WLS Channel 7 - News Bulletin - "The Crash of Flight 191" (Part 6, 1979)

Here's Part 6 of WLS Channel 7's news coverage of the crash of American Airlines Flight 191 (a DC-10 manufactured by McDonnell-Douglas; scheduled to travel from Chicago to Los Angeles), 1/2 mile northwest of O'Hare Airport. Featuring Joel Daly, Diane Allen, and Jim Gibbons. Includes:

Joel has taken Fahey Flynn's place alongside Diane Allen as a shot of the bank of ambulances and fire trucks at the crash scene is shown on the screen behind them. Joel introduces a video of a helicopter flight he made over the scene a half-hour after the crash. The video (shot by cameraman Bob Costantino[sp?]) lasts more than six minutes and slowly moves over the where the plane fell and left debris. As the tape runs, he describes the timeline of the events that happened to the doomed flight. Joel speculates that it was the right engine that fell on the right side of the runway, and that fuel tanks next to the trailer park would have led to an inferno if the plane crashed directly in that area, and that the pilot may have veered away from the park deliberately. He describes the pattern of the crash (an "inverted arrow" from the nose of the plane hitting the ground first). He indicates he can make out the direction of the plane crash by the scattered debris. He emphasizes that due to concerns of an underground fuel tank in the area, the danger is not over. Aerial shots of the runway and of the smoldering remnants of the plane (including one of the engines) are shown as Joel narrates.

After the tape of the aerial footage runs out, Joel introduces a live remote from Jim Gibbons who, like Hugh Hill in the previous part, has some communications problems. He is 100 feet from the crash scene. He is interviewing George Bliss, a salesman who saw the plane go down. George says the airplane did a cartwheel as it spun out of control and fell to the ground, which he says shook as it went down; he was around 315 West Touhy Avenue, in a westbound direction. The tape cuts out midway through George's eyewitness description.

This aired on local Chicago TV on Friday, May 25th 1979.

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