August Marked 37 Years Since Flight 191 Crashed in Dallas, Texas
August 2 marked a tragic day in commercial air travel. Delta flight 191 from from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Los Angeles, California was making it's regularly scheduled stop in Dallas/Fort Worth when it crashed on it's final descent.
One-hundred thirty-seven people died in the crash and miraculously 27 survived.
Delta Flight 191
Flight 191 was a Lockheed L-1011 which had been operational since 1979. It flew regularly from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Los Angeles, California. The lone stop in route was Dallas/Fort Worth. On August 2, 1985, there were 152 passengers on board and 11 crew members, three flight crew and eight cabin crew.
A very experienced was flying the plane that day. Flight 191's captain had been with Delta since 1954 and logged more than 29,000 flight hours while the flight's first officer had been with Delta since 1970 with more than 6,500 flight hours. The flights first engineer had also logged more than 6,500 flight hours since joining Delta in 1976.
August 2, 1985
Flight 191 left Fort Lauderdale shortly after 2pm and the crew was aware of the weather conditions in Dallas. On their approach to Dallas, they were told to change routes to avoid the storm, which they did. KVUE reports that upon descent while trying to land, Flight 191 encountered a weather event known as a microburst, which is a downward rush of air, that caused the pilots to lose control of the plane.
Here's the news report from WFAA:
Flight 191 would hit a passing car on Highway 114 killing the driver and ultimately going head first into a water tower just before the runway.
The following is raw video following the crash.
This video is from The Flight Channel and shows and animated recreation of the crash.
Changes in Aviation Following the Crash of Flight 191
Following the investigation, The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined that the crash resulted from pilot error, lack of training on how to deal with a microburst and lack of hazard information on wind shear. The Federal Aviation Administration would mandated that all commercial aircraft have on-board wind shear-detection systems.
The crash killed 137 people including 152 of the 163 passengers and 8 of the 11 crew members. The crash of Delta Flight 191 is the worse commercial aviation disaster in Texas history.