Twenty Years Ago – Remembering UA232

Earlier, NYCAviation, who earlier in the week reminded us of other anniversaries, reminded us that on July 19th, 1989, United Flight 232 made a crash landing in Sioux City, Iowa, after a loss of all hydraulic controls.

296 Passengers were on board the flight from Denver to Chicago when one of the plane’s engines disintegrated, severing all three hydraulic lines, and disabling all flight controls. Captain Al Haynes, along with his crew and a training pilot who was onboard as a passenger, manipulated engine power on either side of the aircraft to steer it toward an emergency landing at Sioux City.

Twenty years later, as the Des Moines Register reports, the accident is still remembered by the people who were there.

“The way I looked at it, I didn’t do my job. I was supposed to take those people to Chicago safely, and we didn’t do it. Of course, the whole crew feels the same way to a degree. But with good counseling you are able to get by it. You don’t forget. You are just able to deal with it and get by it,” Haynes said.

Haynes may feel guilty, but he was dealing with an impossible situation, and he and his crew did an incredible job. Such a situation should never occur, and when it does, we need qualified and well-trained pilots in the cockpit.

It is hard to keep track of the many tragedies in history, even if we limit it to aviation history, but we should never forget heroes, and why we want a well-trained pilot in the cockpit should something hap

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