Flying WITHOUT Controls! United Airlines flight 232
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 11 ก.ย. 2020
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On the 19th of July 1989 a United Airlines DC10 suffered a catastrophic engine failure to its tail mounted engine (eng nr2). The engine failure managed to damage all three hydraulic systems on the aircraft rendering completely without normal flight controls. What followed after that is one of the biggest miracles in modern aviation as the 3 person cockpit crew, with the help of a training captain flying as a passenger, managed to get the aircraft down to Sioux City airport. There was still considerable loss of life but 185 persons were saved by the skill, CRM and nerves of the flight and cabin-crew onboard.
In this episode I will tell the tale based on my background as a pilot and what I think is important to point out.
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Below you will find the links to videos and sources used in this episode. Enjoy checking them out!
Shatner Method (News reporting on UA 232)
• United Airlines Flight...
• United Airlines Flight...
Final Accident report:
www.ntsb.gov/investigations/A...
Wikipedia United Airlines flight 232
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_...
Captain Denny Fitch was horribly injured during the crash, but held out hope that he would one day recover to fly again. His doctors didn't hold out much hope, but they were dealing with quite an extraordinary man. Not only did he recover, he returned to flying for United Airlines, and on the DC-10. Sadly, he lost his life to brain cancer in 2012. These brave men who fought all odds and saved so many lives have been an inspiration to me over the years, and will always be true heroes.
so say we all.
There's a long interview with Captain Fitch that's well worth watching where he tells the story in his own words...
Denny Fitch is my hero. For anyone looking to get a sense of this extraordinary man, I suggest finding Errol Morris’s documentary First Person, season 2 episode 6 “Leaving The Earth”. His closing comment in the documentary: “I never went to work; I only went to fly.”
Do yuu think radiation from flying contributed to th cancer?
Wow
I remember watching a documentary about this and there was a significant reward for anyone finding the broken fan disk. A farmer found it sometime later in a corn field but turned down the reward as people had died in the accident. High morals indeed.
Thank you for sharing that.
Hmm, I thought Hollywood made up the name Doubtfire :)
@@Bill_Woo there are a few of us left 😁 Crazy name I know. Bit uf a bugger growing up withi it though.
I remember hearing later on about a scandal involving engine parts that were rejected as being defective being secretly sold as new. Needless to say the people involved got in a whole lot of trouble.
Tom Kestel (the comment above as I'm reading this) would be that farmer, I'm guessing.
@@MrNikolidas Maybe try clicking the link I provided. If you don't mind giving a click to the L.A. Times, that is.
From the moment all three hydraulic circuits failed this was pretty much a non-survivable event. It is tragic that 111 people died but it is remarkable that 185 survived. How the flight crew achieved what they did is nothing short of miraculous.
As demonstrated by the fact that none of the "test crews" trying to replicate what they did, were able to save the plane, despite knowing in advance what was going to happen and what the flight crew of UA232 had done. All of them "crashed" and none of them even got close to the airport, let alone touchdown on a runway. I remember seeing a program about this, where the crew had suffered terrible "survivors guilt" for the loss of 111 people, yet they had saved 185 from certain death. Had it have been any other crew, everyone on board would have died far earlier in the flight and it was only the last minute loss of control before touchdown that caused the actual crash.
@@jcorbett9620 That's the most incredible part for me. A number of pilots, experienced pilots, tried this in a simulator. All of them failed to achieve a result anywhere near as good as what actually happened.
@@jcorbett9620 When they pulled Al Haynes out of the wreckage of the cockpit, his first remark was asking if all of the passengers had made it. He was devastated to learn that many hadn't. It haunted him for the rest of his life. He passed away a few days short of his 88th birthday, in 2019.
The moment the explosion happened, everyone on that plane was dead. The fact that the flight crew was able to save as many as they did was a triumph.
Yes. This accident is on my personal list of "absolute freak incidents", along with (and ranking higher than) TAROM flight 371. You know, where it's so mind-bogglingly unlikely that things happened the way it did; so outlandish that if was written as a piece of fiction, everyone would lambast the creators for sheer unbelievability.
That's literally the most experienced flight crew that could have been assembled.
Loses all hydraulics, can fly the aircraft with just thrust, convenient passenger saves the day... I have blasted Star Trek episodes for being more ridiculous, having low chances of success and having too convenient fixes. "Hold my Fanta" Captain #2... probably.
And passenger list.
@@jimhaney6384 its not so simple my friend.if you are in the captain seat or in the FO's you cant get your both hands on the throttle levers and your eyes on the primary flight display without taking your eyes off it...its crucial to have your eyes on it at all time and react instantly,because if you delay adding thrust you'll lose control and you cant do much to save the day after that...these guys worked together in the best possible way and saved so many lifes...its a miracle and great airmanship...and dont think both pilots in the left and right seats are just passengers..they are constantly talking and giving information to the guy with most of the controls telling him what to do and where they should go,how high,how fast and much more...if you alone is both hands on the throttles with no crew to help you you are doomed...its very important to have good coleagues next to you...i hope those guys still fly because after that crash i am pretty sure i'll be so scared to fly again...and the tragedy to lose even 1 passenger is so great for a professional pilot...i wish these guys long and healthy life and to be strong mentally and remember all those lifes they saved,because this is the most important thing...they saved all they can save..just AMAZING
The universe works in mysterious ways doesn't it? An airliner suffers a crippling failure that by rights should've caused it to slam into the ground full force killing everyone, but by some miraculous coincidence you have probably the most experienced flight crew possible and they manage to crash land their crippled bird in a way that 62.5% of the people onboard survive. Truly incredible
@@jimhaney6384 Yeah, the probabilities are just insane. While I daresay that McDonnell-Douglas were foolhardy in not taking measures to ensure this couldn't happen in the first place (if they'd sat down and looked critically at how you could get to lose all 3 hydraulic systems, it's possible they'd realised an uncontained, violent failure of #2 engine could do it), it's not like they were entirely wrong, either: the likelyhood that a DC-10 would lose all hydraulics were _absolutely miniscule to begin with._
I remember that accident well. About a year or two later, I went to the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum IMAX theater to hear a talk from Captain Haynes. The Federal Aviation Administration offices were just a block or so away. The auditorium was packed with people from all across the aviation industry: Airline pilots. Private pilots, Mechanics, Crew members, and many people from the FAA.
They played a video montage including all radio traffic right through the accident. And yes, he did say "Oh, you want us to put this on a runway, do you?" just before crash landing. They showed slides of the aftermath. And then the auditorium went dead silent.
Captain Haynes climbed the stairs to the podium and as he stood there before the whole auditorium, his peers from all walks of aviation gave him a standing ovation and applause for what seemed like five minutes or more.
One of the key points Captain Haynes made was how important CRM was. He also pointed out how very very lucky they were that this happened right over Sioux City. Literally only a week before the National Guard had practiced procedures for an airline accident at that airport. Local hospitals were all approaching a shift change, so they held the previous medical staff over and they kept the fresh staff available to triage the people and injuries that they knew were coming.
