Crew Improvised, Pilot of Jetliner That Crashed Says

The pilot of United Flight 232 said today that there was no procedure to handle the complete hydraulic failure that caused the plane to crash, so the crew “made it up as we went along.”

Capt. Al C. Haynes said that the plane’s seasoned crew made the best of a bad situation and that he never worried about the plane crashing. The crippled plane crashed while attempting to land at Sioux Gateway Airport, killing 111 of the 296 people aboard.

“We have a lot of experience here, and it showed up in the cockpit,” Haynes, 57, told reporters at a news conference shortly before his release from a hospital. “There is no substitute, as far as I am concerned, for experience.”

United Pilot for 33 Years

Haynes, who has been a United pilot for 33 years, was brought into the news conference in a wheelchair, and cuts and bruises were visible on his face and neck. However, he said that all of the stitches had been removed and that he was in good health.

He declined to discuss last week’s crash in detail, saying he wanted to wait until the National Transportation Safety Board completed its investigation. However, he briefly described the situation in the cabin as he, 1st Officer William R. Records and 2nd Officer Dudley Dvorak struggled to control the DC-10.

After an explosion in the rear engine, he said, it became “apparent that we had lost all of our hydraulics. . . . When I asked Dudley what the procedure was, he said we didn’t have one. So we made it up as we went along.”

At the start of the news conference, Haynes thanked rescuers and the crew of the plane for their help in the disaster. He also had a message for those who lost loved ones in the flight.

‘Dedicated to Find the Cause’

“To the families and their friends, I would like to say that this crew . . . is dedicated to finding the cause of this accident so that it may never happen again,” he said.

Investigators have ordered another aerial search for key parts of Flight 232’s rear engine and planned to visit the General Electric Co. plant where the engine was made.