While everyone remembers Turkish Airlines Flight Number 981 from Istanbul Atatürk Airport (ISL) to London Heathrow Airport (LHR) that crashed after a stopover at Paris Orly Airport (ORY), few will remember the incident involving National Airlines Flight 27. To put things into perspective, you have to remember that Turkish Airlines Flight Number 981 crashed shortly after takeoff from Paris Orly Airport (ORY) on March 3, 1974, killing all 335 passengers and 11 crew.

At the time, it was the deadliest plane crash in history and would remain so until March 27, 1977, when two Boeing 747s collided at Tenerife North Airport (TFN), killing 583 passengers and crew. The cause of Turkish Airlines Flight Number 981 was that someone had incorrectly secured a rear cargo door. During the flight, the door separated from the aircraft, causing an explosive decompression that severed cables necessary to control the aircraft. Now unable to control the plane, it crashed in the state-owned Ermenonville Forest 23 miles from Paris.

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About National Airlines

The airline was initially called the National Airlines Taxi System in 1934 when George T. Baker and D. K. Franklin founded it to win a lucrative air mail route in Florida. In 1935, Baker took full ownership of the airline and changed its name to National Airlines System. In 1937, the airline changed its name again to National Airlines. By the end of the 1930s, National Airlines had expanded, flying “The Buccaneer Route” between Miami and New Orleans.

During the early 1940s, the airline’s primary aircraft was the twin-engine 18-passenger Lockheed Model 18 Lodestar. National’s first pressurized airliner was the four-engine 48-68-passenger Douglas DC-6, which it used to fly between Miami and New York. In 1958, National Airlines became the first American airline to operate domestic flights with a Boeing 707 that it had leased from Pan American Airways (Pan Am). By 1968, National Airlines had transitioned to becoming an all-jet airline, operating a fleet of Douglas DC-8s and Boeing 727s.

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In 1970, National Airlines became the third American carrier to link the United States to Europe when it began flying between Miami and London. By 1971, National Airlines had received the first of ten McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10s, which it immediately placed on its Miami to New York route. Now a big player in the Southeast, both Texas International Airlines and Eastern Air Lines tried to buy National Airlines, but it was Pan Am that succeeded in merging it into its fleet in 1980.

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About the McDonnell Douglas DC-10

McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10 N106AA American Airlines, Washington - Ronald Reagan National

In 1966, American Airlines asked manufacturers to design a widebody airliner smaller than a Boeing 747 that could operate from shorter runways. In 1967, the McDonnell Aircraft Corporation and Douglas Aircraft Company merged and began working on the McDonnell Douglas DC-10. On August 29, 1970, the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 made its maiden flight from Long Beach Airport to Edwards Air Force Base in California.

After receiving its FAA certification, the first McDonnell Douglas DC-10 entered commercial service with American Airlines on August 5, 1971, flying between Los Angeles and Chicago. Between 1969 and 1989, 386 McDonnell Douglas DC-10s were built during its production.

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The first fatality involving a DC-10 was National Airlines Flight 27

File:National Airlines DC-10

National Airlines Flight 27 was a regularly scheduled passenger flight between Miami International Airport (MIA) and San Francisco International Airport (SFO), with stops in New Orleans, Houston, and Las Vegas. On November 3, 1973, the aircraft, a two-year-old DC-10 with the registration N60NA, took off from Houston, Texas, bound for Las Vegas International Airport (LAS) in Nevada. After the climb out of Houston, the aircraft leveled off at 39,000 feet and cruised at 350 mph.

National Airlines flight 27 route

Image: GCmaps

At around 16:40 MST, 65 miles southwest of Albuquerque, New Mexico, without any warning, the No. 3 engine fan assembly disintegrated in an uncontained catastrophic failure. Fragments from the engine penetrated the fuselage, causing the cabin to depressurize and fill with smoke. The crew immediately initiated an emergency descent into Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ). After safely landing, 115 passengers and 12 crew members exited the aircraft using its emergency slides. Despite their best efforts, one passenger was not so lucky and became the first fatality involving a McDonnell Douglas DC-10.

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The passenger in seat 17H got sucked out the window

When the N0. 3 engine disintegrated, some of the exploding fragments hit a window, forcing it to be blown out as the cabin depressurized. The passenger in seat 17H, George Fletcher Gardner Jr., a machinist at Bethlehem Shipyards, was partially sucked out of the window, and despite other passengers’ best efforts, they could not pull him back into the plane. When Bethlehem Shipyards was contacted, they said that the 43-year-old was flying to Singapore via San Francisco for work.

Local organizations headed by the New Mexico State Police initiated a search based on computer analysis of possible falling trajectories but were unsuccessful in their search for a body. While working on a ranch near Alamo, New Mexico, a ranch hand found a pair of sunglasses and a pipe, which he turned over to the police. Gardner’s family identified them as belonging to him and, despite another search, nothing else was found.

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The remains of George Fletcher Gardner Jr were found

The Very Large Array (VLA) is a radio astronomy observatory located on the Plains of San Augustin in New Mexico,

Two years after the incident, the government began work on a site for radio telescopes. The Plains of San Agustin in New Mexico, northwest of Socorro, was selected because it was far away from any cities and in an area of low population density. Today, known as the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA), the site has twenty-eight 25-meter radio telescopes and was featured in the 1997 movie Contact, starring Jodie Foster as Dr. Eleanor “Ellie” Arroway.

While laying tracks for the radio telescopes north of US 60, the workers encountered what they thought were human remains. The Office of Medical Investigator was contacted, and they removed the remains to Albuquerque for identification. After nearly a year of examining the remains and determining the cause of death, it was apparent that it was the body of George Gardner.

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