Had either of those two things not happened, the event could have been much worse. Captain Haynes spoke with humility and humor.
And by the way, those hydraulic fuses in the design change of the DC 10 are named after him. They're called Haynes fuses.
Whoa, that naming of the fuses after him gave me literal chill down my spine. 😮
There were IMAX theaters in 1991?
@@flare242 They came out 20 years prior to that.
Thanks for sharing... Theres also HYNS intersection now near Sioux city now.
I would have loved to have been there! And I would have applauded like my life depended on it. I'm so glad to hear he has been honoured. Thanks for your extra info, fascinating.
RIP - Captain Al Haynes, August 25, 2019.
RIP - Captain Denny Fitch, May 10, 2012
Those are DEFINITELY in heaven.... True heroes that deserve more recognition!
Why they die they die because they is too old ?
@@cojanrobert17 most likely.
Corrections on the date for Captain Denny Fitch's passing, it was on May 7, 2012. He was 69 at the time. He passed away from brain cancer.
sorry to hear, remembering the lives who they saved
What are even the odds that the one single person to ever simulate this "impossible" emergency scenario would be onboard while the exact event itself occurs?
The grace of God...
The mathematical impossibility of it seems astronomical, indeed. Just flat unexplainable. But for the Grace of God is right.
Something similar happened in this one: SAS flight 751, the Gottröra Miracle...
@@brandi5803 no. It was purely human actions. It was all reality. Nothing to do with fairy tale sky daddies.
Of course there's also the thousands of plane crashes where the person who knew what to do wasn't on board.
So statistically it all works out without having to invoke miracles or the supernatural.
Again.
The fact that they put other pilots in the simulator with the same situation and none of them could save the plane shows just how utterly amazing this flight crew was.
and even if your job depends on it, it is much easier to concentrate when you know you can't die in a simulation.
This crew certainly performed incredibly well, but it's possible that simulators of the time or maybe even today did not provide sufficient nuance for a crew to adequately tune in to the very limited and subtle responses that would have been available from the real incident aircraft.
@@artgreen6915 Well i just watched Denny Finch's account of the event.
He went on to talk about the failed simulations.
After almost 30 failed simulations they asked Denny for advice/tips for the simulation.
He told them the nuances of everything he did and only then did the pilots in the simulators reach the runway
@artgreen6915 they should try again with the more sophisticated simulators
They weren’t in that situation. Terrifically heightened senses from the (fight) or flight adrenaline response. You cannot simulate the response of a Human who knows they are in absolute peril. 👍
I remember a report at the time that Captain Haynes, on hearing the number of deaths, moaned "I killed 112 people." He was reassured that he did not kill them, he saved 184. By all expectations nobody should have survived.
Fitch also said that he cried every waking moment for three days after the accident. He performed excellently during the flight, his skill helped save 184 lives and he himself knew that there was not a single thing he could have done better than he did. Still, survivor's guilt is a very real thing and you just cannot help it.
ATC, as the jet was a couple minutes out: “you’re cleared to any runway.”
Capt. Haynes, nervously laughing: “ Oh, you wanna be particular and make it a runway, huh?”
That crew single-handedly saved a ton of lives that day.
@@matthewgroff433 Maybe the angels should have fixed the airplane instead and then nobody would have died.
@@matthewgroff433 Eyeroll... god sent angels... wow... what a joke. Yeah, screw the people who lost their lives and their families & friends who suffered their loss. "God" sent "angels." What are you five?
@@GeekFurious How else would you explain it. The pilots were able to Fly an "Uncontrollable aircraft hundreds of miles and were able to get the plane to make it to an airport? Yeah, they crash landed and many people lost their lives, BUT the Plane was able to make it to the Airport.
Whether or not you believe in God or not, The Pilots had HELP.
@@matthewgroff433 Giving credit where credit is due, to the heroes in the cockpit, not to some imaginary skydaddy.
Have you really no idea how distasteful and disrespectful your comment is?
@@matthewgroff433 it’s because of skill and physics, not angels.
I remember an old PBS documentary about this event. They interviewed the flight, cabin crew and some passengers and their accounts were obviously chilling. But what has always stuck in my mind is a comment someone (I think it was a flight attendant) made that they saw a passenger who was thrown clear of the cabin and onto the tarmac, pick himself off the ground - found his briefcase (which happened to land next to him) and walked away from the carnage apparently unhurt. It still blows my mind.
You forgot the best part this passenger was later found by the emergemcy personal drinking whiskey in the airport bar.
@@DUDA-__- Y'know, if I just got up unscathed after being thrown from a plane mid-crash, I'd buy every single drop of alcohol in that bar.
@@BigTylt fair enough
@@BigTylt I would also assume he's severely concussed.
One thing that often gets missed about this crash is it was fairly low impact. By that I mean the plane came down at a very low horizontal angle parallel to the ground. So when it began tumbling and breaking up it was bleeding off most of the kinetic energy, and not passing it through to the passengers. It’s why a spectacular tumbling car crash with the car rolling is much more survivable than a direct head on impact with a solid object such as a tree or a wall. The two main killers in an aviation accident are direct impact, from a high angle crash, where all the energy of the plane goes straight through the passengers from the sudden stop. And AV fuel fire, which is the biggest killer in a low impact, low angle crash. If you somehow avoid a fire low angle low energy crashes can be quite survivable. This is why actual statistical analysis shows far more survival from aviation crashes than you would think.
From watching the Mayday episode about this, where they interviewed some of the crew, im pretty sure i remember Denny Fitch talking about that final dip before landing and he is utterly heartbroken and annoyed at himself for losing control of it right at that point in time, even though his actions probably saved everyone they did, i think he thought even more could have survived if he had been able to correct it in time. But the fact any survived it is just astounding
they were so close to nailing a perfect landing, and everyone surviving. It's easy to look at it and praise the fact that anyone survived, but it's much harder being there in the cockpit, wondering if you could have done better.
@@GammaJK depends if there is just grass on the end and side and much speed already had bled off by then there's a good chance there would have been no fatalities
True.. Al also mentioned this is the fiat time the engines didnt spool evenly when Denny pushed them up. Rt eng lagged.
@@naverilllang they might have still lost the landing gear for too high speed landing and crashed belly down but that is much better outcome of course
An interesting bit of information from the wiki on this crash; Of the 296 people aboard, 112 were killed and 184 survived. Haynes later identified three factors relating to the time of day that increased the survival rate:
-The accident occurred during daylight hours in good weather;
-The accident occurred as a shift change was occurring at both a regional trauma center and a regional burn center in Sioux City, allowing for more medical personnel to treat the injured;
-The accident occurred when the Iowa Air National Guard was on duty at Sioux Gateway Airport, allowing for 285 trained personnel to assist with triage and evacuation of the injured.
"Had any of those things not been there," Haynes said, "I'm sure the fatality rate would have been a lot higher."
That UA232 simply crashed at an airport and not in a field was a huge mitigating factor too, since emergency services were on site, not obstructed by terrain and available with no delay
Thanks for the extra info!
So much of that also hinged on the time available between the mayday and crash. Having emergency services on site, even though that site was little more than a distant hope until the last minutes, was fantastic.
