American Airlines Flight 96

American Airlines Flight 96 was a flight operated by American Airlines. The flight was operated with a McDonnell Douglas DC-10. On 12 June 1972, the flight went into explosive decompression after a cargo door was blown out from the airplane. This incident occurred near the city of Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Because the incident occurred near the city, this incident is sometimes referred to as the Windsor Incident.

American Airlines Flight 96

An American Airlines DC-10-10, sister aircraft to the one involved in the accident.
Accident
Date	12 June 1972
Summary	Cargo door failure due to design flaw leading to rapid decompression
Site	Airspace above Windsor, Ontario
Aircraft
Aircraft type	McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10
Operator	American Airlines
Registration	N103AA
Flight origin	Los Angeles International Airport Los Angeles, California
Stopover	Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport Detroit, Michigan
Last stopover	Buffalo Niagara International Airport Buffalo, New York
Destination	LaGuardia Airport Queens, New York City, New York
Passengers	56
Crew	11
Fatalities	0
Injuries	11 (2 crew, 9 passengers)
Survivors	67 (All)

The incident was caused because of the cargo door. The cargo door was blown out of the plane because the locks of the cargo door failed. When the locks failed, the cargo door blew out and caused rapid decompression in the cargo area of the airplane. This caused the collapse of part of the passenger section of the airplane, which in turn led to some problems with the controls of the plane. The rudder of the airplane was jammed to the right, and cable controls to the second engine were separated. Luckily, no hydraulics were broken. Despite having little control of the airplane, Captain Bryce McCormick was successful in landing the airplane at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport. After the incident, McDonnell Douglas, the maker of the aircraft, made minor changes to the locks of the cargo door. These changes would prove to be not successful with the crash of Turkish Airlines Flight 981. The crash was caused by exactly the same reason as this incident.

Related pages

• Turkish Airlines Flight 981