SIOUX CITY, Iowa -- The pilot who flew crippled United Airlines Flight 232 to Sioux City last week said Tuesday the flight crew made up emergency procedures 'as we went along' in an effort to land the plane safely.
Capt. Alfred Haynes,57, of Seattle, who has flown for United for 33 years, was hailed as a hero for guiding the DC-10 to Sioux Gateway Airport after an engine explosion last Wednesday left the jetliner without any steering control. The crash-landing killed 111 of the 196 passengers and crew aboard.
'There is no hero,' the bandaged, battered Haynes told a news conference from a wheelchair at the Marian Health Center. 'Just a group of four people who did their job and put the best resources to work.'
Haynes said, 'We were flying along at cruise when we heard a very loud report from engine No. 2,' a General Electric CF6-6 housed in the plane's tail, where the jetliner's three independent hydraulic steering lines converge.
He said Flight Engineer Dudley Dvorak immediately referred to the United emergency procedures book, but the pilots found they had a unique problem.
'It was apparent to us that we had lost all of our hydraulic fluid, and when I asked Dudley for the procedure for that, he said, 'There isn't one.' So we made it up as we went along,' Haynes said.
'Sometime during the process ..., Dennis (Fitch) came up to the cockpit and lended us a hand,' he said. Fitch, a United instructor who happened to be on the flight.
Fitch got on his knees to work the throttles for the two remaining engines. Varying the thrust of the engines was the only way to steer the crippled plane, Haynes explained.
'I put him to work at what I thought would be the best place for him to work, and from then on it was just working together as a team as an effort along with controllers and heading for Sioux City and trying to get the airplane on the ground,' the pilot said.
Haynes said flight controllers offered U.S. 20 as an alternate landing strip, but that was rejected, as was the Des Moines airport because it was too far away, and Haynes finally chose the Sioux City facility.
Haynes would not give more details of the flight, citing the National Transportation Safety Board investigation of the crash, except to say he thought the plane could be landed safely.
'I thought we were going to go in and land,' he said. Instead, a wing dipped into the ground as the plane touched down short of the runway, and the DC-10 cartwheeled and broke apart in flames.
Haynes thanked flight controllers in Minneapolis and Sioux City for their help as well as rescue crews and hospital staff. 'Thank you for your compassion and for your caring and loving concern,' he said.
Haynes, exhibiting a large cut under his left eye and a bandage on his nose, was treated for lacerations on his head and foot.
Dvorak, 51, of Tacoma, Wash., also was released from Marian and appeared at the news conference, but First Officer William R. Records, 48, of Woodinville, Wash., and Fitch, 46, Bartlett, Ill., remained hospitalized in fair condition.
Haynes said those who died would not be forgotten. 'This is a happy day for many of us, but we must not forget that 111 people perished in this accident. This crew and the entire industry is dedicated to finding the cause of this accident.'
An NTSB spokesman said the in-flight engine explosion that crippled Flight 232 was the worst of its type ever encountered by federal investigators. The NTSB has determined that the blast severed at least two of the three hydraulic lines that control the DC-10, spokesman Ted Lopatkiewicz said Monday night.
'It's not unheard of where uncontained engine failure (explosion) has caused further damage to aircraft, including hydraulic systems,' Lopatkiewicz said. 'However, we have never seen this model engine suffer catastrophic engine failure to the extent the entire fan system was lost.'
Only fragments of the fan that feeds air to the jet engine have been found despite extensive ground and aerial searches. Searchers using planes and infrared cameras continued looking Tuesday in a 4-square-mile area near Alta, about 70 miles east of Sioux City, for pieces of the fan. The DC-10 was flying over the Alta area when the engine exploded.
Lopatkiewicz said the engines will taken to a General Electric plant outside Cincinnati for analysis.
Lopatkiewicz also said the NTSB investigation at the airport should be completed by the weekend, though it will be about six months before official findings are released. The search for fan parts will continue, he said.
United said the bodies of all 111 people killed in the crash have been identified. St. Luke's Hospital in Sioux City said it was treating nine survivors, including one in critical condition. Marian Health Center said 23 remained hospitalized, including three in critical condition.
