…Susan dropped what was in her arms as she went to her knees due to the shuttering of the aircraft and the dropping of the tail. Susan thought a bomb had just exploded, and her heart began to race and pound in her chest.
United Airlines Flight 232 is arguably the most storied aircraft disaster in commercial passenger aviation history in which all 296 passengers should have died. The training, efforts, and communication of the entire flight crew allowed for an unprecedented emergency landing attempt of a crippled wide-body aircraft in Sioux City, Iowa on July 19th, 1989, 35 years ago this Friday. The Flight 232 saga and ground response was so remarkable that it prompted a made-for-television movie, documentaries, a multi-city theatrical play, and an extraordinary and must-read award-winning book. This article adds new information regarding the flow of critical communication amongst the flight crew and provides a unique and detailed personal perspective from a surviving flight attendant.
The DC-10 of United Flight 232 suffered a catastrophic loss of its hydraulic flight control systems. The detonation was so loud and so violent that many thought it to be a terrorist bomb and were expecting the explosive decompression of the cabin. At 37,000 feet, the aircraft should have rolled over, nosedived, reached terminal velocity, and broken apart on its multi-minute plunge to the earth, and it almost did that Wednesday afternoon. Miraculously, the cockpit crew reacted and gained enough control to guide the nearly paralyzed aircraft over an agonizing 44-minutes to reach a closed World War II runway that was way too short. No commercial passenger aircraft had ever fully lost full hydraulic flight control systems and still managed to make an airfield landing attempt. All onboard knew the aircraft was going to crash, but the severity of the crash was unknown.
This is an abbreviated story of Flight 232 as seen uniquely through the eyes of flight attendant Susan White which allowed for the application of an eight-step framework called the “Survival Bridge” developed by the author. The author’s intention is not to amplify Susan’s role or diminish the role of others of the flight crew so critical on that fateful day, but this approach is the author’s way to best illustrate the Survival Bridge of anyone who initially survives an infrastructure disaster but then must cross from the side of danger and death to the side of safety and life. The eight steps of the Survival Bridge—Detect, Deduce, Debate, Decide, Do, Drive, Deliver, Divulge—are undermined by challenges and obstacles trying to stop or delay someone from crossing the Survival Bridge in time to get to the side of safety and life. These challenges and obstacles are many and often situation or person specific and may include: fear, panic, denial, fight, flight, freezing, confusion, self-doubt, anger, emotional distress, miscalculation, disassociation, denial, inadequate training, inadequate life experiences, inaccurate or lack of information, herding behavior, group think, crowding, bad timing, self-sacrifice (altruism), damage, physical limitations, and injury, just to name a few. Often these challenges and obstacles will conspire together and make survival impossible, but understanding them, and the steps of the Survival Bridge can make someone more self-aware to get to the side of safety.
This is Susan White’s story based on her perspective through extensive interviews along with available information that was properly cited. Interviews were also conducted of other surviving flight crew and several passengers. Information not cited is directly attributed to Susan White’s personal first-hand perspective conveyed to the author in written correspondence over a 10-month period.
Prologue
Susan White grew up in the quaint town of Wadsworth, Ohio, south of Cleveland. As the youngest of three daughters, her parents divorced when she was in 8th grade. Her father soon remarried and adopted his new wife’s two young daughters, then they had a daughter together. In a relatively short period, Susan had five sisters. She characterized her upbringing and life as rather normal, and she loves her sisters. In high school, she excelled in track-and-field, including sprinting and long jump, and earned the nickname “Rabbit” for her speed. But she discovered her true love was fast-pitch softball where she used her speed to steal bases to compensate for her lack of distance hitting. Attractive, outgoing, and always treating others with kindness and a broad smile, she was named her high school’s homecoming queen in 1982.
