I often find myself looking at old photos, not of people I know or places I’ve been, but of people I don’t know and places (at least sometimes) I haven’t been. There is an aviation photo that I find myself looking at over and over again, it is an image that I find captivating but for all the wrong reasons: it is such a tragic event caught on film and one that I find so hauntingly interesting. American Airlines Flight 191 was a regularly scheduled passenger flight flying out of Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, captained by Captain. Walter Lux, it should have been a regular flight. Captain Lux had been flying the DC 10 since its introduction in 1971 and with 22,000 flight hours, he was one of the most experienced pilots flying with American Airlines.
As horrible as this accident was, it is not the accident itself that I find so interesting, rather, the idea of the accident, that fraction of time, that fraction of a second frozen in a single frame that I find so intriguing: it is the photography. For me, it’s a feeling that if I look at the infamous photo taken by Michael Laughlin in 1971 long enough I can see Captain Walter Lux along with co-pilot James Dillard struggling with the controls like true heroes, I can hear the warning alarms, the ground proximity warning I can see the great determination of both the pilot and the first officer.
Looking at this grainy, faded old photo of the crash and looking at the plane (a DC10) it’s easy to imagine the horror the passengers inside must have felt. Most (if not all) would have been able to tell that something was not right with takeoff, by hearing a loud bang as the detached number 1 engine (the left side) of the aircraft flew up and over the wing snapping hydraulic lines. vital as it did. It’s frighteningly easy for me to imagine the noise coming from inside the plane, the sound of passengers gasping and luggage falling overhead. I can imagine my loved ones holding hands as they sit, helplessly strapped to their seats and strangers looking at each other in fear and disbelief – what were they thinking? What were they saying? All this from a single photograph.
Unlike many other airline accidents, Flight 191 differs in that there is very little audio on the cockpit voice recorder. A single word is all that is collected, “Damn”, an air traffic controller sees what has happened to American Airlines 191 and asks “…do you want to go back and to which runway?” – There was no answer. It’s strange how much can be read from a single photo, or rather, how much we think can be read, but with photos like Michael Laughlins, the heartbreaking truth is presented to us in a basic and terrifying way. The sense of horror and the sense of ‘end’ is so prevalent in this image that one has an almost overwhelming sense of hopelessness. Rest in peace.
