Top 10 deadliest airline disasters (2/10)

The explosion caused by the crash.[Photo/wikipedia.org]

No.9 American Airlines Flight 191 Year:1979

Fatalities: 273 Survivors: 0

Deadliest airline accident on the US soil occurred when McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10 crashed on May 25, 1979, moments after takeoff from Chicago. All 258 passengers and 13 crew on board were killed, along with two people on the ground. The last maintenance on this particular aircraft, which was carried out eight weeks before the disaster, had damaged the pylons attaching one of the engines to the plane. As the airplane began its takeoff from O'Hare, that engine broke off from the aircraft and fell back onto the runway, taking a large section of the left wing with it, cutting electrical systems, and spilling hydraulic fluid, which controlled some mobile parts of the wing. Debris was thrown into a nearby trailer park, destroying several trailers and cars and an old aircraft hanger, as well as severely injuring several people on the ground and killing two. The crash left the model with a bad safety reputation, despite being generally a safe plane.