How This Plane Earned A Dangerous Reputation: The DC-10 Story

The odds of being in a flight accident are almost small, besides the ratio is 1 in a million. So why do people fear getting on a DC-10 airliner? Even so, some called it a “death trap”. We are going to look into the dangerous DC 10 flight journey along with its accidents. After all, human lives are not to be taken so lightly right!

Mc Donald Douglas aircraft (DC-10) company created the passenger airlane in 1971. It was a jet engine plane with 2 class capacity of 350+ passengers seats.

Introduction of DC-10

McDonald Douglas aircraft company created the passenger Airplane. It was introduced as a bigger aircraft in the year of 1971. In addition, it was a jet engine airliner with a two-class capacity of more than 350 passenger seats.

Notably, DC-10 promised a greater gas capacity as well as a cost-effective airliner. Surely, it seemed like an ideal passenger airplane for middle-class people.

Apart from that, the DC 10 had big windows and even bigger cabin space. You could say that the DC-10 set a new trend in passenger Airplanes. It had a quiet journey, providing customer comfort at such a low price. 

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DC-10 won the race with Lockheed

DC 10 aims to give an all-new flight experience okay! Likewise, another flight giant Lockheed was looking to create a three jet engine airliner.

Yes, both of the aircraft companies were creating the same type of aircraft.

Lockheed L-1011 Tristar

Lockheed had created the L-1011 Tristar with the latest technology. It came with a higher price, also Lockheed couldn’t manage those costs. Thus, it delayed the production of a three jet engine passenger aircraft.

DC-10

DC 10 won the competition of making a low-cost three jet engine airliner. Believe it or not, the passenger flight became popular for its quiet travel experience.

Importantly the DC 10 aircraft did not pay much attention to flight technology. However, the aircraft company had prior experience in making the same kind for years. You see it was not its first try, moreover, it focused on simplicity.

The successful DC-10 airliner came out as a surprise to all. It was a people pleaser along with big quiet cabins for air travel.

Short term success

You know what! All that success remained for a short time. Unfortunately, the DC-10 flights were involved in a lot of crashes in the 1970s. Many lives were killed in those incidents. People’s lives should not be taken for granted right!

The DC 10 flight’s faulty design is to be blamed. The McDonald Douglas company should have thought twice before making such a rash decision. Particularly, It compromised flight safety for a low cost. Don’t you think?

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Painful flight accidents

The DC 10 has quite a reputation for its accidents. Could you trust that it had a total of 55 flight accidents? Following that, the DC-10 airliner had 9 hijackings!

The US air authority grounded the DC-10 flight

American Airlines flew the DC-10 from LA to New York in 1972. Suddenly, one of the cargo doors opened in the air and blew off.  The US had the right to ban the DC 10 flights from entering their country. Yet it still was flying in other countries.

Blackmark

The Turkish airlines flew the airliner with a total of 346 people. The plane lost its control and also fell in the outer region of Paris. All the people who traveled on the flight were dead. That made it a black mark on DC-10’s history in 1974.

Faulty flight

The DC-10 flight crashes were caused by a lot of things. The cargo doors were opened in the middle of air travel. Another fault was unbalanced pressure on the cabin floors. The others were maintenance issues.

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Break off

It flew lastly as a passenger Airplane in the year 2014.

Furthermore, the DC-10 plane has been flying as a shipment plane to date.

Conclusion

The DC-10 was a bad example of a passenger aircraft, wasn’t it?

People even feared getting on a plane after the DC 10 flight tragedies.

That should not be the case right! The DC 10 is a failure without a doubt. It would have been better if the airliner stopped flying before it took many lives.

Read for more information about MC Donnell Douglas DC-10.

Get to know more about the Lockheed aircraft, You can see this video How This Plane Earned A Dangerous Reputation: The DC-10 Story:

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