The first crash of one of the new fully loaded wide-body planes was an international scandal, provoking newspaper coverage of shocking design lapses, televised congressional hearings, and even a full-length book exposé. Soon after the plane’s takeoff from Paris Orly Airport in March 1974, an explosion blew out the cargo door, buckling the floor and severing hydraulic lines. All 346 people aboard died when the plane plunged into Ermenonville forest outside Paris, the worst airliner crash in history at the time. Debris was scattered for a half mile through wooded trails popular with Sunday
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