American Flight 191 - Recovery Procedure

Kingfish wrote:
No stick shaker in a DC-10? I find that hard to believe, I thought all
transport category jets built in the last 35 years had that system, but
I'm not a jet pilot.

Actually, one stick shaker came standard on the aircraft, the other one
was an option... AA did not choose to avail themselves of that option
though... When Flight 191 lost the left engine, it also lost the
generator that provided electrical power to the stick shaker... The loss
of the engine also took out both sets of hydraulic lines in the left
wing... The slats retracted upon loss of hydraulic fuel in those
lines... Procedures at that time were to go to V2, even if they were
above V2 at that time... In this incident, they were already above V2...
If they had stayed there, they would have most likely been able to
land the plane safely... Slowing to V2 caused the left wing to stall,
but the right wing did not due to the slats still being extended on
it... Of course, it goes into a roll to the left and impacts the ground
with significant force... Typical 3 links in the chain of events leading
up to the accident...

1 -- Maintenance problems with the AA mechanics who used a procedure to
change the engines on the aircraft that was not only not approved by the
aircraft manufacturer, but the manufacturer had explicitly told them
that they shouldn't be using...
2 -- No stick shaker on the other yoke... If they had known that they
were starting to stall as they decreased to V2, they could have
increased their speed and kept it from stalling and the roll developing...
3 -- Incorrect emergency procedures... Subsequent revisions to the
emergency procedures said that if you are already above V2, don't
decrease your speed...

I don't know that it IS possible to fly that plane with a missing wing
engine considering there was probably a major hydraulic system failure
when the engine tore off its mounts. Countering the asymmetric thrust
condition without rudder would make that impossible I'd think.

Actually, it shouldn't be as bad as some aircraft since it has 3 engines
and as such, the dissymmetry of thrust would not be as great...