However, after high school, Susan was not very enthusiastic about college and felt lost about her future direction. She eventually decided to move to Texas, live with her sister, and pursue being a social worker like her sister, but then in 1983, just a week before she moved, she met a man five-years her senior who persuaded her to stay in Wadsworth. They got engaged and moved into a house together. But in time the relationship soured, and she felt trapped, demoralized, and scared. Working as a lobby receptionist in an athletic gym, Susan met an airline couple; he was a pilot, and she a flight attendant, who both encouraged her to apply to the airlines. Susan applied to both United Airlines and American Airlines which upset her fiancée. United Airlines quickly notified her that they were not hiring at that time. However, American Airlines sent her a letter with an interview date and an airplane ticket that Susan never saw as her fiancée hid it from her in a dresser drawer for over a year before she discovered it. Shortly after discovering the lost opportunity, Susan received a letter from United Airlines asking if she was still interested as they then sought to hire flight attendants. Susan pursued the opportunity despite the angst of her fiancée. In early 1986, she completed her 6-weeks of in-depth United Airlines flight attendant training and began her new career based out of Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. By July 1989, Susan was financially secure enough to plan a date to escape the bad relationship and chart a new life when the unimaginable happened. What should have been a routine Wednesday afternoon flight of a United Airlines DC-10 from Denver’s Stapleton Airport to Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, where Susan was based, turned into something truly horrific. That flight was United Flight 232.
July 19th, 1989 – Denver Colorado
The aircraft of Flight 232 was a three-engine DC-10-10 (the second -10 signified the first model number of the design) manufactured by McDonnell Douglas Corporation. Coined the “Tri-jet” because of its distinctive two wing-mounted engines (#1 and #3 engines) and one tail-mounted engine (#2 engine) aft of a nacelle (an airduct), the DC-10 had established itself as a long-haul wide-body passenger platform. Refer to Figure 1. The three CF6-6 engines were manufactured by General Electric Aircraft Engines. The DC-10 of Flight 232 was registered by United Airlines as N1819U and had been delivered to United Airlines in 1971 and had seen over 43,000 flight hours and nearly 17,000 takeoff and landing cycles.i

The morning of July 19th, Susan had worked on the same DC-10 in a leg from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Denver, Colorado, and the aircraft was running behind schedule in Denver. There was a concern about their late arrival into Philadelphia the day before and that United might change out the entire flight attendant crew to make them legal, but their departure was instead delayed putting them late into Denver. In Denver, the pilots disembarked and a new set of pilots for Flight 232 boarded as the aircraft was being quickly cleaned and prepped for its leg from Denver to Chicago.
All the flight attendants had been flying together for the past four days and had gotten along well, which is not always the case. Rene Le Beau had joined the crew as an extra in Denver. Susan warmly welcomed Rene after she boarded knowing that joining a high-functioning flight crew that had been working together on a multi-day trip was difficult. Rene was young and pretty, and the two hit it off immediately. Flight engineer Dudley Dvorak came on board, and he and Susan were friends having known each other a few years from a commuter apartment building near Chicago O’Hare that crews used for layovers. They chatted briefly, and he told her a joke before she had to hurry up the jetway to start taking passenger boarding passes. As such, Susan did not have time to meet pilot Al Haynes or first officer Bill Records after they boarded. The cockpit crew had flown together previously a week prior and had familiarity and confidence in each other.iii iv One flight attendant, Georgeann Delcastillo, was ill but her fellow flight attendances convinced her to finish the last leg, and the first flight attendant supported it so as not to complicate her follow-on commuter flight home.
Susan had not slept well the night before, but despite her tiredness she smiled, greeted, conversed, and validated boarding passes at the top of the jetway as passengers boarded. The flight was near capacity due to the summer crowds and a United Airlines promotion where children flew for 1-cent based on an adult ticket. Consequently, Flight 232 had many accompanied and unaccompanied minors onboard, including four lap children. Being a wide-body jet, the first-class section had rows of paired seats against both the port and starboard-side and paired seats in the center section. The coach section had rows of paired seats against both the port and starboard-side, and there were five seats in the center, with the last three rows in the aft tail being four seats in the center. The port and starboard-side paired seats were slightly staggered and separated from the center seats by aisles that ran the aircraft’s length, known as the port aisle and starboard aisle.
The entire assigned and uniformed flight crew that day included pilot Alfred “Al” Haynes, first-officer William “Bill” Records, flight engineer Dudley Dvorak, first flight attendant Jan Brown, and flight attendants Rene Le Beau, Georgeann Delcastillo, Barbara Gillespie, Donna McGrady, Virginia “Jan” Murray, Tim Owens, and Susan White. There was a surprisingly large amount of other non-working United Airlines personnel on board in the capacity as deadheading passengers since Denver and Chicago were hubs for United Airlines. Figure 2 illustrates passenger and assigned flight crew locations at takeoff, to include exit door and zone designations.

