Word: md
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Swissair Flight 111, an MD-11 jumbo jet built by McDonnell Douglas in 1991, left New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport en route to Geneva, Switzerland, promptly at 8:18 p.m. E.T. Not quite an hour later, at 9:14, the Swiss pilot, Urs Zimmermann, radioed, "Pan! Pan! Pan!...We have smoke in the cockpit" to the control tower in Moncton in New Brunswick, Canada. (Pan is an international distress signal less urgent than Mayday.) The pilot requested diversion to Boston, but when told that Halifax, only 70 miles away, was nearer, he responded, "Prefer Halifax." When...
There are 179 MD-11s currently in service, 119 of which are dedicated to passenger travel. The jet, a descendant of the DC-10, has technology that allows it to be steered during an emergency by alternating thrust on the two underwing engines even if the center engine in the tail explodes and severs all hydraulic control lines for the rudders and elevators--as in the case of a DC-10 that crash-landed in an Iowa cornfield in 1989. The Swissair MD-11 successfully underwent a thorough inspection just over a year ago, and Swissair's safety-and-maintenance...
John Weisenmiller was born in Cumberland, Md., and moved to Massachusetts in the '50s. He had been married for 43 years at the time of his death...
...After Glenn's flight this fall, the U.S. government should take another initiative: send this American hero on a world tour to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction. A personal tour by Glenn would spotlight an unpretentious American of character, courage and achievement. MARK LEWIS Chevy Chase, Md...
...news sent shock waves through the aviation industry. Both Swissair and the MD-11 have impeccable reputations; indeed, Swissair maintenance workers are in great demand and often help out at other airlines. They have not had a single crash in nearly 20 years. The downed plane was seven years old, a mere babe in industry terms. "This was a descendant of the DC-10," says TIME aviation expert Jerry Hannifin, "and a hell of a reliable stable airplane." Nevertheless, there was one incident last year at Newark Airport in which a Federal Express-owned MD-11 crashed on landing. That...