re: Spirit Airlines made me religious again

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They didnt have that during the Pan Am flight you're referring to.

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windshear detection equipment is installed on airliners, as is Doppler radar, on the aircraft and on the airport, as is low level windshear warning systems, however these are just aids in detection, the onus is still on the pilot to recognize conditions where windshear is likely, and avoid the area, Pan Am 759 took off into the teeth of about a level 4, maybe 5 TS, I was in the third aircraft in line for takeoff that day and the two aircraft ahead of them were cleared for takeoff and both said they'd wait and cleared the runway, hard to defend the PA guys, God rest their souls

in defense of the Delta 191 guys, although windshear awareness was more to the forefront at the time, largely because of PA759 but still no special training and escape maneuvers were in place as we have today, the weather that day was pretty innocuous in appearance, several planes landed before DA191 and reported no abnormal rides on the approach, the plane behind them was one of my company's, and afterwards the Captain of that flight said until he realized Delta191 was down, he had every intention of landing, because the windshear escape maneuver was not taught at the time, and the DA pilots weren't spring loaded to initiate it, they hit the the ground(the first time,) with an abundance of excess energy, 189KIAS if I recall, it was certainly a flyable jet but I give those guys the benefit of the doubt because they were led down the path and blindsided