30 Years Later – Remembering Sioux City United Flight 232
About 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, July 19, 1989, there was a newsflash: United Flight 232 -- a DC-10 jet aircraft -- suffered a tail engine explosion at 3:16 p.m. It was attempting to land at Sioux City, Iowa.
For the next 44 minutes, the flight crew with the addition of Denny Fitch -- a DC-10 instructor -- attempted to land the crippled aircraft. The explosion sent shrapnel throughout the horizontal stabilizer -- the flat wings in the tail section -- severing hydraulic fluid lines. Hydraulic fluid was needed to operate the controls of the plane -- without these controls, the plane was unflyable.
With Denny Fitch operating the throttles to the left and right wing engines, they were able to struggle toward Sioux City, Iowa.
At 4:00 p.m., the plane touched down on Runway 22 -- a runway that had been closed for a year. Instead of landing about 120 miles with a sink rate of 300 feet, it touched down at a suicidal 220 miles per hour and 1,850-foot sink rate.
The right wing immediately hit the concrete runway, and the right wing jet fuel tank ruptured and exploded. The wing tore off and tumbled. The fuselage rolled over to the right onto its back and veered right off the runway into a cornfield. The plane broke apart into multiple parts.
Some people were killed instantly.
Some died later from their injuries.
Some were catastrophically injured.
Some were moderately injured.
Some walked away with scratches.
296 souls were on board. 111 died. 185 survived.
It was truly a A Miracle in the Cornfield, a book by Joseph Trombello.
Many lives were saved because Sioux City had recently conducted an exercise of a plane crash at the airport.
Responders, recently trained and experienced, did their job and did it well!
Passengers were also heroes. Many returned into the burning fuselage to help others out not knowing if or when the plane might explode.
It was mankind at its finest - selfless; caring for others; willing to help in any way.
The root cause of the tail engine was identified. Litigation was successful in compensating families for the death of their loved ones and for survivors with their injuries. New safety procedures were mandated that would eliminate dangers in the future.
Everyone at Corboy & Demetrio was involved in the 39 cases - in Federal Court, Cook County and Baltimore, Maryland - especially Phil Corboy, Tom Demetrio, Patrick Murphy, Sue Gitelson and Wanda Wells.
We became intimately involved with these families: invited to weddings; getting baby pictures; emails; Christmas cards and personal notes for the past 30 years.
Through hours of working on these cases, traveling to meet the families in Wyoming, Nebraska, Maryland, Colorado, these clients became friends.
Though 30 years have passed, though there have been changes at the firm, we carry on our representation of families and people seriously hurt.
Our lives changed due to that July 19th date. And we never forget how blessed we were to help others whose lives were changed because of that plane crash.