The dirt in the cornfield was soft too.
@@pasoundman They were not just on site, they were on standby in close proximity to the runway the plane crashed on. That even reduces the time until they can start fighting the fires and rescuing the survivors. If there is any good place to crash an aircraft it's the runway of an airport that expects you to come in as an emergency landing. (Of course, a crash is never good, but out of all possible places to crash that's probably the one with the best chances to survive.)
Captain Fitch is reported to have had an interest in the topic of total loss of hydraulic pressure after studying the crash of JAL123. That is why he went to the simulator to study it. A very fortuitous turn of events that he did have some experience with the topic beforehand.
The survivors were beyond lucky. What is the probability of someone taking an interest in such a black swan event, studying and practicing it beforehand, and being on a plane that suffered the exact black swan event failure?
I can only imagine what all those people felt when all they saw was mountains filling up the windows.
Alaska Airlines 261 could very easily be the scariest for the passengers. Absolutely brutal almost vertical nose down acceleration...a few times.
Acme threaded jackscrews controlled by high torque servo motors with improper maintenance is a good way to get folks killed. Scary.
@@rickfeith6372 I believe that Alaska stretched the maintenance intervals. Jackscrew thread almost stripped and then fails in flight. FWIW Alaska also stopped using the McD-D approved grease, substituting Boeing's but that's likely a side issue.
So true and well put!😊
That's something cosmic, Godly even. Whichever, thank goodness!
Even if there were casualties, he managed to save half of the passengers. What a legend.
There have been great improvements in aviation since 1979 when I began as an aircraft mechanic in US military. The C5 even got anti corrosive wings put on as they are 222 ft wide wiñgspan and 135 cu ft of space for cargo.
"It is tragic that 111 people died, but remarkable that 185 survived."
185 out of 296 is much closer to two thirds, but yeah, incredibly impressive how they managed to fly that plane as well as they did.
A little more than half actually, i did the math, they saved 62.5% of all the people onboard.
MORE than half pax were saved!!!!
I would argue that, with all due respect to Sully, this was the most incredible feat of flying in the history of commercial aviation.
There are quite a few incredible landings, Taca, Garuda that didn’t get the same visibility. It doesn’t detract from one of them to celebrate all of them. One difference though for some of these is altitude and speed. They had some time to figure out a plan, Sully made his decisions in seconds.
@@skaren9454 Yeah. This particular event took quite a long time to carry out. Sully went from a completely normal flight to swimming in the Hudson is just over 2 minutes. (and also Sully managed to save ALL his passemgers)
There was another video this guy did recently on another flight with duel engine failure in the early 1980s, and he managed to perfectly land the plane on a grass field, saving not just all his passengers, but also bring the plane to a comeplete stop without a single scratch, aside from the already busted engines. They were able to replace the engines, and take the plane off right from that exact spot again.
@@Bambuskus505 is that the Taca flight I mentioned where they landed on a levy or a different one? That Taca captain is a legend not only because of that flight but even before that flight.
Captain Sullenberger actually shares how important this event was to the airline industry and even affected his flying in his book.
I completely agree. It amazes me beyond words that this went as well as it did. For even one person to survive this, let alone a majority, is nothing short of incredible. Of course, Sully's feat was absolutely amazing in its own way. No doubt about that.
Al Haynes epic response to the tower giving him clearance to land on any runway...
"You want to be particular in making a runway?"
Yeah but a minute later when ATC asked them to widen out their turn a bit to line up for final and take them away from the city Haynes replies "Whatever you do keep us away from the city."
Boss
The ultimate example of keeping your composure
"Just get it on the ground!"
"Oh, that part'll happen, most definitely..."
cool as ice
A miracle that the plane even took off, considering how overloaded it was with balls of steel.
Hahaha! True
They did have to account for them in the weight and balance worksheet!😂
They had to load all the heavy cargo in the aft compartment to keep the aircraft in trim.
Could be why the engine decided to fail... couldn't handle the load
That's a good one!!
The captain and his crew were more than heroics, they handled the situation incredibly well with no flight controls at all!
Captain Haynes passed away in 2019 at the age of 87.
RIP LEGEND!
I was supposed to be on this flight. I'm 40 now but was 8 at the time this happened. We were flying from Jackson Hole WY to Denver to Chicago to New York to visit my uncle.... For some reason, our Dash8 flight out of Jackson was delayed by an hour and a half so we got into Denver late and missed our flight 232 by a good hour or so... I remember watching it on the news in the airport. Amazing what these pilots did, but am glad for flight delays in my case....
It's amazing how something we were hoping for a plane trip that will take us to see family and friends or a trip to New York for a new job ends up being delayed can change your life or save it even. I hope you always thought about that as you move forward in life and made amazing choices because you realize that you were given a gift. On 9/11 I was supposed to be in New York I had a training session for a job that I desperately wanted. I was going back into an industry that I had walked away from due to illness a few years before but financially I needed it for our family. It would be an all paid for 4 week vacation for me and my husband and the company was excited because they were getting a disabled female that would give them clout with the human resources department. But as it got closer from the hiring date of May to the Flying date of September my husband became more and more worried. He finally came to me and asked there was any way to move it to Spring because he had a very bad feeling. I told him you don't do that with these people you know that. He said all I can see is Darkness if we go please ask them. I did I was informed that if I didn't go this time I didn't really want the job and if I didn't go he would make sure that I wouldn't get a job in the industry ever again. I looked at my husband and I told the gentleman I'd call him back but I never did. I knew the answer would have to be no I couldn't face it. I did try to call around and see if I could get interviews with other corporations the answer was no he had made those phone calls I figured he would he didn't even wait for me to call him back he had called the other companies within 24 hours I either had to work for him or forget it. The funny thing was I thought the training sessions were in Brooklyn they had been before and when I started in the industry they were having them out here in California but they had changed the laws and New York wanted to make sure since that was where the corporate office was that all trainees were trained the same way no Slip Sliding around they wanted control of all information and making sure that everybody had the same skill sets from the beginning I think they also wanted to make sure that what they were told a person was was what they saw. Well what they saw on paper was what they were getting with me I wasn't a hidden commodity or some kind of fake thing as a matter of fact that is the best thing they could get I had a really good track record ethical values that they desperately needed and my concern and care of my clients before had been well documented to the fact that I was able to turn accounts around that had been destroyed by agents who had been in it only for the money. I was in it to make a person's life better and they knew it that's why this guy really wanted to hire me back. I went into a deep depression and then I got a phone call it was from the grandmother of a friend of ours who was flying home from Poland. She told me you have to turn the television on we're at War we've been attacked I was in shock I turn on the TV on saw the World Trade Center burning then I saw the second plane hit. Of course they started interviewing people and that's when they interviewed someone from the company that I was supposed to be at I sat there in shock and listen to the only survivor of the office I would have been sitting in they had come down when the building had been evacuated originally due to the other building being on fire. But when they were given the all clear management of course I'd seen this happen in California had forced them to go back up but they had said to the new trainees well if you feel uncomfortable because you're afraid and of course you're not used to these high rises like we have you know you can go back to your hotel room and sit there for the day but those of you who are really Purpose Driven and you know the big black male crap that most companies give you and you're serious about your job kind of stuff you're going to go upstairs with the rest of us employees. So the employees weren't even given the choice of saying no I don't want to go back up into the building until we know what's going on next door they were all told to go back upstairs but this one young smart man decided something inside didn't sound right and he stayed downstairs. The worst part is I knew if I had been there I would have been so afraid of losing my opportunity to get this job because you're hired on a probationary. And I wanted so hard to help my husband financially because my accident had financially drained us. So I would have gone back upstairs and he either would have been with me helping me take notes doing whatever I needed because I couldn't sit very long I can't write very long because he could have made sure of recording machine was working or something but he was being paid to come as my assistant because as a disabled person you can request that or he would have been waiting in the hotel next door which of course was destroyed but he wouldn't have waited he would have gone up those stairs with the fire department he wouldn't have come down he would have gone upstairs trying to get to me if you wasn't with me.