During the pre-flight review and discussions with the departing crew, the flight engineer Dudley Dvorak noted an auxiliary power unit problem requiring the engines to be started with a ground cart.vi The passengers boarded the aircraft at exit door 2-left (2L) and were directed to their seats. The passenger seats on the aircraft were almost filled except for one unoccupied seat in A-zone, three unoccupied seats in B-zone, and three unoccupied seats in C-zone. Flight 232 pushed back from Gate B-9.vii Susan was seated in the aft coach passenger cabin in a flight attendant jump seat by exit door 4-Left (4L) on the port-side of the aircraft facing aft toward the lavatories. At that time on multi-day trips, flight attendants were assigned jump seats based on their role, seniority, and personal preference, and they often kept that seat assignment over the entire multi-day trip. The backrest of Susan’s jump seat slid up to provide a headrest as the seat cushion folded down, and the seat was equipped with a multiple-point harness system. At 2:09 pm Central Time, United Flight 232 rotated and took off from Denver Stapleton Airport bound for Chicago O’Hare Airport and everything was typical and uneventful.viii Flight engineer Dudley Dvorak noted that one engine was slightly overheating, and he cut the power a little, but the aircraft climbed out nicely from Denver.ix
July 19, 1989 – United Flight 232, Aft Passenger Cabin
About an hour after takeoff, the DC-10 had reached a flight-cruise altitude of 37,000 feet. Being mid-July, lunch was an Americana-themed picnic type basket of chicken fingers, coleslaw, and a package of Oreo cookies. Susan had finished serving lunch, stowed her meal cart, and asked Tim Owens what he was running short of in the drink cart approaching the last 6-8 rows on the aircraft in the port aisle. Opposite her and Tim on the starboard aisle, Donna McGrady and George Delcastillo were also serving passengers. From the aft galley, Susan collected an arm full of soft drinks and milk to resupply Tim Owens’ drink cart. The elapsed time after takeoff was 1 hour and 7 minutes, and the time was 3:16 pmx Central Time. Susan stepped out of the aft galley into the port aisle by her jump seat at that time when a loud explosion occurred above her. Susan dropped what was in her arms as she went to her knees due to the shuttering of the aircraft and the dropping of the tail. Susan held on to her seat and thought a bomb had just exploded, and her heart began to race and pound in her chest. The almost deafening sound of the explosion was so loud that it was heard on the ground by people near Alta, Iowa, over 7-miles away.xi
Just seven-months prior, a terrorist bomb over Lockerbie, Scotland, bound for Detroit, Michigan, had brought down Pan Am 103. All 270 onboard the Boeing 747 jumbo jet were killed. This bombing and the threat of terrorism was coursing through Susan’s mind as it had been discussed at her recent recurrent emergency procedures training just two months prior.xii So, as sodas cans rolled away from Susan toward the aft lavatories and galley, she was on her knees holding on to her jump seat, waiting for the catastrophic decompression of an aircraft at 37,000 feet. Susan’s head was now on a swivel, looking around and trying to assess what had occurred and she wondered who was so important on the aircraft to warrant blowing it up. Susan was on the Detect step of the Survival Bridge. When no decompression occurred, Susan thought that perhaps something exploded in the cargo hold where the luggage was kept.
Once the aircraft stabilized somewhat from the tail dropping, Susan stood knowing something terrible had just occurred as she collected the soft drinks on the floor. xiii She learned from her training and several years of flying that such an explosive sound and aircraft excursion was not normal. Not given direction, she went to Tim Owens, and they brought the drink cart back to the aft galley in case the aircraft did anymore wild excursions. Glances were shared with Georgeann Delcastillo and Donna McGrady, who also immediately took their cart back to the aft galley. While stowing the drink carts, a cockpit announcement stated that the noise everyone just heard was the loss of the #2 tail-mounted engine but that everything was ok, and they were dropping to a lower altitude and would be a little late into Chicago. The dropping of the tail was due to the loss of thrust of that tail-mounted engine, and the engine itself becoming an instant wind drag. Unknown to the cockpit crew, the slew of the tail to the left was caused by ducted air into the nacelle that was driven out a gaping hole on the right side of the nacelle in front of the #2 tail-mounted engine. This effect caused a thrust vector out the right side of the tail, thus pushing the aircraft’s tail to the left.
