Had Assisted Crew When United Flight 232 Went Down In Sioux City, IA

The pilot who happened to be aboard United Flight 232 and helped its flight crew crash-land the airplane in Sioux City, IA has Gone West at the age of 69.

Denny Fitch had been one of 300 passengers aboard the jet when he heard the explosion that damaged most of the airplane's hydraulics. He went to the cockpit and sat on the floor while assisting the flight crew to control the plane using only changes in engine thrust on the wing engines.

When the plane attempted to land at Sioux City ... it cartwheeled. But miraculously, more than half of the passengers on board survived the accident.

According to the Associated Press, Fitch almost was not on board the airplane. He had a choice of another flight that departed five minutes earlier, but decided on 232 instead. He was an instructor pilot, and had just finished several days of training for other pilots in all kinds of emergency situations. But the catastrophic failure aboard the DC10 was one that had never even been contemplated by its design engineers.

Fitch succumbed to brain cancer at his home in a Chicago suburb in May.

(Damaged United 232 prior to its landing attempt. Image used under Fair Use)

FMI: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_232