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Alyssa Chard Comms 421

Turkish Airlines Flight 981 A Deadly Disaster


March 3, 1974, was a dark day for loved ones of passengers who were aboard Turkish Airlines Flight 981. The flight was scheduled to fly from Paris to London with 346 passengers onboard. Connie Chard drove her husband, Gary, to the train station near Paris that morning where he would take a direct train to the airport to catch his flight. The couple had four children all under the age of eleven. The Chards were American but lived outside of Paris while Gary worked for Overseas International Airways as a public relations professional. Connie remembers her final encounter with her husband as sweet and memorable. We said some really sweet goodbyes that day, she said. I do remember that he was also a little bit agitated and I didnt know what it was. The night before Garys flight, a friend had brought over a package for him to deliver while he was on business. I remember him taking the package and making a comment about how you never know if this is the plane that will go down, Connie said. Connie said she didnt think much of the comment at the time but has often wondered since if Gary had a premonition he would be involved in a plane accident the next day. The Chard family waved Gary goodbye at the train station, the last time they would see their husband and father on earth. Gary boarded a Turkish Airways plane destined for London that day. The plane was a DC-10 model, one of the latest plane models in circulation. The Accident Since the late 60s, three major airplane manufacturers were in a race to construct the first jumbo jet so passengers could ride in comfort around the world. Douglas McDonnell was one of the top manufacturing companies and worked quickly and efficiently to make their planes available for purchase by airlines. The DC-10 was the plane model they released to the world.

The company spent more than $1 billion on construction of 386 planes and had little time for delays caused by constructional hold-ups of the plane design. Three years earlier, a DC-10 plane had departed from Detroit when the rear cargo hatch door was blown off due to intense pressure build-up. The plane was designed so that the cargo door was pushed into place from the outside of the plane versus the usual plane models where the hatch was pushed out from the inside of the plane. This difference in structure made the plane more vulnerable by design. When the hatch door ripped off, the plane continued in flight with a gaping hole in the bottom. Passengers on the flight describe their safe landing as a miracle--the pilot was able to guide the damaged plane back to the runway of Detroit. After thorough investigation, a notice was placed on the DC-10 planes that the cargo hatch needed to be redesigned for the planes to fly safely. Failure to redesign the hatch could result in loss of an aircraft. The expense to make the design change to all DC-10 planes would be expensive, and a decision was made by McDonnell Douglas to distribute the planes to various airlines without any changes. On March 3, flight 981 took off with 346 passengers onboard. Passengers included six British fashion models, 17 English rugby players, and passengers from a dozen other countries. The plane crashed in a large forest outside of Paris when the luggage hatch was ripped off of the plane because of intense air pressure. Investigation after the accident showed that the pins to the door had been filed down so it could be closed more easily, although, insecurely. The accident is the fourth highest aviation death toll in history. The most deadly plane accident occurred in Spain in 1977 with 583 passengers onboard. The second highest fatality rate was in 1985 with 520 passengers onboard with the third largest fatality count occurring in 1996 with 349 passengers onboard. The Chards receive news of the accident Gary said he would call me when his plane landed in London, Connie said. I took the kids for a walk that afternoon and thought I must have missed his call while I was out. That day the newspaper was left unread and the television was not turned on at the Chard home.

I was so busy with my little children, she said. I didnt have time. It wasnt until Garys secretary called later that Connie sensed something was wrong. She asked if I had heard from Gary, Connie said. I could tell by the tone of her voice that something was wrong. Connie called the hotel he was booked to stay at to make sure he had arrived safely. I dont think I wanted to know because I kept misdialing, Connie said. Then I looked at the paper and realized there had been a crash. She looked at Garys tickets and saw he was scheduled to fly on a British Airways flight but because of an air strike had been bumped to a Turkish Airways flight that day. Garys boss soon called to tell Connie that Gary had been aboard the plane that had crashed. Dan Chard, the second of four children, was 10 years-old and remembers the day he found out that his dad died. Dan walked to get on his school bus and was on his way to a swimming lesson when the bus driver told him his mom was waiting in her car and needed to speak with him. I got in the back of the car and my mom said there had been an accident and that my dad had been hurt, Dan said. Connie said when she told him the news, Dan said he didnt want anyone else to know what had happened. I think he thought if we didnt tell anyone, then it wasnt real, Connie said. Dan said he felt overcome with despair when he heard the news about his dad. I remember not knowing what we were going to do and that maybe there had been some mistake, hoping that someone had gotten it wrong, he said. Aftermath of the accident One of the first things that Connie did after she found out about the airplane accident was to move all of her children into her bedroom.

I had a fear that someone was going to take them from me and something was going to happen, she said. Just days after the accident, Connie and her two oldest boys went to Hermonville Forest, where the plane had crashed. Family members of passengers who had been aboard were asked to come to the crash site where they were asked to identify any personal belongings that lined table after table. I finally asked if I needed to do this and they told me no, she said. A few days after the accident Garys body was identified; that afternoon the Chard family went to a special memorial for the families of passengers who had died on flight 981. Over a dozen nationalities were represented on the flight, and as a result many cultural differences during the funeral were apparent. One of the most memorable parts of the memorial service for Connie were the wailers who were present. It was interesting because they were crying in the way that I was feeling myself, Connie said. Being a Mormon woman I felt like I had to keep it together and be selfcontained and composed. Sometimes we feel agony inside but dont necessarily show that. Just weeks after the accident, Connie moved her children from their home outside of Paris back to Salt Lake City where they could be closer to family. If I did it again I would have kept my children in France to finish school but we were just kind of swept away, Connie said. I wasnt strong enough in the moment. I was so grief stricken that I was leaning on other people instead of on myself. Remembering his legacy Connie raised her four children by herself and helped her children grow to learn and understand more about their father as they grew older. I always felt like we had him with us, she said. I felt like he was our guardian angel and that things worked out well for us. Dan said his mom had the children write down memories that they had with their dad and would tell lots of stories about the kind of father that he was.

Ten years after the accident, Connie took her children to live in France, near to their former home to help them reconnect with their life together with Gary. Connie said that although the journey has been difficult without her husband by her side, she has felt his influence in her own life and in the lives of her children. He has my back and that has given me the courage to do it alone, she said.

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