In the end that young man was the only Survivor from that office they didn't talk about that office very much because the cancer Fitzgerald office took up all the news a lot of companies didn't want people to know they had lost their major corporate office employees. But I'm sure it was one of the reasons why that company went bankrupt orally merged with another firm after being in business for over a hundred years they lost their managing partners they lost their history the whole corporate office went down not just their managing agents but the assistant brokers, bonded cashiers, record keepers, HR, accountants, everyone died. They must have paid somebody a lot of money to keep it out of the media. I found out later they had moved everything out of Brooklyn because they decided it was just stupid to have it in two separate places. If you going to be in New York you might as well be in New York.
In the end if we had gone my husband and I would have seen only Darkness he would have left behind four children yes they were adults by then but they would have lost their father three grandchildren and one great grandchild would have lost their grandpa.
Sadly the pain did arrive when we tried to call our friends grandmother that same night and found her phone disconnected. She had told me in her phone call that she had to get off because he was on a plane coming to California that morning. She didn't know if he was on one of those that was being used by the hijackers we were never able to get a hold of her but we did see that he was listed. We figured the rest of the family gathered around her and protected her from the media and too many people trying to reach her and overwhelm her. We were saddened we had lost a friend and a great business partner.
Serendipity missing a plane or listening to your inner messages that tell you not to go can change your life forever.
I am so glad you featured this flight today as I have personally met Captain Haynes. It was in 1999, the captain was in my little town of Sulphur Springs Texas to give a speech about working through an emergency. The audience was a gathering of local emergency personnel, and we were preparing for any possible negative events as we awaited the upcoming Y2K turnover. Captain Haynes gave us the full accounting of events on that day of the crash. The story he told was personal, and what he told us was so amazing. As a typical Texan he humbly attributed any success to his crew, and the people on the ground. Despite the bad luck suffered by his plane had he pointed out all the other variables were favorable for a more positive outcome. Truly they were very lucky, the weather was perfect, the local emergency officials knew they were coming in and were prepared, citizens were lined up to give blood before before they even "landed". It was shift change time at local hospitals so they had double the staff there awaiting new patients. He said he didn't remember the crash but woke up in a hospital bed and noticed the TV before him was playing footage of a plane crashing. He said to his wife, "No one could survive that crash". to which she informed him that was his plane. There was much more but this is long enough. I can only say by the time he was done, I knew I was in the presence of a hero, and simply would not leave the room until I had the opportunity to tell him so and shake his hand. He was born in Paris, Texas, grew up in Dallas, and went to Texas A&M University.
Thanks for your story, very uplifting
Whoop!
Hey thanks for sharing this with us :)
cellgrrl Very cool. I spent many years in the Dallas Fort Worth Area before moving to the Washington DC area. I really like your story and I’m glad you got to meet him!!
Texas A&M represent!!!
While the flight crew did an amazing job, there was one other thing that really worked in their favor. The Sioux City area emergency services had recently staged a full system wide mass casualty drill on damn near the exact scenario. The timing was perfect in that all of the responders still had the drill and training in their recent memory, but they had had enough time to do extensive post mortem’s of the drill and make corrections to their response plans, communications and training based on their reviews. When the plane came down they were ready. And thankfully they were alert enough to realize the all but uncontrollable airplane was coming down not on the planned runway, but rather on the one the emergency vehicles were parked on. Thankfully they got out of the way in time. Just another moment where this flight could have gone so much worse than it did.
In 2010 at Seattle's Museum of Flight captain Sullenberger of "Miracle on the Hudson" fame gave a lecture on the crash and on aviation safety. There were maybe a hundred of us in the audience and after Sully was done talking he took questions. I was surprised when one of the questioners identified himself as Al Haynes! I was in awe being in the presence of these two great men. My father had been a United pilot from 1940 -1968 and was also stationed in Seattle so I asked Captain Haynes if they had ever flown together. Capt. Haynes responded that they had not as he was too junior to be assigned to the long-haul DC-8 routes my father flew at the end of his career. He did say that he knew who my father was and that he was "one of those hot-shot pilots we looked up to". This meant so much to me hearing that from someone who had accomplished so much.
What question did he ask?
@@patriciaviles4033 I don't remember, sorry.
My dad flew as engineer on the DC8 out of Seattle in the early 60s, before he transitioned to the 727. Maybe they flew together. :-)
@@Cre8tvMG When did he transition to the 727? I know that in my father's last few years he flew a lot to Hawaii and a lot of Military Air Carrier charters to Bangkok, Saigon and Da Nang and a few other places in that neighborhood as well. Before that I think he mostly flew transcontinental flights but I don't really remember because I was too young to really remember. I think Captain Haynes started with United in 1959 so it's possible your father flew with him as well.
@@solracer66 I think he went from the DC8 to the 727 around 1965 or 6? And he stayed on it until the 90s. He loved it because they did short hops, so lots more landings and takeoffs: the fun part.
I can only imagine that Captian Fitch had never successfully performed this landing in a simulator, just adding to the absolute terror he must have felt. Amazing bravery in the face of certain disaster.
the fact that they were actually able to somewhat land the plane is INSANE to me. what fantastic pilots.
A somewhat similar accident happened on 22 November 2003 when an Airbus 300 taking of from Baghdad was shot at with a missile. It damaged all hydraulic systems, but the aircraft was able to land back at the Baghdad airport using engine trust to control the plane. The pilots of the Airbus claimed that they knew about th Sioux City accident and that helped them to land their damaged plane.
Oh yeah, the DHL cargo plane! Those pilots were truly outstanding.
I knew one of the DHL plane pilots. He had character as a boy, already. We went to the same school in Africa. The last time I saw him, we were walking down a dirt road and he exclaimed: "Quand je serai grand, je veux être soldat". I was struck by such forcefulness because I was in a quite different position. Eric didn't become a soldier, instead he became a great pilot.
I remember that, Incredible piloting.
Not to take away anything from what the DHL crew did, but it shows how aviation is made safer by the collective experience of the aviation industry. Their landing may not have been so successful if not for their knowledge about UA232.
