An Engineer Predicted the DC-10 Crash in Writing. Nobody Sent the Memo.

8 min 57 s · published November 11, 2026 · Watch on YouTube

In June 1972 a DC-10's rear cargo door blew off over Windsor, Ontario, and the crew got the airplane back on the ground. Two weeks later an engineer at the company that built the door wrote that it would happen again and would probably cost an airplane. The FAA had already drafted a binding fix, and held it back. Twenty months later Turkish Airlines Flight 981 lost the same door over France, and 346 people died. This is the door, the memo, the agreement, and what investigators found, with the documentary at the top.

Written and maintained by Jacob McEwen, M.S. Electrical Engineering·Last updated

Chapters

  1. 0:00 Predicted in writing
  2. 0:20 The DC-10's cargo door
  3. 1:23 Windsor, 1972
  4. 2:35 The gentleman's agreement
  5. 3:49 The Applegate memo
  6. 4:56 Paris Orly, March 3, 1974
  7. 5:48 Flight 981
  8. 6:34 What investigators found
  9. 7:34 What changed

Read the full story

The written version, with photos and every source: The warning nobody sent: the DC-10's cargo door and Turkish Airlines Flight 981

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