History Book: Hard landing

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Today is Monday, August 5th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Lindsay Mast.

JENNY ROUGH, HOST: And I’m Jenny Rough. Up next the WORLD History Book. This summer marks 35 years since a deadly commercial plane crash in Northwest Iowa. WORLD Journalism Institute graduate Sarah Pugsley brings us the remarkable story.

SARAH PUGSLEY: It was July 19, 1989, on a Wednesday. George Lindblade was at work in his print store, G.R. Lindblade Ink, in Sioux City, Iowa.

LINDBLADE: Well, the day started just like any other day in Sioux City, Iowa, but uh yeah, it went downhill quickly from there when Al Haynes called in and said “Hello Sioux City tower.”

HAYNES: This is United 232. We’re declaring an emergency here…

Al Haynes, a United Airlines captain, was piloting a DC-10, a large airliner.

HAYNES: Request landing at the next suitable airport…

The plane was carrying nearly 300 people from Denver to Philadelphia, with a stop in Chicago. At 3:16 pm, a cracked fan blade caused the tail-mounted engine to explode, and the plane’s hydraulic fluid started leaking. Haynes radioed air traffic control.

HAYNES: We have no hydraulic fluid which means that we have no elevator control, uh, almost none and very little aileron control. I have serious doubts about making the airport.

The plane was about a half hour away from the Sioux City airport.

On the ground, Lindblade got a call from the city clerk’s office. Lindblade had worked in forensic and technical photography for some time. He also had his pilot’s license.

LINDBLADE: They said, “Can a DC three land at the Sioux City Airport?” I said, “Yeah, It can land there.” But I said, “I don't know about taking off and it depends on how much weight’s on it. Why?”

And they said, “Well, we got one, it's headed this way. And he lost an engine.”

People scramble to prepare for the plane to land: firefighters, union workers, EMTs. Air traffic control gave their thumbs up.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL: Ok United 232 heavy, the winds currently 3-6-0 at 1-1. 360 at 11. You’re clear to land on any runway.

HAYNES: Haha. You wanna be particular and make it a runway, huh?

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL: Sir we’re getting the equipment off the runway and you can line-up for that one.

HAYNES: Ok.

The plane makes its final descent.

SOUND FROM THE COCKPIT: Back, Al! Left throttle! Left, left, left, left, left, left, left…left, left, left!

GWPS SIREN: Woop Woop. “Pull up.” Woop woop. “Pull up.”

Silence.

It’s almost a normal landing. The wheels touch down as they are meant to. But the plane comes down hard, causing the right wing and tail to break. The body of the plane slides down the runway. The nose pitches forwards, bouncing along the ground. It flips in the air, hits the ground again, and breaks into sections. It’s on fire. More than 110 people died in the crash. Miraculously, more than half of the passengers on Flight 232, including Captain Al Haynes, survived the flight…but most needed immediate medical attention.

Dr. Kelly Pomerenke was still in his first residency. When his pager went off, he was called into the emergency room at St. Luke’s Hospital.

POMERENKE: I remember that when I, when I got to the emergency room nobody was there yet and I remember there was a little bit of lag…we may have had a half an hour. And then patients started coming in slowly. It was kind of an eerie feeling, sitting there not knowing exactly what you were going to see…

Dr. Pomerenke was assigned to treat the “walking injured.”

POMERENKE: Once you get involved with the motions, you kind of settle down, you focus and do your job. It just kind of happened naturally actually.

Of the many patients he treated, one couple is particularly memorable.

POMERENKE: I had an older couple that actually I think were having some trouble breathing from smoke inhalation. And I remember them telling me that they crashed they got up out of their seats took their seatbelts off, walked to the ambulance, and while they were walking to the ambulance came across their luggage…Picked up their luggage and came to the hospital, and I remember in the emergency room they had their luggage right with them.

Most of Dr. Pomerenke’s patients injuries were from smoke inhalation, shock, and broken bones. More serious cases were either sent to another hospital or to the burn unit.

POMERENKE: Kids being there without parents and, and being separated from families or waiting for family members to fly in? And just kind of being alone?...So yeah, you remember the pain that those people must have went through.

The response from Sioux City residents and first responders became headline news. Volunteers from all around the country also showed up to do what they could. Once again, photographer George Lindblade:

LINDBLADE: I still say it was Sioux city's best day, because we did everything right. Everybody put their best foot forward. There was absolutely the most incredible feeling that the people had towards the victims as well as their families that were coming in. And so it was absolutely no stone that they didn't turn over to help…

But 35 years after the crash, Lindblade says their sacrifice has come at a cost.

LINDBLADE: It took a heavy, heavy toll on a lot of them. I mean, there were a lot of marriage breakups over the thing. There were a couple suicides, there was some people who resigned from their jobs as firefighters and policemen and other things. They just couldn't deal with it, and as one Undertaker put it, he says when you have 100 of them piled up, he says that's something different.

The Mid America Museum of Aviation and Transportation in Sioux City, Iowa, has a permanent exhibit commemorating United Airlines Flight 232. It’s situated on Runway 22…the same runway where Captain Al Haynes and his crew managed to land the plane. Many survivors and family members gather each year to remember the bravery and sacrifice of so many, and honor the lives of those lost.

That’s this week’s WORLD History Book. I’m Sarah Pugsley.

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