Struggle to Gain Control of Jet Told : Training Instructor Joins Cockpit Crew, Helps Bring In DC-10

When an explosion rocked United Airlines Flight 232 and the cockpit crew effectively lost control of the ill-fated DC-10, a training captain joined the pilot and co-pilot in the cockpit and worked the engine throttles to help bring the plane in for a crash landing, authorities reported Friday evening.

“What you had were two men desperately trying to get some control out of the controlling devices they had available,” James Burnett of the National Transportation Safety Board told a late briefing.

The three airmen, Pilot Alfred C. Haynes, First Officer W. R. Records and United DC-10 training instructor Dennis Fitch, succeeded in reaching Sioux Gateway Airport and held on as the jumbo jet hit short of Runway 22 and cartwheeled, catching fire. As many as 110 people were killed.

The three pilots were among the survivors.

Heard Loud ‘Bang’

Investigators learned about the dramatic final minutes of the 15-year-old jetliner Friday in two hospital interviews with Haynes, who said he heard a loud “bang” on a flight from Denver to Chicago Wednesday afternoon and the plane began a “slow descent and right turn.”

“He (Haynes) said he pulled the yoke full aft, left wheel and there was no response,” Burnett said. “At this point, the only control mechanism was the engine thrust.”

Learning that Fitch was aboard, Haynes invited him forward. While Haynes and Records used all their strength to try to turn the control wheels, Fitch moved the throttles back and forth according to Haynes’ instructions.

Burnett said that when Haynes discovered that all three of the plane’s hydraulic systems had failed, he radioed United maintenance experts for assistance in how to control the aircraft.

“Unfortunately, there’s no written procedures for handling the aircraft if all three hydraulic systems fail,” Burnett said.

Capt. Hart Lander, UAL’s vice president for operations, told a news conference Friday that Flight 232’s crew had not been trained to respond to a total hydraulic failure because one was considered “extremely unlikely.”

Focus on Tail Engine

Investigators probing the crash centered their attention Friday on what caused that failure. They focused their attention on the plane’s tail-mounted engine and three hydraulic systems.

It is still too early to say what led to the crash, according to the NTSB.

But sources close to the investigation said that the No. 2 engine in the tail apparently exploded in flight, scattering turbine blades and other engine parts like shrapnel that sliced hydraulic lines, crippling the plane’s controls.

How many people were aboard the DC-10 was still not certain Friday. United Airlines placed the number at 296. The manager of Sioux City, Hank Sinda, said the total was 295, and Burnett said Friday night that the agency believes the plane may have carried 297, with as many as 110 dead.

Burnett said one crash survivor is being called Jane Doe because officials are not sure of her identity.

“We have one survivor who has not been identified. I do not know the circumstances,” he said.

The NTSB investigators were looking for parts of the tail-mounted engine, which has an entire fan section missing. They hope to determine whether debris may have severed hydraulic lines in the tail, making them inoperative. The systems come together at their closest point in that area of the plane.

In Washington, scientists and safety engineers were reviewing tapes from the DC-10’s cockpit voice recorder and the plane’s digital data recorder, both recovered in good condition. The last half hour of conversation in the cockpit was captured by the voice recorder, but it was not expected to be released for weeks.

Another NTSB group was flown to United Airlines’ main facility in San Francisco to study how the downed DC-10 was maintained since the day it was built.

Meanwhile, the NTSB investigators, assisted by Iowa National Guardsmen and local emergency personnel, fanned out at the crash site in humid 80-degree weather Friday, collecting golf clubs, purses, wallets and clothing scattered down Runway 22.

From the air, observers could see the point of impact near the end of the runway. A great scar and debris ran about halfway down the 6,000-foot runway, leading to a section of the tail--the largest identifiable chunk of wreckage.

About 1,500 feet down the runway, another scar skidded off to the right in a gradual arc. At the point where that scar intersects adjoining Runway 18, a huge blackened area marks where the main body of the fuselage burned so thoroughly that almost nothing was left.

In a cornfield beyond that, blackened rubble marked the spot where a third major piece of wreckage came to rest.

The crash continued to attract scores of curious spectators, who pressed against sections of the fence surrounding the airport, staring across the airport at the distant wreckage and taking photographs.

Lawsuit Filed

The first lawsuit filed as a result of the crash was recorded in Chicago by survivor Joseph Trombello, 41, of Vernon Hills, Ill. The class-action suit named United Airlines, McDonnell Douglas, the maker of the DC-10, and General Electric Co., the firm that manufactured the engines. He asked for unspecified damages.

The suit accuses United of improperly maintaiing its jet according to the manufacturer’s manual and says that the airline should have known the plane was “not in an airworthy condition.” Both McDonnell Douglas and General Electric were charged with failing to provide adequate maintenance instructions.

About 140 families of victims and survivors were housed at Briar Cliff College, where United Airlines said it had assigned more than a hundred of its staffers to help them cope with the tragedy.

State Medical Examiner Tom Bennett said about two-thirds of the victims were killed by the impact of the crash and the remaining third by fire. Medical examiners asked for dental and medical records to help in the identification process.

An autopsy will be performed on each of the victims to determine the cause of death, Bennett said.

“I’m rather have the evidence and the answers right now for the family members,” he said. “Three to six months down the road, they’re going to be tormented by this. They are going to come back to us with questions.”

Eric Malnic reported from Sioux City and John Kendall from Los Angeles.

FOCUS OF THE DC-10 CRASH INVESTIGATION

The McDonnell Douglas DC-10 is equipped with three General Electric CF6 engines. The tail engine apparently failed on United Flight 232 and it crashed while attempting to land at Sioux City, Iowa.

Evidence indicates that the rotor and fan may have broken loose, hurling shards of metal that tore through adjacent hydraulic lines, crippling controls.

The CF6 engine Length: 16 feet,1 inch Diameter: 7 feet, 10 inches Weight: 7,450 lbs. Takeoff thrust: 40,000 lbs. Certification of the CF6 engine was granted for commercial service by the FAA in September, 1970. It entered service in August, 1971.

SOURCE: AP and Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft