Frederick Daniel Applegate (November 9, 1917 – January 17, 1999) was director of product engineering for Convair, a McDonnell Douglas subcontractor supplying parts for the company's newest aircraft, the DC-10 trijet, during the early 1970s.
[1] On 12 June 1972, American Airlines Flight 96, a relatively new McDonnell Douglas DC-10, was severely damaged after losing a rear cargo door while flying over Windsor, Ontario, while en route to Buffalo Niagara International Airport.
The report included the following: The potential for long term Convair liability has been causing me increasing concern for several reasons… The fundamental safety of the cargo door latching system has been progressively degraded since the program began in 1968...
I would expect this to usually result in the loss of the aircraft.Management believed that his proposed changes would be costly to implement, and there was some debate about who would end up paying for them, Convair or McDonnell Douglas.
These changes were limited to strengthening some of the locking system's parts, and adding a small window to allow handlers to visually inspect the latches.