Fifteen days had passed since American Airlines Flight 96 had come within a hair's breath of crashing; fifteen days that had seen the Western Region of the Federal Aviation Administration begin the process of issuing an Airworthiness Directive (AD) intended to correct the problems with the DC-10 cargo door design and probably the unvented passenger compartment floor as well.
But fate had intervened. The FAA administrator had taken the unusual action of becoming personally involved in the problem thereby short-circuiting the AD issuance. He had spoken with the president of Douglas Division of McDonnell-Douglas and the two men had agreed that the situation didn't require a far reaching AD since the FAA and Douglas division of McDonnell-Douglas had a great working relationship.
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