American Airlines Flight 1572 was a flight from Chicago O'Hare International Airport to Bradley International Airport on November 12, 1995. The McDonnell Douglas MD-83 struck trees and an instrument landing system (ILS) antenna during landing, causing $9 million in damage to the aircraft.[1]: 1, 11
At 00:55, the sink rate alarm went off, followed seconds later by a loud thump as the aircraft began shearing off treetops along Peak Mountain ridge.[1]: 6 These trees were on a ridge with a ground elevation of 728 ft (222 m), and the first treetop struck was at a height of 770 ft (230 m). The captain advanced the throttles to full power, but the trees had been ingested into the engines causing them to flame out and shut down. The captain immediately lowered flaps to 40° hoping it would momentarily cause the aircraft to "balloon" upwards. While not standard operating procedure, this worked to a limited extent until the aircraft clipped a tree near the end of the runway. It then impacted the runway 33 ILS antenna equipment at the approach end of runway 15 before rolling to a stop.[1]: 10
