Nation: Up, Up and Away

After 37 days, the FAA clears the DC-lOs for takeoff

"Today I am returning the DC-10 fleet to the air." That laconic announcement last week by Federal Aviation Administrator Langhorne Bond was received joyfully by the eight U.S. airlines that operate 138 wide-bodied DC-10 jets. For 37 days the planes had been grounded while FAA crews combed them for defects after the crash of American Airlines Flight 191 near Chicago's O'Hare International Airport which killed 273 people. Each day that the fleet was idle cost the airlines $5 million. Two hours after Bond's announcement,...

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