The Ermenonville Disaster - Turkish DC10 Crash 1974

March 3rd 1974 - A fully loaded DC10 crashed into the Ermenonville forest outside of Paris. At the time it was the worst air disaster in history. A story of what happens when a corporation puts profits over safety. A tragedy which ended the lives of 346 people....and could easily have been avoided.
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[@theravenseye9443]

Third time is the charm? Re-Uploaded again..... KZbin's copyright checking systems seems really irrational at the moment. I am uploading first to a test channel to make sure they are OK - 10 days with no problems then upload onto this channel and the video gets blocked straight away? Very strange, and annoying for anyone watching or commenting. Oh well, let's see if tbis version can stay up...!!!

[@redriver4447]

My uncle, Bryce McCormick, was the Captain of the Detroit flight. They did a hell of a job getting the ship down, and even was able to keep the aircraft on the runway. My Dad also flew the -10, both my Uncle and my Dad like how the airframe flew, but it another example of compromises made in the rush of commerce.

[@kmacksb]

The plane involved in the Detroit incident was also not as completely crippled as the Turkish plane, as there were no passengers in the rear and the floor collapse wasn't as completely destructive. The pilots still deserve an enormous amount of credit for saving the aircraft, of course! But the Turkish pilots had absolutely nothing to work with; there was no way at all for that plane to be saved. :-(

[@robertjensen1048]

Long ago some guy wrote an entire novel about this crash. He said that the guys cleaning up after the crash picked up over 20,000 body parts. Given that there were 346 people on board, it means the average person was shattered into 57.8 pieces.

[@phrompluto]

I was only a kid when this happened but it had an effect on me and many others. My home town rugby team had been playing in a tournament in Paris. They had been eliminated and took a vote on whether to stay and watch the rest of the rugby or book a flight home early. They voted to go home and were on this plane. The town had a population at that time of around 25,000 and it was said that everybody there knew someone who was on this plane. My parents were selling our old house and our estate agent was on it. This story still gives me chills to this day.

[@tedsmith6137]

This accident had a wider effect. Boeing 747's were modified to have pop open vent grills in the bottom of the sidewalls and blowout panels in selected areas of the floor to allow safe cabin depressurisation in the event of a cargo door failure, even though the 747 control cables run above the cabin ceiling.

[@susanowen1709]

And once again money is saved while lives are lost. In some ways, I think this one was probably worse for the search & rescue teams than the victims; those on the plane had a few seconds of terror, then oblivion. The teams probably had PTSD/flashbacks for the rest of their lives (and as this was only in '74, a lot of them are likely to still be alive and dealing with the horror of it all). Another well-presented, respectful video.

[@SMSJSC]

I think this was the first time a wide-bodied jet went down, fully loaded, without survivors. Just the nightmare scenario the entire airline industry had been dreading would one day happen. And yet 346 deaths proved insufficient reason to deal with the problem properly. Quite extraordinary, really.

[@flankerroad7414]

Not all control was lost during Winsor incident; they were in bad shape but were able to land. The Turkish airliner had zero control....their lifelines were severed. During the investigation, an official described the locking design of the door as something worthy of Rube Goldberg. People ought to have been jailed for this.

[@leopold7562]

I was a kid growing up in the 70s and one of my enduring memories is the seemingly large number of air incidents involving the DC-10. It made me very fearful of flying on one to the point where I was also deeply mistrustful of the similarly designed, but considerably safer, TriStar. And yet I never had any issues stepping on a 707, probably the worst plane to ever exist!

[@TheBeingReal]

If you ever flew a DC-10 /MD-11 and noticed the round manholes in the cabin: these were added to prevent the floor from collapsing if the cargo door blew out. The ‘manholes’ would blow out…not the floor.

[@TheDoubleace191]

One more factor saved AA96, the loadfactor. The flight had much lower load of passengers and cargo and it was a big deal because although the cabin floor did collapse, it wasn't severe as the Turkish flight. As a result, some of the hydraulic lines were saved, helping the pilots a chance to save the plane, which they did...

[@barrydysert2974]

That's the thing about safety boards in the US. They can make recommendations all day long on ways to make a process or an airplane safer, but the administrative agency overseeing what ever it is has zero obligation to implement them. Once the politicians take over logic, science and reason leave the room.

[@Votrae]

Expertly well done as always. I'd heard of this before, but never so clearly guided and sensibly explained. Seriously. I appreciate your content so much!!

[@AiMR]

That re-enactment of the final words from the pilots had me on the edge of my seat!

[@ernestweaver9720]

My condolences to the families that lost loved ones. A tragedy that could have been avoided. So sad.

[@marvinstorm9153]

The most macabre event triggered by profit over safety. Tragic. RIP to those poor souls

[@kenharris5390]

The British newspaper, The Sunday Times Investigation Team, examined the whole aspect of the crash, from the aircraft design, construction and test pilot program, to the fatal flight.

[@MeredithMacArthur]

Loving your channel, dude. Well researched, well written, thorough visual documentation. Although I do love stories of (sometimes morbid) tragedies, many KZbin channels seem to be mostly interested in the macabre aspects of the cases they report. The personal touch you ad by letting the viewers know how the stories make you feel makes The Raven's Eye my favorite.

[@drumdad54sdl47]

Tastefully presented in a clear concise & eloquent manner.