And again the same noxious McDonnell Douglas culture of putting sales, profits and shareholders before engineering proffered deep into Boeing as well. Oddly the same culture at McDonnell Douglas then caused it to be merged with Boeing under the stewardship of Harry Stonecipher. In truth the problem haunted the aircraft for the rest of it's service life.

To ensure the latches were properly positioned, a handle rotated on the outside of the door pressed small metal pins into the latches if the latches were in an improper location the pins would not align and the handle would not close. To prevent this, a special latching system was used that locked shut the doors under pressure when properly closed. To maximize the working space within the cargo hold, the cargo doors opened outwards, making them vulnerable to being forced open at high altitudes under normal in-flight pressure. The cause in the failure of the crash occurred when an incorrectly secured cargo door at the rear of the plane burst open and broke off, causing an explosive decompression that severed the critical cables necessary to control the aircraft. Flight 981 was the deadliest plane crash in aviation history until 27 March 1977 (Tenerife). The crash was also known as the Ermenonville air disaster. As of September 2015, the DC-10 had been involved in 55 accidents and incidents, including 32 hull-loss accidents, with 1,261 occupant fatalities, The most ill-famed was the Turkish Airlines Fl 981 McDonnell Douglas DC-10 who operating the flight crashed into the Ermenonville Forest, outside Paris, killing all 346 people on board. This resulted in the cost savings on the design of the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 Series.

The culture within McDonnell Douglas towards the end of the reign of J ames Smith 'Mac' McDonnell, moved away from their famous engineering prowess to being lead by sales and profit. The MD-11 is of course a derivative of the McDonnell Douglas DC-10. The McDonnell Douglas MD-11 came into being with a huge legacy haunting over the aircraft. Aircraft Review : McDonnell Douglas MD-11 by RotateĪlthough created as passenger variant, the MD-11's biggest claim to fame or it's success is via it's continuing Cargo functionality.

Md 11 x plane 10