Al Haynes, captain of UAL Flight 232, dead at 87

Wow! Yes, hard to believe it has been 30 years! As a flying qualities engineer, I remember discussing how they controlled the airplane with some of my other aero grads.
 
Always wondered why there was so little video of this event.
 
Recently I was reading a 1972 article from Air Progress magazine, "Trijet from Douglas," by Ted Janczarek. It contains this eerily prophetic passage:

"A feeling of uneasiness creeps into a DC-10 pilot conversation when the discussion centers around the subject of total hydraulic failure. There is NO mechanical control system back-up, as in other airline types. The thought of complete loss of all hydraulic systems is quite remote. But should the unfortunate circumstance somehow occur, the aircraft is doomed to certain destruction."​
 
Captain Haynes was a gracious and humble man. He was quick to give the other crew members praise when he received accolades for his actions that day.
 
lancie00 said:
Also a great example of flying it as far as possible. NEVER give up.
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Getting back to the airport environment was key in so many people surviving. Having immediate fire/rescue/triage/medical no doubt greatly improved the outcome. BZ to all three of those guys!
 
3393RP said:
Captain Haynes was a gracious and humble man. He was quick to give the other crew members praise when he received accolades for his actions that day.
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Absolutely. I attended a business conference in St. Louis back in the 90s. They had a surprise for us one day, not telling us what it was going to be until that moment. They started out the session by playing a video of the conversation back and forth with ATC and the pilots. Then they introduced Captain Haynes and he walked out and gave a very riveting presentation of that fateful day. I will never forget it. I didn't know much about the crash before that. That presentation by him is forever burned in my mind.

You are right, he was very gracious in giving a lot of credit to his crew and ATC.

RIP, Captain.
 
Bill Jennings said:
BZ to all three of those guys!
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Uhh, 4. Nobody seems to remember the deadheading pilot/DC-10 flight instructor who came up to lend a hand. While Captain Haynes was in fact in charge of that flight, and rightly deserves all the credit he gets, let’s not forget Denny Fitch, who was probably as much, if not more, responsible for the “successful” outcome of that flight.
 
Greg Bockelman said:
Uhh, 4. Nobody seems to remember the deadheading pilot/DC-10 flight instructor who came up to lend a hand. While Captain Haynes was in fact in charge of that flight, and rightly deserves all the credit he gets, let’s not forget Denny Fitch, who was probably as much, if not more, responsible for the “successful” outcome of that flight.
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Uh, you're right. I was thinking of the three pilots, so I was actually dissing the FE. My bad.
 
Greg Bockelman said:
Uhh, 4. Nobody seems to remember the deadheading pilot/DC-10 flight instructor who came up to lend a hand. While Captain Haynes was in fact in charge of that flight, and rightly deserves all the credit he gets, let’s not forget Denny Fitch, who was probably as much, if not more, responsible for the “successful” outcome of that flight.
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Wasn't he the one that controlled the throttles and therefore managed to roughly control roll and altitude? Incredible job.
 
Very moving video. I think every pilot should watch it.......in particular what he says at 47:21

 
Hawker800 said:
Always wondered why there was so little video of this event.
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TommyG said:
Because in 1989 there weren’t video cameras everywhere, and not too many people owned camcorders.
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Literally the only person at the airport with a video camera that day was the news crew that showed up in the news van. If the airport had any security cameras, they were hard wired and probably not recorded. Most probably indoors only in secured areas for a security guard to fall asleep watching the vast nothingness happening on the black and white monitors at night.

It’s fascinating to me that you’d ask this, but I guess cameras everywhere is a norm today.

My first digital camera was the Sony Mavica MVC-FD5 with a whopping 0.3 megapixel resolution and the “FD” stood for “Floppy Disc” ... more than ten years after this accident... purchased in 1997.

Yep. It wrote photos to floppy discs. Technically the more rigid 3.5” “floppy” discs, that weren’t really floppy anymore.

:) :) :)
 
Greg Bockelman said:
Uhh, 4. Nobody seems to remember the deadheading pilot/DC-10 flight instructor who came up to lend a hand. While Captain Haynes was in fact in charge of that flight, and rightly deserves all the credit he gets, let’s not forget Denny Fitch, who was probably as much, if not more, responsible for the “successful” outcome of that flight.
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No need for the quotes around successful. That was way more than most good deliver. Indeed, BZ!
 
woodchucker said:
No need for the quotes around successful. That was way more than most good deliver. Indeed, BZ!
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Yeah, you are probably right. Nobody is a bigger fan of Denny Fitch than I am.

