Date:	Saturday 21 May 1988
Time:	16:12
Type:	McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30
Owner/operator:	American Airlines
Registration:	N136AA
MSN:	47846/69
Year of manufacture:	1973
Total airframe hrs:	61322 hours
Cycles:	12864 flights
Engine model:	General Electric CF6-50C2
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 254
Aircraft damage:	Substantial, written off
Category:	Accident
Location:	Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, TX (DFW) -   United States of America
Phase:	Take off
Nature:	Passenger - Scheduled
Departure airport:	Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, TX (DFW/KDFW)
Destination airport:	Frankfurt International Airport (FRA/EDDF)
Confidence Rating:	Accident investigation report completed and information captured

Narrative:
The crew of American Flight 70 rejected the takeoff when the slat disagree light illuminated and the takeoff warning horn sounded at 166 knots (V1), but the aircraft accelerated to 178 knots ground speed before it began to decelerate. The deceleration was normal until 130 knots where an unexpected rapid decay in the deceleration occurred. The aircraft ran off the end of the runway at 95 knots, the nose gear collapsed, and the aircraft came to a stop 1,100 feet beyond the end of the runway. Eight of the ten brake sets failed. Post-accident examination of the brakes revealed that excessive brake wear occurred during the rejected takeoff. Testing showed that DC-10 worn brakes have a much greater wear rate during a rejected takeoff. The FAA did not require worn brake testing. Douglas did not use brake wear data from rto certification tests to set more conservative brake wear replacement limits. New brakes were used for those tests.

PROBABLE CAUSE:
landing gear, normal brake system .. inadequate
acft/equip,inadequate aircraft component .. manufacturer
inadequate substantiation process .. manufacturer
inadequate certification/approval, aircraft .. FAA (organization)
landing gear, normal brake system .. failure, total
CONTRIBUTING FACTORS
flt control syst,wing slat system .. false indication

Aviation Week & Space Technology 5.3.90 (78)
ICAO Adrep Summary 4/90 (#26)
NTSB/SIR-90/02 (5)

photo (c) Brian Harrison; Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, TX (DFW/KDFW); 22 May 1988

photo (c) via Werner Fischdick; London-Gatwick Airport (LGW); August 1984

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