Case Briefing

Essay text:

Despite the efforts of the captain to stop the plane, it was too late to control a plan that ran off the ramp with at 85 miles per hour. As a result “The landing gear broke through the tarmac, burrowed into the ground, and was ripped from the wing, making a 3.7 foot hole which allowed fuel to pour from the wing fuel tanks. The plane was severely damaged by the resulting fire and rendered unrepeatable”2. DC-10 aircrafts were sold to continental by Douglas 1986. In order to close the deal with continental, Douglas has used sales brochures that described the technical details of the DC-10. In addition, Douglas had covered in its briefings that “the fuel tank will not rupture under crash load conditions"3; and that the landing gear "are designed for wipe-off without rupturing the wing fuel tank"4; that "the support structure is designed to a higher strength than the gear to prevent fuel tank rupture due to an accidental landing gear overload"[2]; that the DC-10 "is designed and tested for crashworthiness"[3]; that the "landing gear will be tested"[4] to demonstrate the fail safe integrity and wipe-off characteristics of the gear design; and that "good reliability"[5] for the DC-10 landing gear could be predicted with an "unusually high degree of confidence"[6]because of its close similarity to the successful design on the DC-8 and DC-9 aircraft...