turkish airlines flight 981 was a regular flight operated by turkish airlines, from istanbul to london heathrow, with a stopover in paris. on 3 march, 1974, the mcdonnell douglas dc-10 operating the flight suffered an explosive decompression and crashed into the ermenonville forest, shortly after it had left paris. all 346 people on board were killed in the accident. an investigation after the crash found out that one of the cargo doors at the rear of the aircraft was not properly closed and secured. after takeoff, part of the door broke off and caused an explosion in the rear of the aircraft. the explosion also damaged cables needed to fly the aircraft. this meant that after the explosion, the aircraft was uncontrollable.