A few years after the crash, I met the television news photographer(I were one, too, at that time) who shot that video. He almost missed the shot completely due to his equipment but he got it. At a professional conference, he showed the news package that aired that night in Sioux City and a follow-up package with interviews with first responders and firefighters who were there. In those interviews, the firefighters based at the airport were ready at the far end of the runway but the plane never made it that far. So they had to drive to the crash. All of them said they expected to find no survivors. But as they got closer, they saw people coming out of the corn field next to the runway. They first thought these people were just onlookers there to view the event before they realized they were survivors.
I could have told him 2 better places to shoot that video, cause I worked there. It was a summer work program, when I was in high school.
You know, in thinking about it,
A "Corn Field" is probably one of the more favorable place for the plane to have broken up in !
You have corn stalks big enough to slow you down, and yet small enough to not break bones on impact.
It acted as a Giant absorber.
The reason that better footage was not captured is at the very last moment the decision to use a different runway for landing was made. Cameras that were set up could not be moved fast enough and the view was blocked by obstructions. One private party caught video, and one news person I believe.
@@charleslacombe359 it would have made a difference but not too much because of the horizontal motion
If you where falling it would make the best difference
Very astute way to analyse the helping factors
I take my hat of to you sir
@@charleslacombe359 For some reason I always remember the corn field part of this crash.
My daughter's pediatrician was a passenger on this flight. Her story about it was amazing, as is this and the other stories I've seen.
14:35 wow that is commitment to the craft. Flying the "impossible scenario", training for the black swan. What a guy to have on your plane.
Here’s an interesting fact. There was actually a number of pilots training this scenario, including the captain who landed flight 96 in 1972. Many pilots quickly realised how dangerous of a death trap the DC-10 was due to its poor design, lack of backup systems and overall shoddy build quality
I'm a flight attendant, and I'm marveled by the clarity you explain each and every video. Love your passion and professionalism. Keep up the wonderful work you do.!
Hi Uri! I’m so glad you enjoy my videos, this is exactly what I’m trying to achieve.
He is blessed with the gift of being an effective educator. Han är bra, jätte bra, otroligt bra! 😎
Yes. I love these videos. He explains things perfectly
@@brandi5803 Bra exempel på hur piloter skall arbeta tillsammans för att lösa ett problem. A good exempel on how the pilots should work together for solwing a trouble.
It should be noted that, on impact, the cockpit separated from the fuselage, and was partially buried in the Earth... It was nearly unidentifiable, with so many twisted parts and wires. The cockpit flight crew was located during a ‘sweep’ of the area nearly 45-50 minutes after the crash, while rescuers looked for survivors. I later met and befriended both Al and Denny, and to say they were amazing souls is quite the understatement. They later (individually) travelled the United States (and beyond) to give talks in the importance of good CRM (their flight and experience is where I believe CRM to have been born or at least galvanized). Further, the movie, ‘1,000 Heroes’ detailed the flight, but also the amazing preparations Sioux City and surrounding municipalities underwent for just such a mass-casualty incident, which is why they were so very well prepared for UAL 232. May God eternally rest their collective souls, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they all rest in peace 🙏🏻
Yep, I think, there are 3 groups of heroes here: a) the cockpit crew, obviously, b) the cabin crew, c) the ground crew at Sioux airport. They prepared the airport and all rescue services in the area for a nightmare event, got the decomissioned runway cleared up, and kept constant communication with the flight crew. If they had dropped the ball or freaked out, many many more lives could have been lost after impact.
Did Bill Rekords and Dudley Devorack survive?? The first officer and flight engineer??
@@mrkipling2201 The flight crew all survived.
Got to hear Capt Haynes speak back in ‘95 in flight school.
@@mrkipling2201 Yes they did. Dunno if they're still around today, though - sincerely hope they are
The number of positive comments and personal stories about the crew is impressive and heartwarming. Sounds like there were some amazing people behind this amazing story.
Indeed there were. Look up Jan Brown and her relentless fight for baby safety aboard airplanes. Heartbreaking and heartwarming.
One very important point that was not made. Sioux City Airport had, fairly recently, an on-property, multi-agency disaster response training scenario. Coincidentally the training scenario was fairly close to the actual crash landing. The sheer number of the proper people, in the proper place, at the proper time was an incredible confluence of skills and knowledge. Listening to the cockpit voice recording makes for an incredible learning experience. I, too, had the good fortune, to hear Al Haynes re-telling of United 232. It was actually twice, both occurring at Emergency Medical Service conferences. What a great, humble man.
one of the things I love about this channel is even though he goes into depth about all the details, and most of the views are just random nerds who never have touched the controls of a plane, he talks to us as if we're all pilots. He really does feel like a mentor
This! haha, so true.
Absolutely. I found this channel less than 72hrs ago, and all I have done since Thursday evening is binge-watch countless episodes without getting tired.
@@naijaman6639 I don't know why but I feel I could listen the this guy explain Quantum Physics and understand everything he said I also stumbled across this channel 2 week ago and have watched alot of his videos
@@richardmaxwellii2689 Haha, that makes two of us😊
this is so accurate lmaoo
When ATC told them they were cleared for the runway Capitan Haines responded " Now you want to be particular and make it a runway ". Not sure if those were his exact words but it was close. The fact that he could have a sense of humor in that situation is astounding.
Well, situations like this, you can laugh or you can cry/scream. Being able to see the absurd and be amused, even if it's simply as a stress response is, I think, far more useful than the other possibilities.
You have to know that none of that crew really thought they would make it as far as they did, but damned if they were not going to give everything and then some to try and get just a little bit more.
You are so sweet to always warn us about the loss of life in the videos and i always appreciate how you honor those who died with that pause. It's a little thing, but i appreciate it.
There isa flight that i would appreciate your thoughts on. It was a military cargo flight pulled by Michael Hodges and went down on 12 July 1984. I was told at the time that it "now up over Sicily with no survivors." I now know that there are investigations and final reports and the like and that there is probably more to the story. I have always been concerned that it might have been pilot error or that they might have suffered terribly. There were 9 on board. Not a large sum as compared with some of these passenger flights, but the pilot was my only cousin on my mother's side. We always said we were twins although our birthdays were a year a month, a week, and a day apart.
Please forgive the spelling. Autocorrect strikes again.
My dad flew for United during this time. I've always seen these pilots as true heroes. Their creative genius and skill saved the lives of every survivor. The loss of all 3 control systems was a complete death sentence, and they beat it.
Tons of respect.
I remember reading that pilots in simulators couldn't do any better than they did. It's a miracle they wound up anywhere NEAR an airport in their condition. RIP Al, RIP Denny.
thenekom - 100 crews tried it. Most of the pilots lost control of the aircraft within the 1st minute. 10 of them got it within 10 miles of the airport, & only 1 got it to the airport.
I think later on they did eventually manage to get pilots trained on how to land most types of passenger liners using differential thrust only, but even still, it would take an exceptional flight crew to pull it off, though in the episode of Mayday covering this crash, they did mention that since this crash, others have had total loss of flight controls and managed to land the plane safely on a runway with just engine thrust control.
