Dying on a plane is less likely than dying in a plane crash {Gadling}

May 29th 2008 11:36AM Although the odds of dying on the way to an airport to board an airliner are far higher than dying in an airliner crash, I know something about this form of death. In May, 1979, twenty-nine years ago, a girlfriend was aboard American Airlines Flight 191, a DC-10 that crashed on takeoff from OHare on the Friday before Memorial Weekend. The port engine broke off and severed all hydraulics, yawed to the left and crashed near a trailer park. My girl was a 10 year flight attendant, age 32, and one of the eight San Diego based attendants. She and 273 aboard all died. This wreck is still the worst domestic crash, as far as lives lost. She was an Irish Catholic, lived in Pacific Beach and was taking graduate courses at San Diego State to prepare for a life after the airline. I miss her to this day, and I know she is at peace. I knew her for almost five years.