Iowa Almanac
Iowa Almanac -- Friday, July 19, 2024
The Sioux City Crash. More from the Iowa Almanac in a moment. Aloha. Attached at the island. Right here in Iowa. Hi there. Andy Peterson joined Kerry Dolphin and I as we host the annual Tate and Dotty Cummins Memorial Pineapple Gala to benefit Camp Courageous. It's Friday August 16th at 6 p.m. at the Double Tree Convention Center in downtown Cedar Rapids. Enjoy a Hawaiian dinner live in South Oction and more. Two view auction items or for tickets. Simply go to kibcarages.org and we'll see you there. United Airlines Flight 232 was en route from Denver to Chicago on July 19th, 1989. Suddenly the plane suffered a catastrophic failure of its tail-mounted engine which led to loss of all flight controls when the plane's three hydraulic systems were punctured. Air traffic control was contacted and an emergency landing at Sioux Gateway Airport was organized. The flight crew, led by Captain Al Haynes, tried to fly the plane using their control columns while also throttling the remaining engines. Due to the tail damage the plane had a tendency to keep turning right so the crew had to adapt, making wide loops to the right to eventually get close to the landing site in Sioux City. Haynes asked air traffic controllers to keep the plane away from the city, fearful that the crew would lose control of the craft. The plan was for the plane to land on a 9,000 foot runway but lining up the aircraft was nearly impossible. It wound up headed toward a shorter adjacent runway, one where emergency vehicles and fire trucks had lined up. Those vehicles moved quickly as the crippled plane came to the ground. The plane banked to the right with the right wing tip hitting the runway first and spilling fuel which ignited. The tail section broke off and the rest of the aircraft bounced several times breaking into pieces. The main cabin ultimately broke off, skidded and came to rest upside down. There were 296 people on board the plane, 111 died in the crash or later from injuries. But that meant 185 survived thanks to the actions of the flight crew led by Captain Alfred C. Haynes in steering the crippled United Flight 232 to the ground in Sioux City on this date in 1989. And that's Iowa Almanac for July 19th. There's more online at IowaAlmanac.com. Until Monday I'm Jeff Stein.