@@Seriously_Unserious Only the one DHL flight in Baghdad was truly successful from what I recall. But the plane here was in an even worse condition considering they'd also suffered an uncontained engine failure with structural damage that was causing the plane to turn right. They had to estimate their rate of descent without the rear engine, while making only right hand turns to somehow line up perfectly with the runway at the correct altitude. All this while actually just trying to keep the plane in the air as it bobbed up and down in the Phugoid cycle. As the guy mentions in the video, what they did was pretty much impossible.
@@JourdainWong Of course, the DHL crew didn't have a rear engine either, since they were flying an A300. I think that while that crew were incredibly skilled, and rose to the occasion perfectly, part of it comes down to luck. Maybe the United crew got a last minute air current that the DHL crew didn't, and that made the difference.
So, a Kobayashi Maru kind of test? They still try it today?
Now that, is an exceptional report there fella.
Glad you liked it my friend!
Indeed
@@MentourPilot so much so it has better explanation than Seconds from Disaster
Another excellent video. As a retired United pilot, I knew about this incident, of course, but you explained it so well. One interesting thing that was in Sully's book was that a few weeks after what the press was calling "the miracle on the Hudson", Al called Sully because he knew that no matter how well a major accident went, there would be years of sleepless nights wondering if the pilot in command could have done more. It's just human nature and also part of our pilot culture. As Al explained to Sully he finally came to terms with understanding that his actions were the best he could have done on that day and Sully would come to realize it too. It seems obvious to us as outsiders but if you walk a mile in their shoes you have to empathize with them. In any case, a truly amazing display of airmanship, CRM and valuable experience. The crew were indeed heroes.
I know a survivor from the tail section, which broke off during this crash landing. All these years later, he is still very traumatized by it. Still, such an amazing crew to have saved as many as they did. True heroes.
Bittersweet that so many lost their lives in this accident, but it's also hard to imagine a single person surviving a situation like this.
No crew on the planet could have done better. Simply amazing.
No crew could have done even as well as they did, and yet Dennis Fitch was devastated that some passengers were killed while he was [sort of] at the controls. From his obituary (he died of brain cancer):
Fitch suffered several broken bones, a punctured lung and other injuries that required nine operations, Rosa Fitch said.
The emotional scars were even deeper.
"To find out that 112 people didn't make it, that just about destroyed me," he once said. "I would have given my life for any of them. It was a really tough time."
Fitch became a motivational speaker, who advised others that they should let their family and friends know how much they're loved.
To put this into perspective, and why the FAA and NTSB calls this accident a miracle: Up until this accident, there have been no survivors of a complete loss of control for all flight surfaces. And to think the flight crew were only feet from landing the plane before the last Phugoid oscillation hit that makes this really bittersweet. IF it hadn't, there was a good chance the plane may have landed intact. They were that close.
I remember seeing this crash on the news and assuming nobody survived. It came as a shock to learn how many lived. If a crew ever deserved to land safely in spite of the odds, these amazing pilots did, and they got SO close.
Well there is a case of a crew "doing better" with complete hydraulic loss on a big commercial airliner: a DHL Airbus 300 that got hit by a MANPADS missile shortly after takeoff from Baghdad in 2003. The crew actually managed to land the plane in one piece by applying the lessons in differential engine thrust from JAL 123 and United 232. In an ironic twist of fate, however, this was a cargo plane, with only three people on board to begin with...
Regarding United 232, when you see the amateur footage of the plane breaking up, it seems unfathomable that anyone on board could survive the inferno but thanks to the skill and dedication of that four-man team, over 180 people did make it out alive. There's a pretty good TV movie about the incident, too, but I forget what it's called.
@@benleman649 the trim setting they were on and the fact their aircraft wasn’t continuously trying to turn to the right were significant advantages to the DHL crew and their ability to control the aircraft and keep the nose up through landing, so it’s not the exact same situation in ways that do matter. Plus the benefits of hindsight as you mention
Thanks for covering this. I knew Capt. Al Haynes personally, and considered him a friend.
He was an exceptional aviator. The world will miss him
Thanks for sharing this
I had the honor of meeting Captain Al Haynes at a presentation in Seattle back in the mid 90s. I was a lowly student pilot, and I was completely starstruck. He was a humble, modest, unassuming person in person. It was a fantastic presentation.
Nothing but respect for the crew that was on United Airlines, flight 232. The pilots on that flight turned a tragedy that should have had a 100% fatality rate, into one with a >50% survivability rate.
I remember Denny Fitch and Al Haynes telling the story at AirVenture years ago. Two really extraordinary men who struggled with survivor guilt. Imagine the odds of Denny Fitch being on that ill fated flight and the likely outcome if he wasn’t. Life can be so horrific and so amazing at the same time. Thanks for telling this incredible story.
In short, the crew made an un-survivable event, survivable. Sadly, many died, but many more would have died if not for the coolness, teamwork, and airmanship of this crew. Captain Haynes refused any credit for saving lives, although he often lamented that he couldn't save everyone.
@@Milepost93Productions Not-so-fun fact - I remember watching an episode of Mayday about the accident - the literal first thing he said when he was asked to describe the botched landing was "Sigh....didn't quite get it right". What an honorable, empathic, and caring man, he was.
At the time of the accident, I was working at the US Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. A few months later, the Make a Wish Foundation brought in a little boy in a wheelchair, who had been on the flight. He was in a leg cast and heavily bandaged. His mother had been killed in the accident. The boy's wish was to meet an Olympic athlete and tour the Training Center. Needless to say we rolled out the red carpet for him. A number of athletes and medalists attended. It was one of the most heart wrenching things I have ever seen. I have no idea what happened to the boy after that, but I hope he is well. Hat's off to the flight crew and the Make a Wish Foundation.
A truly remarkable feat! I was living in Denver when this happened and since the flight originated in Denver, we got enormous local news coverage of the incident. They came so close to getting that wounded bird down on the ground in one piece. This accident shows what is possible even when all of the chips are down. May all who died that day and since rest in peace.
There's an interview with Denny Fitch called "Leaving The Earth" in which he tells his story, he was a humble man that truly loved his job and his passengers, I highly recommend watching it.
One of the best interviews I’ve watched. He was a great storyteller in addition to being an incredible pilot.
What a legend finch was. The only man in the fleet that could help and he was there
"United 232, you are cleared to land, any runway"
"You want to be picky and make it a runway, huh?"
Anybody who can keep their sense of humour in a situation as dire as this one has my undying respect.
Cracking a "joke" is showing that he is nervous, concerned, unsure, etc. He knew it will be on the ground "somewhere".
@@bunzeebear2973 It's a common stress coping mechanism found in high-stress occupations like soldiering, fire fighting, etc. It's sometimes interpreted as gallows humor. I have major respect for the Captain and crew of this flight. Also, major kudos to the Air National Guard officer who carried the baby boy out of the wreck, and all the first responders. Just one of those days when everyone was in the right place at the right time with the right training.
Cracking a joke or what was referred to as "gallows humor" by another post, helps to resist the panic instincts and helps the pilot relax and not tense up. This is critical to survival in any fight or flight scenario.
