United 232’s Sioux City Miracle

On July 19, 1989, United Airlines Flight 232, flying from Denver to Chicago and on to Philadelphia, suffered an uncontained engine failure that destroyed all three hydraulic systems and left the crew with almost no flight controls as they diverted to Sioux City in Iowa. Despite the loss of normal control and the deaths of 112 of the 296 people on board, Captain Al Haynes, his crew, and training check pilot Dennis Fitch managed a crash landing that allowed 184 people to survive, something test pilots later failed to replicate in simulators. The accident became a landmark example of crew resource management in action and helped push CRM into standard practice across commercial aviation.

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