall by pushing the nose down, the plane's vertical speed went up to 1,700 ft/min (520 m/min), and the crew expressed some expletives.
Delta Flight 191 landed on a field, then bounced back into the air before coming down again on top of a small Honda, crushing it and decapitating the 20 year old driver with its No. 1 engine. Seconds later, it slammed onto the ground just in front of the runway at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, hitting two 4 million US gallon (15,000 m³) water tanks and exploding in flames. Most of the survivors of Flight 191 were located in the tail section of the plane which broke off before the plane hit the water tanks.
It is thought that the wind shear may have been caused by a microburst. The crash of Delta Flight 191 was later the subject of a television movie called Fire and Rain.
See Also
External Links
- Cockpit Voice Recorder transcript (http://www.airdisaster.com/cvr/dl191tr.shtml)
- Accident photos (http://www.airdisaster.com/photos/dl191/photo.shtml)
- AirDisaster.com Special Report (http://www.airdisaster.com/special/special-dl191.shtml)