Was The Pilot Of UA Flight 232 Which Crashed In Sioux City In 1989

Capt. Al Haynes, who was the pilot of a United Airlines DC-10 which went down at Sioux Gateway Airport in Sioux City, IA on July 19, 1989, has gone west.

The Sioux City Journal reports that Haynes was 57 years old when the tail-mounted engine DC-10 he was flying suffered a catastrophic failure, severing hydraulic lines and leaving Haynes and his crew with very limited control of the airplane.

With what control they had, they managed to keep it flying while emergency crews swarmed the airport, making a series of 360-degree turns to the right as they made their approach.

Almost everyone has seen the video of the crash landing that followed. The impact with terrain tore the right wing off the fuselage, which skidded and tumbled down the runway before coming to rest inverted in a cornfield near the airport. Of the 296 people on board the airplane, 184 survived the accident.

Haynes passed away in his hometown of Seattle on Sunday, just a week shy of his 88th birthday after what the paper describes as a "brief illness".

(Image from file)

FMI: Source report