Chicagoist: The Friday Flashback: American Airlines Flight 191

homofascist

Tue, 27 May 2008 11:25:20 -0600

I took my first flight ever (I was 3) 3 days after that crash. From O'Hare. On a DC-10. I of course don't have much of a memory of that, but apparently my mom and grandmother were extremely nervous and almost canceled the trip...

Smokes

Sun, 25 May 2008 11:08:58 -0600

@happygrl, you took the words out of my mouth. I was in 3rd grade, and was staying after school for cub scouts, then the news came in, we could see the smoke in the distance. This was in Glen Ellyn. ...chills....

Scooter Libbby

Sat, 24 May 2008 10:27:14 -0600

The Trib ran a letter on Friday from a guy who wrongly wrote that it was a United flight that crashed. The Trib must have pulled it from their website out of embarrassment that none of their editors caught the mistake & ran a correction on P2 of Saturday's paper.

sumsinnow

Sat, 24 May 2008 05:46:56 -0600

Was this the crash that ended up behind a mobile home park? Right next to the Kennedy Expressway?

sasper

Fri, 23 May 2008 17:05:50 -0600

I had never heard about this (born in 1984), and now I'm going to be nervous for my weekly ORD -> LAX flights every Monday morning.

quint

Fri, 23 May 2008 14:53:39 -0600

I remember that as well. I was living in California at the time but we were back here visiting my dad. I was too young to remember everything about that day. What I can tell you is to this day this is the only flight I ever missed.

happygrl

Fri, 23 May 2008 13:44:48 -0600

I was in 2nd grade when that tragedy occurred. I remember walking home from school in Arlington Heights and seeing the smoke. It was awful and made me scared to get on a plane.

georgia222

Fri, 23 May 2008 13:17:16 -0600

May 25th, 1979 is a day I'll never forget. My family moved into a high rise that day, and from our window, you could see the smoke still rising up from O'Hare. I remember the chilling black box recording: "Flight 191, would you want to land, and if so, which runway would you like?" "Damn." BTW, Larry Fink Memorial Park in Highland Park was dedicated to a young man killed in that crash.