On 3 March 1974 , the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 operating the flight crashed Catastrophe into the Ermenonville Forest , outside Paris , killing Killing all 346 people on board .

In previous service , notably an incident that occurred Coming_to_be on American Airlines Flight 96 in 1972 , it had been noticed Know that it was possible to close the handle on DC-10 cargo doors despite the latches being in the wrong position .

In the following investigation Criminal_investigation , it was found Know that a similar set of conditions , which had caused Causation the failure of an aircraft floor following explosive decompression of the cargo hold , had occurred Coming_to_be in ground testing Testing in 1970 , before the DC-10 series entered Arriving commercial service Supply .