The catastrophic incident led to the deaths of all 346 on board, changing the aviation industry forever

NEED TO KNOW

• Turkish Airlines Flight 981 crashed in 1974 after a cargo door blew out, killing all 346 people on board
• Investigators found the cargo door was improperly latched, causing depressurization and structural failure mid-flight
• The tragedy led to new aviation safety regulations, including improved aircraft design to prevent similar incidents

A catastrophic plane crash in 1974 that tragically killed all 346 on board became a turning point in the aviation industry.

Turkish Airlines Flight 981 departed Istanbul on Sunday, March 3, 1974, and had a scheduled stop in Paris before heading to its final destination of London. The McDonnell Douglas DC 10-10 took off from Orly Airport in Paris around 12:30 p.m. local time, with 335 passengers and 11 crew members on board. 

About 10 minutes into the flight, after the aircraft was cleared to climb to 23,000 feet, the cockpit voice recorder suddenly captured a “noise of decompression,” followed by the co-pilot saying, “the fuselage has burst,” according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). 

The aft left-hand cargo door had blown out at this time and completely detached from the plane, causing the “pressurization aural warning” to sound, per the FAA. 

Due to the vast pressure difference between the cargo bay and the passenger cabin, the floor directly above the cargo hold collapsed, causing six passengers to be sucked out of the aircraft. 

The pilots then began to lose control of the plane after the horizontal stabilizer and elevator control cables were completely severed, while the thrust control on one of the engines was also lost.

As the aircraft pitched nose down, the speed of the plane began to increase from 360 knots to 430 knots while simultaneously turning nine degrees to the left. Despite two of the other engines being throttled back, the crew could not regain control of the plane, leading the DC-10 to ultimately crash into the Ermenonville forest northeast of Paris.

All on board were killed in the crash. Eight miles from the crash site, six bodies were found along with parts of the plane’s fuselage, according to the FAA. 

Per the agency, an investigation of the accident revealed that the cargo door was “not properly latched and locked” before takeoff, which was likely “made possible by the characteristics of its design.”

This caused the cargo door to unexpectedly blow out, leading to the sudden depressurization and detachment of the floor in the passenger cabin.

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While tragic, the accident led to a number of safety initiatives that changed the aviation industry for the better, including regulations to aircraft design that would prevent the possibility of depressurization, per CNN.

According to the FAA, among the airworthiness directives (AD) issued included one that “was applied to all wide bodies in service at the time.” The directive (AD 75-15-05 R1) “mandated modification to improve the capability of the passenger and crew compartment floors to withstand, without collapse, an in-flight depressurization caused by the sudden opening of a large hole in the fuselage.”

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