I was flying from Madison, WI to Key West, FL with a connection at O'Hare and as our plane was taxiing to the terminal, I saw the American Airlines flight taking off. As I watched, the engine came off over the top of the right wing as described in the story and bounced along the runway. As I and everyone else on that side of the plane watched, the DC-10 initially climbed with an almost normal angle of attack-- and for a moment I recalled that I had been told that multiengine jets could fly on a single engine-- but then the nose went up and the plane rolled to the left, crashing in a huge fireball with a tremendous cloud of black smoke that I could not help thinking looked like a movie special effect. The crew on our plane was in shock, but as soon as we deplaned we heard that it hab been a cargo flight. I headed to the airport bar, as I still had to get on my connecting flight, and only after arriving in Florida did I learn of the true nature of the crash.

--Kent