The 258 passengers who boarded American Airlines Flight 191 at O’Hare International Airport on May 25, 1979, were traveling for a variety of reasons. Some, who attended work meetings in Chicago, were rushing back to California before Memorial Day weekend. Others were excited to get to Los Angeles — the flight’s terminus — to attend a booksellers convention. Couples were heading to tropical getaways and a few more were set to surprise loved ones.
None would reach their destinations.
Just a few minutes after 3 p.m., the DC-10 carrying them and 13 members of the San Diego-based crew lost its left engine, which broke away and vaulted over the aircraft’s wing. The plane continued to rise, its wings level, despite the nearly 13,500 pounds suddenly missing from its left side. But as it reached 300 feet, the plane slowed and rolled left until it began to overturn, its nose tipping down. The aircraft crashed just 31 seconds into its flight. The 271 people aboard the plane and two more on the ground were killed. In an instant several immediate families were gone.
Forty-five years later, Flight 191 remains the deadliest passenger airline accident on U.S. soil.
The victims were a cross-section of America — smart, funny, kind, brave, loving and hardworking. That’s how their family and friends remember them. Each year they gather to celebrate their lost loved ones whose names are inscribed on bricks in a special Flight 191 Memorial at Lake Park in Des Plaines — just down the road from the crash site. A special ceremony will take place there starting at 2 p.m. May 25.
Here are a few of their stories with many more available on the Tribune’s virtual memorial.
Vintage Chicago Tribune: Remembering the 273 victims of American Airlines Flight 191
Kathleen Adduci
Michael Adduci is the brother of Kathleen Adduci, a nursing student from Homewood who was taking a vacation to Hawaii after calling off her wedding. He was 20 when the crash happened, and now lives in Camden, Michigan, after retiring from Metra:
Kathy was supposed to get married and the date was set for June 2 of that year, but it was called off. To take her mind off the wedding, my mom talked her into going to Hawaii with two other friends. They were Gail DeCastro and Rhonda DeYoung, who also perished. We ended up in church on the 2nd of June for Kathy — for her funeral.
She was a sweet and beautiful sister who had many friends. She was studying to be a nurse at South Suburban College at the time of the accident and needed a break from school and the heartbreak of the wedding being called off. I remember she had just bought a new Pontiac Firebird and I went with her to sign the papers and bring it home. She was so proud of it.
The devastation of the accident affected my family way beyond 1979. My mom was in remission from breast cancer and three months after the accident her cancer came back and she passed away in 1981. My father was heartbroken over losing two loved ones and committed suicide in 1997.
What I didn’t realize until the (memorial’s) dedication was there were families there who lost up to five family members at once. Now, that’s devastation, isn’t it?
Bill and Corrine Borchers
Kim Jockl and Melody Smith are the daughters of Bill and Corrine Borchers, a North Side couple who were traveling to Hawaii for a vacation. Jockl and Smith, who were 23 and 32 at the time of the crash, later helped to create the memorial in Des Plaines:
JOCKL: I was living at home, and I left the day before (Flight 191) for Acapulco because I was graduating from Northeastern Illinois University. United was on strike, so flights kept getting canceled and moved. My parents ended up getting tickets through a travel agency, Tartan Travel.
My mom said, “There’s been too many changes. I’ve got a bad feeling about this.” And we were like, “Go! It’s going to be great.”
SMITH: My husband stopped in a grocery store and heard on the TV that there was a crash. When we walked in our house, the phone was ringing. It was my mother-in-law asking what time my parents got on the flight. I didn’t think it was American Airlines. The last I heard, it was Braniff. I called the airline, and they just took my name.
Then I remembered Tartan Travel. I got hold of someone walking out the door. He called me about five minutes later and said, yes, they were scheduled for that flight.
Ping Chun
The 26-year-old left his graduate work at the Illinois Institute of Technology to take a job as a computer technologist. He was traveling from Illinois to California to interview with Hughes Aircraft Co. These memories are from his sister, Yen Chun:
He was brilliant beyond his years, but one would have never guessed given how humble he was. His kindness made him everyone’s favorite person and he never let life’s setbacks stop him from achieving his dream. If he had more years with us, there’s no doubt he would have been a brilliant leader in cutting-edge technology.
Ping was born in Beijing, China, in 1952, to American parents from Hawaii. At age 1.5, Ping contracted polio, which permanently impacted both of his legs. While the polio created challenges for him — forced him to walk with crutches and braces his whole life, pushed him back two years in school, prevented him from playing with other children — he always found the silver lining in every situation. When we all played outdoors, he would stay inside and read books or take apart clocks or radios. He enrolled in my school and became friends with all my friends. He couldn’t use his legs so instead he became an archer, a diver and a swimmer. But perhaps most importantly, I don’t ever remember him complaining about his disability once.
Staff Sgt. Raymond L. Griego
The 22-year-old Marine had been serving as an embassy guard in the Congo but was on his way home to surprise his family. Cathy Griego, his sister, shares these recollections:
I’ll never forget the day when the first news report came on TV reporting the crash in Chicago. My first thought was my brother Raymond, but I then realized he was on the other side of the world guarding an embassy. We had no idea he was on his way home.
