Tags
American Airlines 191, appropriation, ATC, childhood, May 25 1979, memory, poetry, TV disaster coverage, unoriginal, WLS-TV
i watched you die
on a feverish memorial
Friday afternoon
Tom and Jerry
told me to stand by
for a special bulletin
right now flight 191 American Airlines is just smoldering ruins rescue crews are seemingly unable to get very close to that wreckage it departed O’Hare Field around 3:15 today we still know nothing about why the plane crashed we do know that it lost an engine but that normally doesn’t mean the plane will crash many rescue crews leaving the area more coming in fighting rush hour traffic to get there just an unbelievable sight hundreds of people hundreds of people milling around wishing that they could help wanting to help I’m sure but the heat is so intense from the smoldering wreckage it’s almost impossible to get close to some of the areas of the plane that are left we’re reporting this afternoon on the worst commercial air disaster in United States commercial aviation history at O’Hare Field Flight 191 American Airlines bound for Los Angeles the account of possible disaster victims ranges from 263 to 279 some as high as 290 Hugh Hill is now in position at O’Hare Field to give us our first direct on-the scenes report Hugh standing at the oasis of the toll road overlooking the scene of this crash there are no survivors no survivors and I asked everybody I could find now I have just returned from a complete tour I walked completely around it and inside to try and look at the debris well there’s not much left a few pieces of metal here and there indications of the fuselage perhaps or the tail so it was a complete disintegration and from what we heard earlier it was a ball of fire shot into the air after the plane exploded other than those three injuries on the ground were there any possible injuries all of the fatalities we have right now are the fatalities that were on the plane it was flight 191 three on the ground in the trailer park thats the only injuries we have assessed right now yes that’s correct Mayor Byrne and Commissioner Albright at the scene of the plane disaster right behind us over in this area Tom if you can pan over there’s really not much to see in terms of what you might expect in seeing the debris of an airplane that is just hunks and pieces although on the far side there is an engine over in that area it appears to have been burned as well Commissioner Albright as he just reported indicated it had left the airplane separated from the aircraft before the airplane plowed into the ground and it literally did plow into the ground there is a rather deep furrow when we arrrived here the flames were coming up from the ground actually it’s probably 2 or 3 feet deep where the plane simply nosed in and tore up the earth and came to rest in a jumble of pieces
Do you want to come back and to what runway?
forever suspended
300 feet 112 degrees
banked left
bleeding hydraulics
in the hands
of Jim Tillman
