Word: airports
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...fate and circumstance last week to produce a near miracle of survival in the midst of a horrible tragedy. When a stricken United Airlines DC-10 failed by seconds to achieve a level emergency landing and plowed into the earth only yards short of a runway at Sioux Gateway Airport, 110 passengers and crew members died, the tenth highest airplane toll in U.S. history. But, astonishingly, 186 lived through the crash and its fiery aftermath. Some even walked away. Never before had selecting a seat been such a fateful decision. Almost every passenger in the plane's 32-seat first...
...cockpit, however, Haynes was describing a far more dangerous situation to regional air-traffic controllers at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport. One minute after the explosion, he radioed that his craft had developed "complete hydraulic failure." That meant the crew could no longer control the rudder, elevators, wing flaps and ailerons that steer the jet. Too massive to be manually manipulated, these control surfaces are normally powered by fluid pumped by pressure from the jet engines through a series of stainless-steel tubes that snake throughout the aircraft. Since each of the plane's three redundant hydraulic systems is powered...
...momentary regaining of some control. But then he lost it again. At 3:20 he declared that he faced an "emergency" and had to find the nearest landing spot. Controllers suggested he turn back to the west to reach Sioux City, a Missouri River town where one of the airport's runways is 9,000 ft. long. That could easily handle a DC-10. But Sioux City was 70 miles away...
...William Records, getting down on his knees to gingerly manipulate the throttles. Second Officer Dudley Dvorak walked to the back of the plane, trying to assess the damage. Haynes told controllers he could only make wide turns to the right and was worried about whether he could reach the airport. Alerted to the emergency, the tower at Sioux City informed local police and rescue units to prepare for either a crash landing on the runway or one on nearby Highway...
Rescue agencies in Sioux City and surrounding Woodbury County had run through a drill two years ago in which a large plane was assumed to have crashed at the airport and 150 survivors needed immediate help. Even before Flight 232 was in sight, Dr. David Greco, heading the medical disaster teams, was hovering in a helicopter. A dozen ambulances and four other choppers were ready to speed survivors to the two local hospitals, and police, fire and National Guard units were rushing to assist...