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Many civil aircraft designs ranging from the 1950s to the 1990s have a special place in my heart, as do most things from the era of the Cold War. The gigantic Boeing 747 and the graceful Airbus A340 immediately come to mind. But my favorite civil aircraft from this time is the McDonnell Douglas DC-10.
The DC-10 is perhaps most (in)famous for having a poor safety record in its early years of service. It was involved in several high-profile and very deadly accidents, including Turkish Airlines 981 in 1974, American Airlines 191 in 1979, and United Airlines 232 in 1989. The type received great amounts of negative media attention in the aftermath of these accidents, and many people still hold an unfavorable view of the aircraft today.
It's important to note, however, that these accidents had different causes, and different parties were culpable for them. In the case of the three well-known accidents mentioned above, only one of them (Turkish Airlines 981) was due to any fault in the aircraft design itself. In terms of its legacy, probably the greatest tragedy of the DC-10 was that it happened to be involved in a number of accidents that were not its fault, and the public began to make an unwarranted association about the type's safety.
Trijets are an extinct breed outside cargo flights these days. I have never ridden on a DC-10 for a flight, and it's likely I never will. That doesn't stop me from feeling bad about the undeserved reputation the plane has.
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[Last updated: 2021-10-28]