After the cockpit announcement, the coach flight attendants in the aft galley felt somewhat relieved and Tim Owens remarked how thankful it was only the loss of an engine. However, Susan’s adrenaline flowed from what she thought was an emergency, to just being told it was a failed engine, and they’d only be a little late into Chicago. Not given other direction, they all decided to finish the drink service. One passenger complained to Susan that she might miss her connection in Chicago. Susan felt very anxious following the explosion and rushed to finish the drink service. Susan was so anxious her hands were not steady, and when she pulled out the mini liquor bottle tray in the drink cart it fell to her feet and the bottles scattered. This prompted a comment by a passenger that perhaps Susan needed a drink to calm her nerves, and she jokingly responded with a nervous smile, “Maybe I do.”
July 19, 1989 – United Flight 232, Cockpit
Upon hearing and feeling the explosion, pilot Al Haynes exclaimed, “What was that?!” as first officer Bill Records immediately grabbed the yoke as a reverberation went through the aircraft.xiv xv The flight engineer Dudley Dvorak, sitting behind the pilots and to the starboard-side, heard the explosion and immediately thought the auxiliary power unit, the same one suffering a maintenance issue, had exploded.xvi Dudley then realized that the #2 tail-mounted engine was coming offline. xvii Bill Records was putting increasing input into the yoke while trying to read the instruments which was difficult as the aircraft was shuttering.xviii Pilot Al Haynes began to run down the shutdown procedure of the #2 engine with flight engineer Dudley Dvorak as the aircraft continued its banking to the right, and pilot Al Haynes realized that the engine controls for the #2 engine were stuck and binding. xix Then Dudley Dvorak watched the unthinkable happen as the gauges of all three redundant hydraulic control systems, which amplify pilot input to manipulate the aircraft’s flight control surfaces, steadily dropped then registered zero pressure and zero volume. xx Dudley Dvorak reported “Loss of all hydraulics.”xxi Just before the explosion, the aircraft had been in a right turn but had gone wings level, and first officer Bill Record’s quick action of keeping the aircraft level ensured the aircraft’s control surfaces were as level as possible before the hydraulic fluid was pumped offboard. xxii Once the hydraulic fluid was lost, the control surfaces froze in place for the remainder of the flight, and had first officer Bill Record’s not kept the aircraft level in those crucial seconds the aircraft would not have been recoverable. Dudley Dvorak looking forward, saw before the pilots, that the aircraft was rolling and called out “We’re rolling.”xxiii First officer Bill Records told pilot Al Haynes what no pilot wants to hear, which is he could not control the aircraft as it continued to bank to the right.xxiv Pilot Al Haynes took authority of the aircraft and confirmed that the yoke was non-responsive to his input when the yoke was pulled back hard into his lap and to the left.xxv Even as the yoke was pulled in the other direction, the aircraft continued to roll to the right and approached 38-degrees of bank.xxvi The odds were stacked against the cockpit crew because large wide-body aircraft, with ever increasing bank, was on the verge of rolling over into an uncontrolled dive into the ground. Pilot Al Haynes, without any prior training or procedural guidance, took his right hand and deftly dropped the thrust on the #1 port engine to flight idle and increased the thrust of the #3 starboard engine in one motionxxvii and the aircraft over the next few seconds responded by beginning to level itself from what would have been a death roll and plummet to the earth.xxviii Those highly skilled with thousands of hours of experience operating complex machinery can often make instinctive lifesaving actions with little forethought. If it was not for first officer Bill Records’ actions to keep the aircraft level as the hydraulic fluid was lost overboard, flight engineer Dudley Dvorak’s raising awareness of the aircraft rolling, and pilot Al Haynes’ acumen at using differential thrust of the two remaining engines in the first 60 seconds of this unfolding nightmare, the aircraft would have likely cratered the ground after a few terrifying minutes, killing all onboard.
Not knowing the full extent of the damage to the hydraulic flight control systems, an emergency was declared to air traffic control as both Al Haynes and Bill Records continued to strain against the yoke. xxix At the same time, both pilots took turns to manipulate the differential thrust of the two-remaining wing-mounted engines to keep the aircraft level but as stated by the flight engineer Dudley Dvorak, the aircraft was never level again after the explosion.xxx Each pilot took turns releasing one hand of their yoke to throttle up and down the closest engine power lever; pilot Al Haynes manipulated the #1 port engine power lever, and first officer Bill Records manipulated the #3 starboard engine power lever. A decision was made and pilot Al Haynes directed that fuel be dumped to lighten the aircraft to buy time and keep the aircraft in the air as long as possible. As the pilots tried to fly the aircraft, flight engineer Dudley Dvorak executed the fuel dump and opened key communication channels. His communications allowed for a cascading sequence of notifications that later proved vital in the emergency response at the airfield and across the aviation community to include the post-crash response team by United Airlines and the National Transportation Safety Board. Despite the confusion of the situation, the three men did not panic or freeze, but worked to keep the aircraft flying to buy time and hopefully remedy the aircraft flight control issues.
