The plane, Delta Flight 1141, had taken off from Jackson, Miss., and stopped over at Dallas. It disembarked passengers and took on others, topped off its fuel tanks, then lumbered down the Dallas runway in hazy sunshine headed for Salt Lake City. At 9:03 a.m., pilot Larry Davis lifted the plane's nose into the air. By a number of accounts, the aircraft hesitated, then began to fall.

Wednesday's disaster was the second fatal crash of a Delta plane at the Dallas-Ft. Worth Airport in three years. On Aug. 2, 1985, 137 people died when a Delta Lockheed L-1011 slammed into the ground at the opposite end of the airport during a thunderstorm. The NTSB said the pilot of that aircraft should not have flown into the storm-but also urged the FAA to include wind shear information in its automatic weather broadcasts.

PHOTO: Rescue worker peers from an emergency exit of the plane.; PHOTO: Twisted wreckage of the Delta jetliner that crashed on takeoff from Dallas-Ft. Worth Airport.; PHOTO: Injured pilot Larry Davis as he was carried from jetliner.; PHOTO: Firefighter sprays foam into the still-smoldering fuselage of the Boeing 727 that crashed. / Ft. Worth Star-Telegram via Associated Press; DRAWING: Dallas-Ft. Worth International Airport, Los Angeles Times; DRAWING: Boeing 727-200, Los Angeles Times; MAP: Texas, Los Angeles Times