@@dvrdown1981 It is wonderfully calming in practice during times of stress.
Human instinct. If you don't laugh, you cry.
I live under the flight path of 232 just before it made it's last loop before landing and I watched it fly over. I thought that it was unusual for a DC 10 to be flying so low but nothing else was apparent to me. Then I heard of the crash in Sioux City.
We were later contacted by the engine manufacturer (I believe) to keep an eye out for the fan disc or pieces of it as we farmed our acres. Thanks for the trip down memory lane, as bitter sweet as it was.
I was on an outbound flight from Sioux City when that happened. Amazing that anybody survived. Your account is 9th one I have seen and by far the fairest. Well done
Actually outbound from Denver. "Landed" in Sioux City (my hometown).
I just realized that the colors of the cushions on the sofa matches the sides of red and green navigation lights on an airplane or ship. :-D
That's actually amazing, I bet he did that on purpose too
@@Musikur The dogs are fully trained sofa pilots.
Red right returning.
You never noticed the nav light pillows?!
Do keep up.
These pilots were absolute heroes, amazing top world class pilots
This is the best piloting I have ever heard of. Absolutely amazing skill level
I've been to that airfield and walked where they crashed...it's part of the air museum at Sioux City, IA
OMG that's insane. So powerful I bet...
Actually found apiece of that engine 25 years later as I was spreading fertilizer in a field in the area where the engine blew up
Found it, meaning it probably flattened a tire. Lol I found lots of “artifacts” like that. None of them a cool air crash piece though
@@alandockery9592 this is the guy who found the fan disk.....
@@smorley4359 the farmer that discoverred the actual fan disk is apparently a woman. GE offered $50k for the fan disk and $1,000 for each blade - according to Wikipedia - and she found most of the fan disk and several blades in her corn field. Sounds like this Tom Kestel person found some other parts and is not the person that qualified for the reward for finding the key parts.
So cool.
No I did not find the main disc, just a small piece wish I could put a picture of it in here
I worked for a guy who survived this flight. There are a lot of great airplane accident sites but I really enjoy hearing from a pilots point of view. Keep up the great work!
That is amazing! When you described the problem, I thought that would be a completely non-survivable event. The flight crew just kept pulling rabbit after rabbit out of their hats, and while the loss of life was devastating, every single person who survived owes their life to the brilliant thinking and dogged perseverance of the crew.
It was treated as one then, and probably still is more or less today. This wasn't actually the first time that an aircraft lost all hydraulics, though it was a first for the DC-10, and it was the first where the aircraft wasn't lost with all passengers and crew.
A very old point about piloting: You keep flying, not matter what, you keep trying to keep flying.
This is such an amazing story of skill and perseverance. The fact that t hey could fly it well enough for anyone to survive is nothing short of astounding. They were at cruising altitude when their plane was rendered literally unflyable and they kept flying it. And their humility... I remember seeing an interview with one of the flight crew members who was torn up inside for not being able to save them all. Such an inspiration.
@hawkturkey There was a similar situation with Japan Airlines 123. It was a famous case where an improper repair procedure compromised the rear pressure bulkhead of a 747, which eventually burst and severed all hydraulics. Like United 232, they were able to level out their aircraft on engine power. Unlike 232, they were not yet at cruising altitude and in near vicinity to a major mountain (Mt Fuji) which they were itnable to steer away from. I don't think they were any less capable than 232's crew. They just faced a slightly worse set of circumstances.
Your costars (co-pilots?🙂) are ADORABLE 🐶🐶 *I remember this one now, in particular the bizzare scene of people walking out of the corn fields. BTW, my parents were supposed to be on Pan Am 103 but my Mother had a "bad feeling."
"Dog is my copilot"
Every time I’ve seen video of that plane cartwheeling down the runway, it gives me shivers! How ANYONE survived that crash, is truly mind boggling! Great video, as always!
The plane didn't cartwheel, it was one of the wings which broke off, the fuselage remained essentially level.
I think I heard some audio of the flight crew during this accident years ago, and the captain and a flight attendant are speaking, and my vague memory is something like the attendant, who knows the seriousness of the situation, wishing the pilots good luck as she goes off to tend to her own duties, and it’s incredibly inspiring and moving, and I believe she survived, too. What a tale.
It’s reassuring to know that the A380 and A350 have electro hydrostatic actuators that run off their own mini hydraulic system. So even if this happened to them and they lost both of the main hydraulic systems the aircraft is still flyable as long as there is electrical power
Very cool indeed!
I love the A350...it looks like it has sunglasses on. The super monster next gen twins from both camps are gorgeous airplanes (A350-XWB and 777X)
Think Sully...fire up APU!
Tom The Plummer APU won’t help if you loose the main hydraulic fluid
@@tomstravels520 It would provide power.
Great presentation of this incident! I attended a lecture given by Al Haynes in 1992 and got to talk to him for a few minutes afterward. He was such a gentleman and so humble, and I was utterly in awe. He was definitely the Sully of that era.
Haynes, Records, Dvorak, and Fitch, as well as the Cabin Crew, are what Real Heroes are. They managed to get the Plane to an Airport and on the Ground, against all Odds. Yes, not everyone survived, but the fact that anyone did, is why I called those people Heroes
Thanks for mentioning the cabin crew. That was a story in itself. Look it up. Jan Brown.
Rest Peacefully Al Haynes & Denny FITCH! (Not Finch). Fantastic airmanship that saved 184 souls.
Nicely done. I remember when this happened, I watched it on the news. And then while I was in the Air Force I worked maintenance on KC-10 air tankers. All of those early issues with the DC-10 when it started out it's service life were always a concern to me, even in the KC-10 version. But alas it turns out that it's still a rock solid platform to this day. Appreciate your insights to this mishap. Tragic Day. Thanks to a fantastic cabin crew, and bless all those that were on this flight..
When I was training to be an aircraft parts lister, they had us break down the hinges that replaced the ones that broke on the DC-10 & caused the planes to crash in the late 1970’s.
I learned about this accident in engineering school when we were studying fatigue failures. After tenerife, crm training was simply a suggestion to airlines. After this accident, crm training became mandatory. There were also research in flight controls using engines, after interpreting control inputs to the yoke/stick, because it is too difficult for human pilots to achieve any sort of precision.
And it quickly became apparent that it was too difficult for *electronics* to achieve any sort of precision, IIRC. Engines not producing the same thrust, engines producing nonlinear throttle/thrust curves, and engines not responding instantaneously to input were only some of the issues uncovered.
@@SamnissArandeen I agree with the above. 20 years ago when I was an engineering student, the state of the art self driving car research were cars following sensors embedded in the road surface. Nowadays, we have self driving cars recognizing obstacles, road signs and lane markings.
I've switched career into IT and had been studying machine learning. As far as I understand, these are algorithms making predictions based on previous experience and data. Perhaps we'll have airplanes with algorithm that can create a mapping of the relationship between throttle movement and engine response and expected power.
