30 years ago today (August 2nd, 1985), Delta Flight 191, a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar from Fort Lauderdale, bound for Los Angeles, crashed over a mile short of the runway at the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. The plane was caught in an unexpected weather event called a microburst, which causes a sudden downdraft of air. During the struggle to regain control, the plane careened across a highway north of the airport, struck a car, and skidded into two large water tanks, which broke it apart. (Flightpath/Crash diagram) The crash killed 136 of the 152 passengers and 11 crew on board, and the driver of the car. (Cabin seat diagram showing injuries and survivors) Amazingly, 27 people survived, including flight attendant Vicki Chavis, who described the feeling of the crash: "I was facing aft and I felt us going forwards. The grass and sky and things were going by in the opposite direction. My arms were completely flailing, my legs were flailing. I had no control over my body,'' the flight attendant recalled. ...the out-of control jetliner struck a water tower. As she briefly turned her head, a flame rushing from the front of the cabin singed her hair. ...By then the aircraft had broken in two, leaving the rear cabin section largely intact and separate from the rest of the plane. And there was momentary quiet, she recalled. "We stopped. I was hanging upside down from my seat belt ... The whole fuselage on the left side of the airplane was gone."The National Transportation Safety Board investigation determined that the crash resulted from the flight crew's decision to fly through a thunderstorm, the lack of procedures and training to avoid or escape microbursts, and the lack of hazard information on wind shear. Many improvements in air safety were made as a result of this accident.