Recognizing their dire situation, Jan Brown, the first flight attendant (today often called the purser), was summoned to the cockpit about four minutes after the explosion and pilot Al Haynes informed her of their flight control issues. Jan Brown recalls being told that Al Haynes said, “We have lost all hydraulics; secure the cabin, and prepare the passengers.”xxxi xxxii xxxiii Jan Brown understood it was an emergency but recognized they were at altitude and set out to notify her flight attendants but did not want to alarm the passengers which could complicate emergency instructions.
General Electric CF6-6 High Bypass Jet Engine
The post-crash investigation determined that the final machining of a first-stage rotor in 1971 by General Electric Aircraft Engines in Evendale, Ohio, had a small manufacturing defect left within its Titanium central hub. The entire rotor is machined and the outer rim is left with dovetailed slots that allow blades to be inserted and secured with a retaining ring. The rotor and its attached blades form what is called the first-stage fan disk. A small manufacturing defect on a part placed under high rotating stresses can cause stress risers to occur at the defect from which cracks can grow over many cycles. This first-stage fan disk, with an undetected defect within the rotor hub, was installed into a General Electric high-bypass CF6-6 jet engine and delivered to United Airlines.xxxiv Being an interchangeable part, that Titanium rotor flew in many different CF6-6 engines, DC-10s, and engine mount locations over its lifetime. Over the life of aircraft engines, engines are sent periodically to depot maintenance for inspection, overall, and replacement of engine parts deemed no longer flight worthy. Over the life of that Titanium rotor, a crack had initiated at the defect location within the center of the rotor hub and grew slowly over thousands of flight hours.xxxv Florescent penetrant inspection (FPI) during depot maintenance had been done five times over its lifetime and no anomaly had been detected. xxxvi The crack’s location below the surface, the crack’s orientation, and the crack’s unusual location inside the center hub of the rotor made inspection difficult for the techniques at the time.xxxvii The last depot maintenance, and sixth FPI, before the accident failed to detect the now visible crack and the rotor was reinstalled into a CF6-6 engine. xxxviii That engine was put back into service and was mounted into the tail-mounted #2 engine location of DC-10 N1819U, and on July 19, 1989, that crack reached a critical length.xxxix
Aircraft engines have containment standards to allow a certain number of engine blades to separate from a rotating rotor and be ingested, or contained within the engine without perforating through the engine case. Containment of liberated blades is crucial to prevent damage to flight critical systems outside the engine. The rationale is that it’s better to ingest and trash the engine and rely on the other engines to safely fly and land the aircraft, than to allow an engine blade to perforate the engine case and sever other flight critical systems. However, for a high-bypass engines like the CF6-6, containment of a liberated first-stage rotor, due to its weight and size, is not feasible because the engine shroud, case, and nacelle would have to be overly robust which equates to weight. Engine weight is problematic because that directly correlates to greater fuel consumption, shorter flight range, and fewer passengers that can be flown, which are all key parameters to make an airline financially viable. Furthermore, making the engine shroud, case, and nacelle of the tail-mounted #2 engine more robust would force the center of gravity further aft which would cause aircraft performance and stability issues. As such, to offset the risk of a rotor being liberated in flight, periodic depot maintenance inspections of engines are done to detect and remove from service any hardware no longer flight worthy, especially rotors since they can’t be contained if fractured due to their weight and size. When the crack within the first-stage rotor hub of the tail-mounted #2 engine reached a critical length at 3:16 pm on July 19th, 1989, at 37,000 feet over Iowa, the crack didn’t grow a fractional increment, but instead grew at the speed of sound fracturing through the rotor from the inner hub to an outer blade dovetail. Since the first-stage fan disk spun at thousands of revolutions per minute, the resulting event was explosively loud and powerful as the centrifugal forces flung out two large fragments of the rotor hub and attached blades. Figure 3 depicts a smaller and larger fragment of the #2 engine first-stage fan disk recovered later.

