40th Anniversary Memorial Service for AA Flight 191 (more)
A short video from the 40th Anniversary Memorial Service for American Airlines Flight 191
This story comes from Drew Smith:
Back in 1979, part of the area where Flight 191 crashed was home to several Quonset huts that once belonged to Orchard Field, the old airport that gave O’Hare its "ORD" code. One of those huts housed Andy’s Auto Repair. I ran Lee’s Brake and Clutch, an auto parts and machine shop in Des Plaines, and Andy was a regular customer. I used to make deliveries for my dad, and on that fateful day, he had even made a trip to Andy just hours before the crash.
Fast forward to 2009, the year my father passed away. While cleaning out the shop, my brother showed me an old invoice hanging on a clipboard—something we used for our delivery records. It brought back a flood of memories from that day. As a high school senior, I had been involved with the Fire Cadet program at High School District 214, run by the Mount Prospect Fire Department. Back then, we could practice with our own Gear and help out at local stations. But this time, there was nothing left after the main fire died down.
The crash site fell within the Elk Grove Township Fire Protection District, which had only just started operations in January of that same year—less than six months in service. I was passing by DPFD Station 3 (now Station 63) when I saw the emergency response numbers: 61, 71, and 81 were all still in their quarters. At first, I thought it might be another tank farm fire, like the ones we’d seen in the late '70s. But as I turned onto Mount Prospect Road and got closer, I realized it wasn’t a tank fire. The smoke was unlike anything I’d ever seen.
I pulled up near the Chicago Police Department's K-9 facility on Touhy Avenue, just across from the crash site. I parked on the opposite side of the road and took in the scene. The ARFF units from O’Hare—back then they were called CFR, or Crash Fire Rescue—were coming fast. They barely slowed as they drove through the chain-link fence surrounding the K-9 station and began discharging their fire suppressant. When the smoke cleared, the area was a scorched wasteland. The Quonset huts, vehicles, and most of the plane were reduced to rubble. Only a few large parts of the aircraft remained. I won’t describe what I saw of the human remains, but it was deeply unsettling.
I still have that original invoice tucked away with other keepsakes from my father’s shop. I never figured out why he kept it on the wall for so long. It’s a strange reminder of a day that changed so many lives.
Interestingly, there was another Flight 191 crash in 1985 at DFW Airport, Texas. In that incident, 27 of the 164 passengers survived.
Double Cylinder Engine Camshaft
Double Cylinder Engine Camshaft,Double Cylinder Engine,Double Cylinder Diesel Engine,Single Cylinder Engine Diesel
Taizhou Hongxiang Power Machinery Co.,Ltd , https://www.hxcamshaft.com