Word: luxe
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...hours before on a flight from Phoenix. In Chicago it was designated Flight 191 and it took on its capacity load of 258 passengers and a crew of 13. Traffic was backed up at the airport, which averages some two takeoffs and landings per minute. Captain Walter H. Lux awaited clearance and was about eight minutes behind schedule as he got tower approval to roll down Runway 32-R (heading 320°, roughly northwest...
...soon as the plane lifted off ("rotated," in pilot's jargon), a controller in the tower knew that something was wrong. "Do you want to come back?" he radioed the pilot. There was no answer. Captain Lux and his crew were far too busy. The aircraft's left turbofan engine had broken out of its moorings and fallen onto the runway. Normally the loss of one engine's power would not have been fatal; the aircraft is designed to function on just two engines even during takeoff...
...huge jet reached an altitude of about 500 ft. But it began dropping. Captain Lux fought to get the craft under control. On Touhy Avenue, near Interstate 90, Chicago Patrol Officer Michael Delany was working with a dog at the police canine center. He turned to look up at the crippled airplane. "We could see all the fuel was spouting out the left side where the engine would be," he said. "And then as he got over our compound, the other engine shut off. So there was complete silence in the air. And then the plane turned, perpendicular...
...breakaway of the engine at a moment of maximum thrust, and with the plane fully loaded, had unbalanced the weight at a critical moment. Investigators also suspected that what some witnesses thought was fuel escaping from the wing might have been hydraulic fluid, which would have deprived Captain Lux of critical controls to maintain flight...
Poetry Reading--Thomas Lux, author of "The Glassblower's Breath," Lamont Poetry Room...