As the fragments were flung outward, the accessory drive and the hydraulic #2 system mounted on the fan section were destroyed. Figure 4 depicts the first-stage fan disk and accessory drive section destroyed on the tail-mounted #2 engine. The fragments exploded through the aircraft’s engine nacelle and down into both horizontal stabilizers peppering both with 79 punctures and at least one perforating the right stabilizer with a large hole.xli The rotor sections, and many blade parts were found over the ensuing days to months in farm fields near Alta, Iowa, where they plummeted from 37,000 feet.xlii

Figure 5 illustrates the fragments that peppered and perforated the right horizontal stabilizer and cut the hydraulic #1 and #3 lines.xliv Figure 5 also depicts a photograph of Flight 232 in flight with clear damage and perforations to the right horizontal stabilizer. In the seconds following the explosion, the sustained damage to the aircraft allowed all the hydraulic fluid to be pumped off board from each of the three redundant hydraulic control systems.xlv

The DC-10 was designed with three engines that had dedicated and isolated hydraulic control systems that could each run key aspects of the flight control surfaces, so that with the loss of any one or two engines, the DC-10 was still flyable.xlviii McDonnell Douglas aircraft design engineers simply could not grasp the unimaginable scenario in which all three redundant hydraulic systems would fail, and the event was calculated to be not only improbable, but impossible at odds of one in a billion.xlix As such, when all hydraulic fluid quantity and pressure were lost, the figurative life blood of the aircraft, the aircraft was totally crippled and had no ability to be flown and controlled in the traditional sense using flight control surface. The only means to fly the aircraft was the differential thrust of two remaining wing mounted engines.
July 19, 1989 – United Flight 232, Aft Galley
Shaken from what she saw and heard in the cockpit, first flight attendant Jan Brown left the cockpit, not really understanding what the loss of hydraulics fully meant other than losing brakes like on a car.l She walked down the starboard aisle and proceeded to individually speak to flight attendants in the front galley at the back of A-zone in hushed tones so as not to cause passenger alarm.li Jan Brown then crossed over to the port aisle and walked aft to talk to the coach flight attendants.lii Susan distinctly recalls Jan Brown walking down the port-aisle toward her as they had finished the drink service, and Susan had emptied her cart to begin to collect lunch trash. In the aft galley, Jan briefed the coach flight attendants—Donna McGrady, Tim Owens, and Susan White—to clean up everything and put things away. Not fully grasping the severity of what was occurring, Susan flippantly retorted, “No second coffees?” and Jan responded with a curt, “No second coffees!” The task given to them was to clean up the coach cabin of drinks, food baskets, and trash and to secure everything. Jan Brown relied on Susan to inform Georgeann Delcastillo of her instructions since the latter was in the starboard aisle.liii Susan was on the Deduce step of the Survival Bridge as she became more aware that the aircraft was having issues, but she didn’t appreciate the full extent of what was unfolding.
July 19, 1989 – United Flight 232, Cockpit
At 3:28:08 pm, Sioux City tower asked for the number of “souls on board united two thirty two”, and pilot Al Haynes responded, “getting’ that right now.”liv At about the same time at approximately 3:28:00 pm, a passenger named Dennis “Denny” Fitch sitting in seat 5F, was a United Airlines DC-10 Airline Training Check Airman (TCA), who had picked United Flight 232 over another flight on a whim. Denny Fitch stopped flight attendant Virginia “Jan” Murray walking past him in first class as she appeared distressed. lv He told her a DC-10 could fly fine on two engines, but when Jan Murray leaned in and told him that all of the hydraulics were gone, he denied that was possible. lvi Denny Fitch demonstrated two common human behavioral responses when presented with a perceived impossible situation that doesn’t fit any previously known mental model—complete denial or an underestimate of the severity of the problem. Jan Murray was adamant that this was what she had been told by Jan Brown, which confused Denny Fitch, and so he offered to help the cockpit crew anyway he could.lvii With Jan Brown in the rear of the aircraft, Jan Murray went to the cockpit to tell pilot Al Haynes of the onboard TCA willing to assist. lviii When Jan Murray stood in the cockpit doorway at approximately 3:29:19 pm,lix she was shocked by the state of the cockpit crew fighting to keep the aircraft aloft. lx As the pilots strained with their yokes, Jan Murray blurted out the TCA’s offer to help, and pilot Al Haynes, not turning around, responded for him to come up, and Jan Murray retreated from the cockpit and told Denny Fitch “He [pilot Al Haynes] wants you right now!”lxi lxii
Stepping into the cockpit at 3:29:35 pmlxiii, almost 14 minutes after the explosion, Denny Fitch quickly recognized how bad a situation the aircraft was in as he saw the two pilots straining on the yoke and by looking at the hydraulic system gauges on Dudley Dvorak’s aircraft systems panel and seeing zero hydraulic pressure and zero quantity.lxiv lxv Denny Fitch stepped forward and fastened the shoulder harness of Bill Records, when Denny Fitch was dispatched by Al Haynes to look at the condition of the wings at approximately 3:29:55 pm.lxvi lxvii Denny Fitch went down the starboard aisle past his empty seat and looked out the window at the right wing, then crossed over to the port aisle to look at the left wing.lxviii What Denny Fitch saw confirmed what he saw on the flight engineer’s panel; all hydraulic systems quantity and pressure were lost because both ailerons were floating up which should not occur as they operate opposite each other when the hydraulic systems are pressurized.lxix As a DC-10 TCA, Denny Fitch knew the aircraft was doomed as he quicky came up the port aisle heading to the cockpit.
