Memorial To Honor Victims Of American Airlines Flight 191
DES PLAINES, Ill. (CBS) -- The crash of American Airlines Flight 191 in 1979 was the deadliest non-terror related airplane disaster in U.S. aviation history.
As WBBM Newsradio's Lisa Fielding reports, 32 years later, a memorial is set to be mounted to honor those who lost their lives in the crash.
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On May 25, 1979, the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 took off for what was to be a flight to Los Angeles International Airport. During takeoff, the left engine and pylon assembly and about 3 feet of the left wing separated from the plane and came crashing down to the runway.
The plane kept rolling to the left until it was flying sideways and the wings were vertically oriented, and the nose was pointed toward the ground, according to the official accident report.
The plane crashed into an open field off Touhy Avenue in Elk Grove Township, and wreckage scattered onto a trailer park nearby. The aircraft burst into flames on the ground, and everyone aboard died.
The Daily Herald reports the memorial will be a curved stone wall Lake Park in Des Plaines, measuring 2 feet high and 75 feet in length. The names of all 271 passengers and crewmembers, and the two people on the ground who were killed, will be listed on the memorial, the newspaper reported.
The memorial will rise within the next month behind a flower planter at Touhy Avenue and Lee Street, along with a plaque describing the crash, a tree and landscaping, and maybe a bench, the Daily Herald reported.
The memorial will be officially unveiled on Oct. 15.
