TURKISH AIRLINES FLIGHT 981
On March 3, 1974, Turkish Airlines Flight 981 crashed into the Ermenonville Forest, outside Paris, France, killing all 346 people on board. The crash remains the deadliest airline disaster in France, and is the world's deadliest air disaster involving the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 aircraft.
The Flight 981 was a scheduled international passenger flight from Istanbul Yeşilköy Airport to London Heathrow Airport, with an intermediate stop at Orly Airport in Paris. The captain was Nejat Berköz, who had 7 000 hours of flying experience. The first officer was Oral Ulusman, who had 5 600 total flight hours to his credit, and the flight engineer was Erhan Özer with 2 120 hours of flying experience. The aircraft involved was a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10, registered as TC-JAV.
Flight 981 departed from Istanbul at 7:57 am local time and landed at Paris Orly International Airport at 11:02 am local time, after a flight time of just over four hours. The aircraft was carrying 167 passengers and 11 crew members on its first leg, and 50 of these passengers disembarked in Paris. The aircraft was refueled and baggage was loaded onto the plane.
The flight's second leg, from Paris to London, was normally underbooked, but due to a strike by British European Airways employees, many London-bound travelers, who had been stranded at Orly, were booked onto Flight 981. An additional 216 passengers embarked, and the planned turnaround time of one hour was delayed by 30 minutes.
The door of the aft cargo compartment on the left-hand side was closed at about 11:35 am. When all preparations were complete the flight received permission to taxi to runway 08 at 12:24 pm. Four minutes later the crew were cleared to line up for departure and were cleared for departure route 181 and an initial climb to flight level 40. The aircraft took off at 12:32 pm in an easterly direction, before turning north. Shortly after takeoff, Flight 981 was cleared by Orly Departure to climb to flight level 60, which was reached at 12:34 pm. The North Area Control Centre then cleared the aircraft to climb further to flight level 230, and the aircraft started turning west towards London.
At approximately 12:40 pm, just after the aircraft passed over the town of Meaux, the rear left cargo door blew off and the sudden difference in air pressure between the cargo area and the pressurized passenger cabin above it, caused a section of the cabin floor above the open hatch to separate and be forcibly ejected through the open hatch, along with six occupied passenger seats attached to that floor section. When the door blew off, all the horizontal stabilizer and elevator control cables routed beneath the floor were severely disrupted. Also the engine two power was lost almost completely. The flight data recorder showed that the throttle for engine two snapped shut when the door failed. The loss of control of these key components resulted in the pilots losing control of the aircraft entirely. The aircraft turned 9 degrees to the left and pitched nose down. The aircraft almost immediately attained a 20-degree pitch down and began picking up speed, while pilots struggled to regain control. As the plane's speed increased, the additional lift raised the nose again. At a left bank of 17 degrees the aircraft crashed into the trees of Ermenonville Forest, a state-owned forest at Bosquet de Dammartin in the commune of Fontaine-Chaalis, Oise, 37 km northeast of Paris. At the point of impact, the aircraft was traveling at a speed of approximately 800 km/h, and the plane disintegrated into thousands of pieces. Of the 346 passengers and crew on board, only 40 bodies were visually identifiable, with rescue teams recovering some 20 000 body fragments in all. Nine passengers were never identified.
The accident was the result of the ejection in flight of the aft cargo door on the left-hand side. The underlying factor in the sequence of events leading to the accident was the incorrect engagement of the door latching mechanism before take-off. The characteristics of the design of the mechanism made it possible for the vent door to be apparently closed and the cargo door apparently locked, when in fact the latches were not fully closed and the lock pins were not in place.
NOTABLE AVIATION ACCIDENTS AND INCIDENTS