American Airlines Flight 191

Once upon a time, a big airplane called American Airlines Flight 191 was getting ready for a super long trip from Chicago to sunny Los Angeles. It was a busy afternoon, and the plane was packed with people excited for their vacation or to see family. The airplane was a McDonnell Douglas DC-10, a really big plane that could carry lots of passengers.

It was ready to zoom down the runway and soar into the clouds.

As the plane started to speed up for takeoff, something unexpected and very serious happened. The left engine, which is like the airplane's super-strong leg that helps it fly, came right off the wing! It was like a toy car losing a wheel, but much, much bigger and scarier. This made the airplane hard to control, and it couldn't fly like it was supposed to.

Because the engine fell off, the airplane couldn't stay in the air. It crashed very close to the airport, in a field. Sadly, everyone on the plane, and a couple of people on the ground, were hurt. This was a very sad day for aviation, and it's the deadliest plane accident that ever happened in the United States. It made people think a lot about how airplanes are built and fixed.

After this accident, super smart people called investigators looked very carefully at what happened. They figured out that the engine fell off because of how it was attached to the wing. It was like a part wasn't put back on perfectly after it was fixed. This helped everyone learn how to make airplanes even safer so that sad accidents like this don't happen again.