Word: crash
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...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-class compartment was killed. Virtually all the 117 travelers in an economy-class section behind them survived...
...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...
...alive. "The plane bounced twice, flipped into the air, and we wound up sitting there upside down as the cabin began to fill with smoke," recalled Cliff Marshall, of Ostrander, Ohio. "God opened a hole, and I pushed a little girl out." Sister Viannea, a Felician nun, said the crash "was like a cyclone. Everything was flying all over the plane. I could feel people walking over me to get out. Finally, three men dragged...
...pilots' hall of fame," declared Joe Sullivan, a retired flight engineer for American Airlines. The landing gear, dropped by gravity because of the hydraulics failure, helped support the part of the cabin where most survivors had been seated. The dampness of the cornfield from recent rains cushioned the crash impact. Fire-resistant seat upholstery installed at the insistence of the National Transportation Safety Board was also credited. So too were the rescue and medical efforts of the Sioux City area. So many doctors responded that there were two on hand for each hospitalized passenger. Local volunteers lined up for more...
...will be months before the NTSB reports on the cause of the crash. Two questions undoubtedly will be deeply probed. Why did the turbofan engine, built by General Electric and used on DC-10s, break up in flight? Were all three hydraulic systems knocked out, and if so, can they be better protected...