Dallas - Frankfurt

On May 21, 1988 at 04:12 PM, Dallas - Frankfurt experienced a crash involving Douglas DC-10, operated by American Airlines, with the event recorded near Dallas-Fort Worth Texas.

The flight was categorized as scheduled revenue flight and the reported phase was takeoff (climb) at a airport (less than 10 km from airport) crash site.

254 people were known to be on board, 0 fatalities were recorded, 254 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 0.0%.

Crew on board: 14, crew fatalities: 0, passengers on board: 240, passenger fatalities: 0, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is technical failure. A rejected takeoff was attempted when the slat disagree light illuminated and the takeoff warning horn sounded at 166 knots (V1). The pilot aborted the takeoff, but the aircraft accelerated to 178 knots ground speed before it began to decelerate. The deceleration was normal until 130 knots where an unexpected rapid decay in the deceleration occurred. The aircraft ran off the end of the runway at 95 knots, the nose gear collapsed, and the aircraft came to a stop 1,100 feet beyond the end of the runway. Eight of the ten brake sets failed. Post-accident exam of the brakes revealed that excessive brake wear occurred during the rejected takeoff. Testing showed that dc-10 worn brakes have a much greater wear rate during an rto. The faa does not require worn brake testing. Douglas did not use brake wear data from rto certification tests to set more conservative brake wear replacement limits. New brakes were used for those tests. All 254 occupants were evacuated, among them eight were injured, two seriously. The aircraft was damaged beyond repair.

Aircraft reference details include registration N136AA, MSN 47846, year of manufacture 1972.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately 32.7488°, -97.2990°.