As reported in the Seattle Times: Twenty years ago … passengers and crew aboard United Airlines flight 232 from Denver to Chicago heard a loud midair blast at the rear of the plane. The engine mounted in the tail of the DC-10 had exploded at 37,000 feet.
With two good engines still operating on the wings, Capt. Al Haynes, of Seattle, wasn’t unduly worried as he shut down the fuel flow to the dead engine.
But shrapnel from the exploding engine had severed all the hydraulic lines.
From that moment on, Haynes couldn’t budge any of the flight-control surfaces on the wings and the tail. It was as if, when driving a car, the steering wheel would no longer turn the wheels.
As reported by airdisaster.com, an eyewitness view from Capt. Haynes: The time of day that our engine failure occurred was another very lucky circumstance. Almost four o’clock in the afternoon, it was approaching shift change at Marion Health Centre and St Luke’s Hospital and all the other emergency services around the Siouxland area (Sioux City and surround communities). By the time we did arrive in Sioux City, our plight having been reported, the morning shifts were being kept on and the day shifts were just going on duty, so both hospitals were double-staffed. Furthermore, there were so many volunteers from the various emergency units and health clinics around the area that the hospitals had to turn some of them away.
And, as a final piece of luck, it was the only day of the month when the 185th Iowa Air National Guard was on duty, and there were 285 trained National Guard personnel standing by waiting for us when we got to Sioux City. So, taking all of those things into account, it is clear that there was just an unbelievable amount of luck involved in our getting the aircraft there, in our having available the level of help that there was, and in our having the survival rate that we did have.
Excerpted from ‘20 years ago, pilot’s heroic efforts saved 185 people as plane crashed‘ by Dominic Gates and ‘Eyewitness Report: United Flight 232‘ as reported by Capt. Al Haynes.