In the history of aviation accidents, some tragedies spawn strange stories that linger long after investigators determine the cause of the problem. One of the most disturbing reports related to major air crashes involves American Airlines Flight 191, a catastrophic crash near Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport on May 25, 1979 that killed 273 people. Years later, a man named David Booth claimed to have seen the crash multiple times in the days leading up to the disaster, and he said he reported the disturbing scene to authorities before the plane took off.
A vision that reoccurs night after night
Booth later described the experience as something different from ordinary dreams. “Everybody talks about dreams, everybody has dreams. I don’t have a dream, I have a vision.” According to Booth, the scene unfolded the same way every time. He said he could see a large airport and a long runway on a sunny day, with a large passenger plane getting ready to take off. “Dreams always start the same way. It was a sunny day and I saw a very big airport and a very long runway and a very big airplane.” Booth said he could clearly identify the airline in the vision. “I can see American Airlines. I saw the plane begin to taxi down the runway and increase in speed. “But just as the plane began to take off, things seemed to go wrong. “All of a sudden, when it started, I had this feeling in my head that there was something wrong with the sound that the engine was making.” Booth said the plane was airborne briefly before disaster struck. Talk later on our YouTube channel our supernatural worldhe described seeing the plane climb, then suddenly roll before crashing back to the ground. “It went straight up in the air, then turned and came right back down to the ground, exploding in this giant inferno and then a wave of despair.” The emotional impact of the scene was almost physical, he said. “Like an object would hit you directly in the chest.”
Ten nights of the same disturbing sight
Anyone who experiences such a dream would feel uneasy. Booth said the same scene played out night after night. According to his account, the sequence was repeated ten times over ten consecutive nights, each time reenacting the same catastrophic moment. He said the psychological stress of reliving the scene over and over again became unbearable. “Every day it was getting worse and worse. Not knowing what to do, not knowing what I was supposed to be doing. Unable to forget an image that was seared not just into my mind but into the fabric of my entire life.” Unsure what else to do, Booth decided to contact the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to report what he had seen.
Call the FAA
Booth eventually contacted FAA Public Affairs Director Jack Barker, who took his call seriously despite the vague information he received. Buck later recalled that Booth did not sound irrational. “David sounded very sane and believable, not surprising at all. He had a disturbing dream for seven nights in a row.” Buck said he listened carefully every time Booth called, but the vision lacked any concrete details that authorities could take action on. “I would talk to him and listen to him, but David’s dream didn’t give me enough information to process it. It didn’t give a location, it didn’t give a flight, and it had some numbers that didn’t make any sense.” Buck said he respected the calls but explained that officials were unable to conduct an actual investigation. “I said: ‘Thank you. There’s nothing we can do about it, but thank you for the information.'”
American Airlines Flight 191 crashes
On May 25, 1979, the disaster Booth feared became a reality. American Airlines Flight 191, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10 flying from Chicago to Los Angeles, crashed shortly after taking off from O’Hare International Airport. Shortly after the plane left the runway, its left engine separated from the wing, causing severe damage and causing the plane to quickly lose control.
American Airlines Flight 191 caught fire less than a mile from the runway in 1979 (Photo: Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
The plane rolled and crashed into a field near the airport, then burst into flames. All 271 people on board and two people on the ground were killed, bringing the total death toll to 273. There were no survivors, making it the deadliest aviation accident in U.S. history at the time.
understand disaster
Booth later said that on the final night of the vision, he sensed something had changed. According to him, the dream ended with a feeling that would never come back. The next morning, he went to work as usual, but shortly after arriving, he received devastating news. He recalled the moment he learned of the accident. “I got up and went to work. I was at work for 15 minutes and the phone rang. ‘Dave, I’m sorry to tell you that American Airlines flight DC-10 crashed on takeoff an hour ago. There were no survivors.'” When Buck later learned of the disaster, he said the similarities between Booth’s account and the crash itself were disturbing. “It suddenly dawned on me how accurate he was. His dream was basically what happened.”Looking back on the experience, Barker said the feeling was hard to explain. “You have to go through it to understand how scary it is.”
Lingering questions and weird stories
For Booth, the experience never completely went away. Years later, he admits he still thinks about those visions and wonders if more could have been done. “I still think about it and I always wonder, is there anything else I can do?” After the accident, other strange stories began to circulate locally. Drivers passing the crash site reported seeing strange white lights moving across the site where the plane crashed. Residents of nearby trailer parks described unexplained banging sounds and the sound of dogs barking in empty fields. Some residents even claimed that a disoriented man showed up at their door late at night, demanded his luggage, then disappeared. An account describes The “smoldering man” who “smells of gasoline” Ask for an emergency call. These stories were never confirmed, but they became part of the folklore surrounding the disaster.
The ominous reputation of Flight 191
The crash of Flight 191 also fueled another aviation superstition. The flight number itself has been linked to several tragic events. Since 1963, six different flights numbered 191 have been involved in fatal accidents. Coincidence or not, this number has developed an ominous reputation in the aviation community. For David Booth, however, the most memorable part of the story remains the ten nights before the crash and the disturbing sights he says he couldn’t stop seeing.
