On 12 June 1972, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10 just a few months old, operating American Airlines Flight 96 from Detroit, Michigan to Buffalo, New York, suffered an explosive decompression after a cargo door bursts open.

The crew made an emergency landing at Detroit, Michigan without any loss of life. However, the design fault with the cargo door mechanism was not rectified and two years later on 3 March 1974, Turkish Airlines Flight 981 suffered a similar circumstance during a flight from Paris to London. This time the DC-10's hydraulic systems were damaged beyond control and the aircraft crashed in a forest near Senlis, killing all 346 on board, at the time it was the worst aviation diaster in history.

Type of aircraft: McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10.Cause of disaster: Explosive decompression resulting from faulty cargo door design.

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