He loved his country and served with honor. He loved his family and friends deeply. He was a very popular young man in his community.
I haven’t been able to make the trip to the memorial site. I have a real fear of flying and haven’t flown anywhere since my brother’s tragic accident.
Elaine Howell
Nancy Howell, daughter of Elaine Howell, learned of the crash on her car radio in Knoxville, Tennessee, where she was attending graduate school at the University of Tennessee. The previous day she received a letter from her mother with details of her trip:
My mother, Elaine E. Howell, was manager of a successful bookstore in Charleston, West Virginia. Like many others on the flight, she was en route to the American Booksellers Association annual meeting in Los Angeles.
The ABA convention was always one of my mother’s favorite activities as she met authors, learned about new books and spent time with colleagues from across the country. She had helped establish the local city library when I was a child. She loved books and the bookstore business. Her small bookstore in Charleston brought in an amazing array of authors — including Julia Child, Pearl Buck and other well-known authors of the time. One of her specialty areas was keeping a diverse inventory of books by Appalachian authors, including her good friend Jesse Stuart.
When I was younger, mother began taking courses at a local college, working full time and attending school part time for many years. She finally completed her bachelor’s degree in 1974 — the very day I graduated college.
As my brother went to our local dentist to collect records and fly to Chicago to deliver them, we knew we would need to plan a memorial. Shortly before the designated memorial, a small comfort — her body had been identified and was being sent home in time for the service.
John “Jack” Moncrieff
Kevin Moncrieff is the son of John “Jack” Moncrieff, an engineer for Bell Telephone who helped develop underground telecommunication cables and who was headed home to Sacramento, California, after a week of training in the Chicago area. Moncrieff was 7 when his father died and now works as a pilot for United Airlines, based out of O’Hare.
I remember him being gone quite a bit. My dad worked really hard, long hours. He was on the board of directors for the local credit union and was in a Scottish pipe and drum band. That took his time as well. But I do have memories of going on trips in a 1976 gold Chevy van that he was really proud of. And I also remember him coming home every day. I would scream “Daddy, daddy!” and run to the front door and give him a hug.
I was probably in second grade. I came home from school on the bus, walked in the front door and there were five people in the family room with my mom. That’s when she broke the news and said, “There’s been an accident. It doesn’t look like Dad’s coming home.”
It’s definitely the hardest news I’ve ever had. I just remember putting my face in my mom’s lap and crying.
Paul, Zaida, Marjorie and Zaida Louise Schade
Ivelisse Rios-Lopez, niece of Zaida Schade, shared her recollections of her aunt and family:
I remember being 14 years old and getting the announcement that something terrible happened to my aunt and uncle. They were originally supposed to go by themselves but ended up bringing their two daughters at the last moment.
My Aunt Zaida was born in Utuado, Puerto Rico, on Sept. 6, 1941, to parents Pedro Rios and Luisa Gonzalez. She was the youngest of six and the only baby girl of the family. She and her brothers were very close and had a loving bond with each other. She had married my Uncle Paul and moved up to Naperville and had their two lovely girls there.
Zaida and my cousins were always so fun loving and very caring. She always would worry about her older brothers and would make sure to visit her family in Puerto Rico whenever she could. Even though I can’t remember too much about my Uncle Paul, I do know that he was a kind man who very much loved his family and served in the U.S. Navy.
Stephen, Carolyn, Colin and Christopher Sutton
Stephen, a 38-year-old senior editor for Rand McNally’s adult nonfiction books, was taking his family, wife Carolyn, 38, and sons Colin, 9, and Christopher, 7, to California for Memorial Day weekend. First, he would attend the American Booksellers Association convention, then they would see his wife’s parents, who were also in California visiting her brother, and wrap up with a visit to Disneyland. The family left their dog, Charlie, in the care of neighbors.
Stephen and Carolyn were among the 30 whose bodies were never identified. These victims’ names became known by a process of elimination and were buried side by side at Green Hills Memorial Park in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
Narda Vetor
Newana Cesarone, sister of Narda Vetor, said she was going to Los Angeles for a friend’s wedding:
Narda was a daughter, wife, mother, sister, sister-in-law, aunt, niece, cousin and friend. I listed each title because each person that fell under the individual categories truly believed they were special to her. She was the captain of the cheerleading squad at East Detroit High School, Michigan (now East Pointe), loved sports, a certified soccer referee and a resident of Clinton Township, Michigan.
She encouraged her then-young boys to play soccer and baseball. She was always present in her three children’s lives.
Narda was becoming politically active in her community by working on her neighbor’s run for treasurer in Clinton Township. There was even talk of her running for the township board. We always wondered what she could have achieved had she lived beyond her 31 years. We will never know but we know it would have been something truly special just like her.
The Clinton Township recreation department named an award after her that summer. As far as we know, it is still in existence.
258 passengers, 13 crew members: Here’s what we know about them
Those are the statistics, but we wanted to learn more about the people whose lives were lost that day. That’s why we asked family members and friends to share their recollections. We also combed the Tribune and Newspapers.com archives for details.
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