FLIGHT191: Death Fell from the Sky In Chicago

The crash that killed 273 people in 1979 left behind more than twisted metal and broken lives — it left behind restless spirits that refuse to stay silent.

The Perfect Day for Flying

May 25, 1979 started as a beautiful holiday weekend in Chicago. The sun shone brightly over O’Hare International Airport as hundreds of travelers moved through the busy terminals. Among them were passengers boarding American Airlines Flight 191, bound for Los Angeles. Many were Chicago literary figures heading to the annual American Booksellers Association conference, looking forward to their trip to the West Coast.

The aircraft waiting for them was a McDonnell-Douglas DC-10, considered one of the finest planes in the sky. This particular model had flown more than 20,000 hours without any major problems since leaving the factory. The crew assigned to the flight was equally impressive. Captain Walter Lux had been flying DC-10s for eight years, since they first entered service. First Officer James Dillard and Flight Engineer Alfred Udovich brought nearly 25,000 combined flight hours of experience to the cockpit.

At 2:59 p.m., the control tower cleared Flight 191 to begin taxiing to the runway. Three minutes later, the massive aircraft started its takeoff roll down the tarmac.

When Metal Failed

Everything appeared normal as Flight 191 accelerated down the runway. The tower controller watched the plane pick up speed, preparing for what should have been a routine departure. Then, about 6,000 feet down the runway, something went terribly wrong.

The controller saw pieces of the left engine pylon breaking away from the aircraft. White vapor began streaming from the area around the engine. As the plane reached rotation speed and lifted its nose to take off, the entire left engine and its mounting pylon tore completely away from the wing. The massive engine assembly flipped up and over the wing before crashing back down onto the runway.

The tower controller immediately tried to contact the aircraft. “American 191, do you want to come back? If so, what runway do you want?” No response came from the cockpit.

For a few terrifying moments, Flight 191 continued climbing normally despite losing its left engine. The plane dipped its left wing briefly but seemed to stabilize. Then, at about 300 feet above the ground, the aircraft began banking to the left. What started as a slight turn quickly became a sharp roll. The nose dropped and the left bank increased until the wings went past vertical. The plane fell toward the earth like a stone.

Fire and Death

The left wingtip struck the ground first. The sound of tearing metal filled the air, followed immediately by a massive explosion. A rushing ball of fire swept across the field, traveling about half a mile northwest of O’Hare Airport. The burning wreckage roared into an abandoned hangar at the old Ravenswood Airport site on Touhy Avenue, just east of a mobile home park.

The blazing aircraft crossed mostly open ground during its final moments. It narrowly missed fuel storage tanks on Elmhurst Road and the crowded Interstate 90 expressway. Two people on the ground died in the crash, and several mobile homes suffered damage. All 258 passengers and 13 crew members aboard Flight 191 died instantly. The total death toll reached 273 people, making it one of the deadliest aviation disasters in American history.

The Investigation

The crash stunned the entire country and raised serious questions about the safety of DC-10 aircraft. How could the loss of a single engine cause such a catastrophic failure? The National Transportation Safety Board launched an extensive investigation to find answers.

On December 21, 1979, investigators released their findings. The cause of the crash traced back to damage that occurred at an American Airlines maintenance facility in March 1979. The left engine had required routine maintenance, and to save time and money, American Airlines made a fateful decision. Without approval from McDonnell Douglas, the airline instructed mechanics to remove the engine and pylon as a single unit instead of following the manufacturer’s recommended procedure.

The maintenance crew used a large forklift to support the engine during removal. This procedure proved extremely difficult to execute properly because the engine assembly had to remain perfectly straight throughout the process. The slightest misalignment could cause structural damage, and that’s exactly what happened. A small crack formed in the pylon’s bulkhead during the maintenance procedure.

After the accident, investigators found similar cracks in the bulkheads of many other DC-10s that had undergone the same unauthorized maintenance procedure. The fracture in Flight 191’s pylon went unnoticed for weeks, growing slightly worse with each flight. During the takeoff on May 25, the forces generated finally caused the weakened pylon to fail completely.

Visitors from Beyond

Within months of the crash, strange reports began reaching the Des Plaines police department. Motorists driving past the crash site called to report seeing mysterious white lights bobbing across the field where Flight 191 had gone down. Officers initially assumed the lights belonged to morbid souvenir hunters searching the wreckage with flashlights.

Police patrols responded to these calls repeatedly, often arriving at the scene within minutes of receiving reports. Each time, they found the field completely silent and empty. No people, no flashlights, no explanation for the lights that witnesses continued to see.

The reports from residents of the nearby mobile home park proved even more disturbing. Many of these accounts began within hours of the crash itself. Residents described hearing knocking and rapping sounds at their doors and windows, especially during the evening and nighttime hours. Those who responded to the sounds — including several retired and off-duty police officers and firefighters — opened their doors to find empty porches and silence.

Dogs throughout the trailer park began displaying strange behavior that lasted for months. They would bark endlessly at the empty field where the plane had crashed, despite their owners finding nothing that could explain their agitation. The animals seemed to sense something their human companions could not see or hear.

The Restless Passengers

As weeks passed, the supernatural activity escalated beyond mysterious lights and unexplained sounds. Residents reported hearing footsteps approaching their trailers, followed by the metallic clanging of someone climbing the metal stairs to their doors. Doorknobs rattled and turned as if invisible hands were trying to enter.

Some encounters involved actual apparitions. Several residents opened their doors to find worried-looking figures standing on their porches. These mysterious visitors would explain that they “had to get their luggage” or “had to make a connection” before turning and vanishing into the darkness. The figures appeared solid and real until the moment they disappeared.

One particularly detailed account came from a man walking his dog near the crash site one evening. A young man approached him, requesting to use a phone for an emergency call. The dog walker noticed something unsettling about the stranger — he reeked of gasoline and appeared to be smoldering, as if smoke was rising from his clothing.

The dog owner assumed the man had been running in the chilly night air and steam was rising from his warm body. He turned to point toward a nearby phone booth, but when he looked back, the mysterious figure had completely vanished. The man had heard stories from other local residents about moans and strange cries coming from the crash site, but he had never believed them until his own encounter.

An Ongoing Mystery

The tragedy and subsequent supernatural reports drove many original residents away from the mobile home park. New residents who moved in to replace them soon began experiencing the same unexplained phenomena. The pattern of strange lights, mysterious sounds, and ghostly encounters continued for years after the crash.

Local residents reported hearing moans and otherworldly cries emanating from the 1979 crash site, sounds that seemed to carry the anguish of those who died so suddenly and violently. The field where Flight 191 met its end became a place that even skeptics approached with caution, especially after dark.

The crash of American Airlines Flight 191 stands as a reminder of how quickly tragedy can strike, even on the most beautiful days. The tiny crack that formed during an unauthorized maintenance procedure grew into a catastrophe that claimed 273 lives in a matter of seconds. Whether the reported supernatural activity represents the restless spirits of those who died or simply the power of grief and trauma to shape perception remains an open question that continues to intrigue those drawn to the unexplained.

Source: American Hauntings Ink

NOTE: Some of this content may have been created with assistance from AI tools, but it has been reviewed, edited, narrated, produced, and approved by Darren Marlar, creator and host of Weird Darkness — who, despite popular conspiracy theories, is not an AI voice. (AI Policy)