American Airlines Flight 96 was a regular McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10 flight operated by American Airlines. The flight suffered a cargo door failure on 12 June 1972 while flying over Windsor, Ontario; it is thus sometimes referred to as the Windsor incident. The rapid decompression in the cargo hold caused a partial collapse of the passenger compartment floor, which in turn ruptured hydraulic lines, pulled the rudder control cable to its maximum r...
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American Airlines Flight 96 was a regular McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10 flight operated by American Airlines. The flight suffered a cargo door failure on 12 June 1972 while flying over Windsor, Ontario; it is thus sometimes referred to as the Windsor incident. The rapid decompression in the cargo hold caused a partial collapse of the passenger compartment floor, which in turn ruptured hydraulic lines, pulled the rudder control cable to its maximum right position, and severed controls to engine number two (the tail engine) leading to serious problems operating the aircraft. In spite of losing almost all control, the pilots were able to make a safe landing at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport with no major injuries.
The cause was later traced to the door latching system, which had failed to close completely. A separate locking system was supposed to ensure this could not happen, but proved to be underdesigned. McDonnell Douglas instituted a number of minor changes to the system to...
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