Peter Allen, a United Airlines deadheading uniformed was in seat 5E on the starboard aisle now watched Denny Fitch stop and briefly talk to Jan Brown before going to the cockpit.lxx This conversation has never previously been reported or known to have occurred but sheds important light on the stress of the situation but also explains how key life-saving information flowed from the cockpit to the aft coach flight attendants through Jan Brown. Denny Fitch, from having inspected the wings, knew how bad aircraft’s condition was in, and he told Jan the unvarnished reality of their situation. Undoubtedly, Denny Fitch confided with Jan Brown that the aircraft’s loss of hydraulic systems equated to no flight surface controls, no inflight or ground brakes, no steering on the ground, and that they will likely be ditching in a field or may end up in river at the end of the Sioux City runway. Interestingly, Denny Fitch and Peter Allen were not the only United Airlines deadheading employees onboard. In A-zone, there were four more pilots to include pilot Jerry Kennedy (seat 1A)lxxi, pilot Paul Burnham (seat 4A)lxxii, pilot Peter McInerney (seat 4C)lxxiii, and pilot Joel Kirklxxiv (seat 4E). Additionally, a United Airlines deadheading flight attendant Kathy Shen and a United Airlines information technology engineer Donna Lewis (4F) were sitting in A-zone.
Denny Fitch returned to the cockpit at approximately 3:31:06 pmlxxv and briefed Al Haynes, that both ailerons where floating up and Al Haynes told Denny Fitch to take control of the thrust levers of the #1 and #3 engines, which he did while standing between the two pilots.lxxvi lxxvii lxxviii Denny Fitch now relieved pilot Al Haynes and first officer Bill Records of that task as they continued to fight the aircraft yoke not knowing they had no flight control input. The aircraft continued to want to turn right and fly up and down in a long sinusoidal cycle after which altitude was always lost as they spiraled downward.lxxix The entire cockpit crew were fighting for control of the aircraft, seeking solutions from maintenance experts, and brainstorming as a crew on what they could do to improve their situation. In essence, the entire cockpit crew were fighting for all the souls on board.
At 3:36:00 pm, an interesting sequence of communication between the ground and cockpit crew occurred. Sioux City tower asked the cockpit “…united two thirty two did you get the souls on board count”.lxxx This request came eight minutes after the first request of souls on board from Sioux City tower at 3:28:00 pm. This second request at 3:36:00 pm prompted Al Haynes to ask Dudley Dvorak “Wha’ja have for a count for people”.lxxxi Al Haynes then immediately told Sioux City tower at 3:36:07 pm, “Tell you right now we don’t even have time to let go to call that gal..ha ah”. Undoubtedly Al Haynes usage of “gal” was in reference to first flight attendant Jan Brown. At the time, the number of souls on board would have been written on the manifest or a napkin and given to the first flight attendant Jan Brown by Susan White who took the jetway boarding passes and did the physical count of seats occupied. The soul count would then be conveyed to the cockpit and recorded by the flight engineer in his paperwork. It is unclear what occurred, but the true soul count was 296 souls but Dudley Dvorak conveyed to Al Haynes at 3:36:10 pm “two ninety two [souls]”.lxxxii Possibly in the stress of the unfolding nightmare that number was misread, decremented by the four souls in the cockpit from 296 to 292, or perhaps the true head count didn’t capture the four lap children. Regardless, the number of souls on board is a key parameter to ensure the proper emergency ground response in anticipating a mass causality event and such a small discrepancy as this was insignificant.