@@chunkyazian No matter the algorithm, it would react slow. Maybe integrated into the flight computer, so that it knows in advance what will need to be done, it could work. But I doubt this is the way to achieve redundancy.
In a crisis don’t look at what’s broken, look to the tools that still work. Great advice and a wonderful way to calm and concentrate the mind. God help us all and thank you for your labor of love.
This is the second catastrophe I've watched here where a pilot flying as a passenger had already thought through the exact situation ahead of time and brought critical information to the problem! Incredible, and motivational!
This is one of my favorite "successful failure" stories. Thanks for sharing it from your angle.
Hello there, just a quick comment that your professional and compassionate attitude really does increase my confidence in flying. I hope all your colleagues in similar positions of responsibility apply such attention to detail. Take care, stay safe and keep up all the hard work. Thanks
What a legend, the guy that came on board. All of them legends. This is how you react to such a situation. Calmly and with committed energy. Teamwork, innovation, not quitting.
Truly one of the great miracles of modern aviation. It’s remarkable that anyone survived this. Truly a remarkable flight crew to save as many lives as they did.
*McDonnell Douglas:* Simultaneous failure of all three hydraulic systems is impossible
*GE CF6:* haha fan disk go boom
This comment wins the Internet for today
With a DC-10, anything is possible.
I wouldn't want hydraulics as my only hope. Once the fluid is gone so is the control. I'd rather have some cables as a backup or jackscrews, electrical backup systems, generators, apu, etc.
Yeah, and the titanic is unsinkable
@@xonx209 but the swimming pool is still full .
I grew up in Sioux City, and was living there when this happened. I am always learning new things about this accident. I never knew until now that Captain Finch studied possible ways to fly without hydraulics. I really appreciate these videos. Very informative.
Thanks for the extra info-I wasn’t aware Fitch had practiced flying with thrust levers. One thing you omitted: the continual pull to the right was partly attributed to damage on the leading edge of the right-side stabilizer.
One thing that came out of this was a concept called propulsion controlled flight. It is a computer assisted flight mechanism that allows pilots to control the aircraft with just thrust. NASA performed a very successful test of this concept with, of all aircraft, the DC-10. However, for some reason, propulsion controlled flight is not implemented industry wide.
It's a very unlikely event aside, it also demands pretty much a perfect scenario (equally fast responding throttles, no wind, equal thrust engines etc)
I’ve seen so many films and documentaries about this incident over the years and the total professionalism of that flight crew never fails to blow me away!
you motivate me making at my workplace (public not really safe building with some risk of darmatic fire) a "checklist" for a black swan event to evacuate people better. My stupid boss said I shouldn't help at evacuation "people can go out themself at an alarm", he can wish what he wants, I prepare to help reasonably and well thought through
Thank you for doing a great job on explaining the mechanics and series of events of this situation. My father is Dudley Dvorak, so I was very interested in your views. You did a great job. The cabin and flight crew were amazing and with out Sioux City's Emergency Plan with Gary Brown and the Air Traffic Control Team at Sioux City Airport (Kevin Bachman) things would have turned out much different. My cousin is an airline pilot also and has done the simulation of UAL232 and failed both time (he didn't not know what was being assigned to him).
Respect to your father! 🙏🙏🙏🙏
I remember seeing this on an Air Crash Investigations episode and I remember one of the crewmen, probably it was the captain of the flight or perhaps Finch, crying about how many lives they lost and how they wished they could've landed just a bit better. And I just remember thinking "oh no, please you did so great and saved lives in a situation that otherwise would probably have ended with a crash and everybody on board dead".
Imagine how incredibly freighting it must've been to be on a plane with no controls knowing your impending doom is moments away. I'm glad many survived. Great analysis.
I had the pleasure of attending a presentation by Captain Haynes and was impressed. He stressed crew management and following procedures in the manual. In 2019 he died in Seattle, what a legend!
🙏🏻♥️💐
I got to visit the memorial this week. I also got to visit the surviving fragments of the runway they crashed on yesterday. The Mid-American Aviation Museum has been built, in the intervening years, on the historic boundaries of the airport and preserves one end of the runway. The disaster and response are one of the cornerstone exhibits at the museum. It's nice and quiet, and some of the faded runway markings are still visible. It's a special place.
I meet Al Haines in College. He spoke about his incident. It was a moving! Now, as a retired USAF aviator I am even more impressed on how cool he was and how they did everything they could to save their stricken aircraft!
"The Finch and The Black Swan" an epic story of avian combat in the skies. ...
My best friend died in that crash but his wife seated next to him survived.
You have my condolences.
I’m sorry buddy
@@mikelynn6582 Thanks Mike!
Sorry for your loss 🌷
@@verodg7833 Thank You! How nice of you and the others for your expressions of kindness. I've often wondered how surreal the experience must have been. It must have seemed an eternity for all of them.❤
It's stories like this that have helped me get over my fear of flying, knowing that the people that fly our planes are so fucking amazing (most of them anyways) helps relieve that uneasiness.
I remember this as a case study for cockpit resource management when I was in flight training. Absolutely remarkable job flying that plane.
Several years later after I shifted my career to film/video production I worked with the fire service and got the case study from the emergency responders perspective. I believe it was just a month before the fire department in Souix City actually did a air crash training at the airport as well
Those two together were just simply incredible. They saved so many lives.
It still chokes me up to hear Captn. Haynes comment “You want to be particular and make it a runway, huh?”
Saw 232 land live on CNN as a teenager. Awesome teamwork. RIP for those who died and those who have since died.
Couldn't agree more! These guys are, indeed, LEGENDS!! There aren't medals big enough in the world, to award these 4 fine individuals on the flight deck, that day, for what they accomplished, by using their skills, experience and judgement!! Sadly, Captain Al Haynes passed away last year. RIP!
CAPTAIN DENCH DESERVES THE HIGHEST COMMERCIAL AWARD FOR HIS FORTITUDE.
Thank you for covering this story in such a humane way. Condolences to the people who lost relatives or close friends in this accident. I realise how difficult it must have been to come even close to an airport in this situation. Real heroes!
That crew fought for life every inch of the way down. Not only that, but as you mentioned, they thought outside the box of engineers and designers towards worst case nightmare "Murphy being an arsehole (Referencing Murphy's Law)" scenario. Absolute heroes in any book. Well presented!
What an amazing display of courage, determination and skill. This shows the importance of having multiple experienced personnel aboard. Much like the Quantas flight 32 that experienced a catastrophic engine failure. I remember listening to Denny Fitch afterwards and he was so distraught that so many had died. He didn't recognize that because of his skill and determination that so many had LIVED. This would have been a devastating loss of life if not for the strength and character of everyone in the cockpit.
One important note was how the the local disaster relief commander trained and drilled his teams for tornado emergencies and had every available responder in the flight time of the stricken plane on hand. Miracle of 232 the movie shows how what happened on the ground is so vital to the amount of survivors.
i know close to nothing about the field of aviation, but these 4 airman deserve some type of aviation award/recognition for what they accomplished that day in 1989. you obviously never want to be in an emergency event in an airplane, but these are the type of pilots you will want at the controls if it ever happens.