This from Steve Redick:
Enclosed is a Division Marshal’s Consolidate Fire Report on the extra alarm for the crash of American Airlines flight 191. Every extra alarm resulted in this large format report being generated and some of these are really fascinating. They would account for the actions of every company at the fire along with other detailed information. Thanks to Hank Sajovic for sharing this.Steve
click to download
#1 by Danny on July 20, 2020 - 7:50 PM
yes the original assertion that the mounting bolt was broken was dispelled within a few days by the FAA metallurgist. as stated the airlines were removing 2 bolts to drop the entire engine and pylon versus removing several bolts to drop only the engine and the FAA said one time it was put on too fast and damaged the metal and the stress of the take off and landing cycles caused the metal to crack and spread till it finally failed and the engine flipped over the top of the wing on take off. here is a show they did on the accident.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4r2-0cjJbtQ
#2 by Chuck on July 20, 2020 - 7:44 PM
It wasn’t a faulty engine mount but a cracked mount coming apart from stress. It was found that multiple airlines were cutting corners in their maintenance processes when it came to removing and reinstalling engines on these aircraft. And acting lieutenants were a daily occurrence. This acting out of rank without compensation, along with poor manning, were two of the driving forces behind the strike less than eight months later.
#3 by John Antkowski on July 20, 2020 - 2:29 PM
My memory of that fateful day is unusual. I was in driving school with 2 other students and then the driver education teacher. We were starting lesson 5 which was driving on the highway. We had just got on when the began to report the tragedy. I don’t think we were able to see any smoke from Milwaukee. But I’ll never forget the day or our feelings of disbelief that something like could happen. Forty plus years I was 17 years old. I believe it was faulty engine mounts that lead up to the crash. They grounded all DC-10’s until the investigation was done. Different times. John
#4 by Fred M on July 20, 2020 - 2:21 PM
Bill, quite a few Acting Lt’s on the roster of Officers in Charge.
Also, ABC-WLS TV coverage has video of the 1A rig (SS-1) in the thick of the crash.
You Tube has Fahey Flynn & Joel Daley (remember them?!!) with breaking
news and Hugh Hill at the Oasis. You have probably seen this….
#5 by Bill Post on July 20, 2020 - 1:59 PM
Fred M, I didn’t really notice if there were any acting lieutenants. At the time we were watching live television news reports at Engine 108’s house at Lipps and Ainslie, Truck 7 and Battalion 21 were already there on a change of quarters.
I’m glad that you mentioned SS1 which was Chicago’s action company in those days. It turns out that only a few weeks after the Flight 191 crash on May 25th, SS 1 moved from 1044 N Orleans to Engine 42’s quarters on June 4 1979. SS 1 went out of on October 3rd 1980. It is ironic that the new Squad 1 eventually became a Snorkel squad and they are once again running out of Engine 42’s quarters.
#6 by Fred M on July 20, 2020 - 9:20 AM
Bill, I spoke to the crew of SS-1 and they said they were out the door before the
Box assignment. Also, did you notice the number of Acting Lt’s? That seemed like a lot.
#7 by crabbymilton on July 18, 2020 - 7:27 PM
Ok thanks I stand corrected. I was going by an article from some years ago that stated there was no marker.
#8 by Drew Smith on July 18, 2020 - 9:59 AM
If you use the search feature on this site and enter “191” you will be returned results on previous posts related to this tragedy. The two newest ones describe the 40th anniversary memorial held last year. The memorial is located about two miles east of the crash site at Des Plaines’ Lake Park/Lake Opeka.
If you go to Google Maps and enter “American Airlines Flight 191 Crash site, 320 W Touhy Ave, Des Plaines, IL 60018” you will be shown the crash site.
#9 by crabbymilton on July 18, 2020 - 9:24 AM
I was 14 and remember when it was on the news. I read up about it a few years ago and at that time, there is no memorial marker in that area. I guess they never got around to it and perhaps the families just remember in their own way.
#10 by Admin on July 18, 2020 - 9:08 PM
http://chicagoareafire.com/blog/2019/05/40th-anniversary-memorial-service-for-aa-flight-191-more/
#11 by Bill Post on July 17, 2020 - 12:20 PM
I was at O’Hare in the process of transferring buses when the airplane went down. I had just picked up my Bearcat 210 Scanner from a repair service about a mile south of the airport. That was before the CTA train went to O’Hare. I had just gotten on the bus and noticed some of O’Hare’s crash wagons (which were still red) heading west across the field. I saw a large plume of smoke coming from the northwest. At the time I thought it could have been burning tires or even some flammable debris. A few minutes after the bus turned onto the Kennedy Expressway, I saw Chicago engines going toward the airport. When I got off the bus at the Jefferson Park terminal, I walked one block south to Engine 108’s quarters at 4835 N Lipps. The house was open as there were some change of quarters companies arriving. They had the television on and the headlines were blaring about a plane that went down just northwest of the airport.
Believe it or not I still remember the companies that changed quarters to Engine 108 when I was there. Battalion 21 from Engine 28’s house on the southwest side had changed to Battalion 22 at Engine 108’s quarters and Truck 7 from 10 N Leavitt changed to Truck 23. Even though those change companies came from a long distance, in those days the CFD had certain companies they had a tendency to use more often then others as change of quarters companies. They also could have been coming from the fire academy since it was in late afternoon when the companies are released from refresher training.
It was a terrible tragedy when the plane went down in a trailer park. In addition to all 271 people aboard the plane being killed, two people on the ground died who were working at a repair garage. Ironically no one from the trailer park died but two were severely burned. It doesn’t seem like it but was 41 years ago.
#12 by F. Radek on July 16, 2020 - 8:15 PM
What a neat piece of history. My Dad (Bill Radek) talked about this event a few times. I have other reports that he did when he was a Lieutenant. I will have to copy this one and add it to them. Thank you for sharing!