A Day in Technical Documentation History

["William Sherman" <bsherman77 -at- embarqmail -dot- com>]

Unfortunately, history is often created by incredibly sad or horrible 
events. Today in 1979, that pretty much describes it. American Airlines 
Flight 191 crashed after take off at O'Hare International Airport in 
Chicago. A total of 273 people lost their lives as a result, the deadliest 
aviation accident in the US.

A coworker was only a couple of miles from the airport on that day and saw 
the smoke all rise up when it happened.He says he will never forget it.

How this ties to technical documentation is that it saved the company that 
built that plane, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10. Initially blamed as a poor 
design and as such, all liability would come on McDonnell Douglas, it was 
found that MDC had fully documented the correct method of removing and 
installing the wing engines and that American Airlines and others were using 
an unauthorized shortcut. As such, MDC was not held responsible.

Hopefully, your documentation will never be tested under such horrible 
conditions, but please make sure it will stand up to such scrutiny. 

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