re: Pan Am Flight 759 Crash

My young adult life seemed to be coincident with my need to fly somewhere right after a major crash. Flew out of NOLA a couple wks later.

This was one of two airline incidents in NOLA that changed commercial aviation. This one brought on mandatory microburst detection and heeding the warning.

The other was the Taca flight that lost power landing in a thunderstorm and landed on a levee out by Michoud. The planes jet engines were capable of drinking a firehose and still running. They were not able to handle the hail as both engines plugged with ice and could not be restarted. Boeing redesigned them as a result of this incident. Fortunately the pilot made a remarkable landing and everyone walked off the plane safely