What happened
At approximately 02:00, TWA Flight 529 commenced its departure from runway 22L at Midway Airport. The crew had received clearance to proceed via the Victor 6 and Victor 8 routes, with instructions to maintain an altitude of 5,000 feet. During the initial climb, the aircraft performed a right turn to depart the airport area. Weather conditions at the time included visibility of three miles due to haze and smoke, with scattered clouds at 10,000 feet.
Radar contact was established with the aircraft roughly ninety-four seconds after takeoff. By 02:04, the flight was tracked five miles west of Midway Airport while following its assigned course. During this period, Northwest Airlines Flight 105 was cleared for takeoff from the same runway. As Flight 105 ascended, ground controllers observed a flash of light to the west of the airport. The crew of Flight 105 reported seeing a fire in the area and proceeded to fly over the site.
Upon investigation of the radar data, it was discovered that the return for TWA Flight 529 had vanished while near the location of the observed flash. Subsequent searches confirmed that the Boeing 727 had crashed into a field, where the aircraft disintegrated upon impact. The accident resulted in 78 fatalities, with no survivors.
Findings
The investigation concluded that the disaster was caused by the failure of an AN-175-21 nickel steel bolt within the elevator boost system's parallelogram linkage, which led to a total loss of aircraft control.