But it wasn’t a very successful landing for those that didn’t make it.
 
Greg Bockelman said:
Yeah, you are probably right. Nobody is a bigger fan of Denny Fitch than I am.

But it wasn’t a very successful landing for those that didn’t make it.
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Just after the event occurred, the landing and loss of life was seen as a failure. I think many non-pilots' reaction was "The aircraft made it to an airport and runway... why did it crash while landing?"

The public had been led to believe air travel was always going to be safe, and having 111 dead passengers sure didn't seem like a victory. As time progressed and more details about the flight were considered, it was only then that people began to understand that Captain Al Haynes, First Officer Roy Record, Second Officer Joseph Dvorak, and Check Airman Denny Fitch had done something that was almost miraculous.

Captain Haynes was lionized by the media, but he was quick to assign credit to the other crew members for the outcome. Record and Dvorak had performed admirably, but the actions of Denny Fitch were grasped as a significant news item. Fitch had been seriously injured in the crash, and months passed before he made himself available for interviews. The contributions of the flight attendants were also praised, because their training and actions had saved many lives.

While many later TV productions memorialized the incident, a well researched book wasn't available until Flight 232: A Story of Disaster and Survival, by Laurence Gonzales, was written in 2014. The book explains in detail the casting flaw in the turbine disc, the efforts expended to find it, and other details that shaped the overall narrative. I purchased a copy shortly after its release, and the book is well written and informative.

The actions of Al Haynes that day were heroic, a word that has been diminished greatly by its misapplication and overuse. May be rest easy, and may the world always recognize the crew of United 232 performed over and above any reasonable expectation.
 
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Larry in TN said:
This is a 55 minute program with Denny Fitch, the deadheading check airman who came to the cockpit and figured out how to control the airplane with differential thrust, telling the story of UAL232. It is excellent.

I finally got a chance to watch that video and I'm glad I did. Thanks for the link and as was said before, this should be a mandatory watch for all pilots.
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Larry in TN said:
This is a 55 minute program with Denny Fitch, the deadheading check airman who came to the cockpit and figured out how to control the airplane with differential thrust, telling the story of UAL232. It is excellent.
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Thank you for the link, Larry. I didn't know that interview with Denny Fitch existed and watched every minute. It's awesome, and very sobering.
 
Larry in TN said:
This is a 55 minute program with Denny Fitch, the deadheading check airman who came to the cockpit and figured out how to control the airplane with differential thrust, telling the story of UAL232. It is excellent.

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One of the biggest misconceptions about Flight 232 centers around Denny Fitch. It's widely accepted he came up with the idea to steer the stricken DC-10 with the throttles of the #1 and #3 engines.

In fact, Captain Al Haynes had used differential thrust to gain a modicum of control before Fitch entered the cockpit, and when Fitch appeared, Captain Haynes told him to take the throttles and use them for pitch and roll control.

This doesn't diminish the fact that Fitch displayed exemplary skill in establishing some semblance of control in the situation. If the aircraft had been allowed to diverge past the limits of Fitch's authority using the throttles, it would have departed controlled (such as it was) flight and crashed, killing everyone on board.

This excerpt is from Flight 232: A Story of Disaster and Survival, and it takes up just after Fitch had entered the cockpit and Haynes had told him the throttles were the only control they had over the recurring phugoids and right 360° turns.

...Haynes began coaching Fitch concerning how to steer against the constant and uncommanded climbing and descending. "Start it down," he said. Then "No, no, no, no, no, not yet...wait a minute until it levels off...now go!"

From that point on, Fitch used his skills to manipulate the throttles based upon directional commands from Haynes, and his ability to control the aircraft within the constraints imposed by the loss of all three hydraulic systems improved as the minutes passed.

There's no doubt Fitch deserves the accolades he received for his contributions in putting the aircraft in a position to land at Sioux City, but for the sake of accuracy, it should be noted Captain Haynes had already began using the throttles for control before Fitch took over the task.

That being said, it's a minor distinction in a story of skill and great courage. All of the men in the cockpit contributed actions critical to the outcome of the flight.
 
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