At approximately the same time as the communications above, Jan Brown distinctly recalls being told by a pilot in the cockpit the need to do a “quick and dirty” which is slang for a Short Notice Cabin Preparation announcement to the passengers for an emergency landing. The discussion of souls on board in the cockpit may have prompted Al Haynes to ensure the passenger cabin was being briefed and used the slang term known to him and Jan Brown, both long-time United Airline employees. Interestingly, Dudley Dvorak and other younger flight attendants were not familiar with the term. Although the cockpit voice recorder did not capture an intraphone communication to Jan Brown from the cockpit, neither did the public announcement from pilot Al Haynes when he spoke directly to the passenger cabin toward the end of the flight. However, as such, it is believed by subsequent events that occurred, that Al Haynes chimed Jan Brown on the intraphone to ensure a “quick and dirty“ was done, because when Jan Brown hung up the intraphone, she recalled she immediately moved aft to brief the coach flight attendants.
July 19, 1989 – United Flight 232, Aft Passenger Cabin
Donna McGrady, Tim Owens, Georgeann Delcastillo, and Susan had cleaned up after the lunch service of baskets, drinks, and trash. Standing with Donna McGrady outside the aft galley on the port-side, Susan saw Jan Brown at approximately 3:37:00 pm coming back aft down the port-side aisle. Jan Brown had come up behind Tim Owens and whispered into his ear, “We’re going to do a quick and dirty” passenger briefing motioning him to follow her.lxxxiii Susan recalled that the four stood outside the aft galley and caddy corner to Susan’s jump seat at exit door 4-Left (4L). Susan stood next to her jump seat facing aft, with Jan Brown standing between her and the aft divider wall. In front of them stood Donna McGrady and Tim Owens. Susan distinctly recalls starring at the lavatory door as Jan briefed them in hushed tones that all hydraulics were lost, no brakes, no steering, little flight control, and that the pilots were not sure they would even make it to the airport and may need to ditch, and the aircraft may end up in a river at the end of the runway. Furthermore, Jan told them there may be fire and to check out the windows before opening the exit doors. She also told them she was not sure how it was going to turn out and to be prepared. She also conveyed to them to get out and review their pink evacuation booklets. Virginia “Jan” Murray appeared after crossing over from the starboard aisle behind the aft divider wall to where they were standing and then described in an animated way what she saw in the cockpit, “They [pilots] can’t control the plane; they are up there like this!” as she held her hands on an imaginary yoke at the 12:00 and 6:00 o’clock positions in a hard left turn. Jan Murray also conveyed to them that Denny Fitch, a TCA, was in the cockpit with the crew. Jan Murray left, walking behind the aft divider, and proceeded up the starboard aisle. Jan Brown followed Jan Murray and was likely several strides behind her.
At that moment, Susan wanted to crawl into a hole and cry, and she called it her personal, “Oh my God” moment. The flight crew were all feeling the stress of their dire situation. After Jan Brown left, Donna McGrady, the daughter of a church pastor, quickly took up the hands of Tim Owens and Susan in the aft galley and led them in a brief prayer. In highly stressful situations people seek out others in a clustering behavior to collect more information about their situation and as a coping strategy. Furthermore, people with religious faith will often pray and call upon divine intervention in emergency situations.
Not noticed by Susan, but as Jan Brown proceed up the starboard aisle, Jan was stopped by a passenger who pointed out the window to damage to the right horizontal stabilizer, and after Jan Brown saw the damage, she sped walked up the aisle to the cockpit.lxxxiv
A few minutes past as Susan busied herself in the aft port section. In that time, a deadheading pilot with Eastern Metro Airlines, likely sitting in seat 35-G, who ironically happened to be on his third interview with United Airlineslxxxv, had gotten up and looked out the starboard-side window. What he saw made him very concerned and he promptly came around behind the aft divider wall and pulled out his pilot credentials from his boot and showed them to Susan. He told Susan he wanted to show her something out the starboard window, and he pointed out damage to the right horizontal stabilizer and told her that the aircraft was in grave danger and could not land safely. This deadheading pilot likely witnessed the interaction between the passenger and Jan Brown which peaked his own interest to get up and look out at the tail. The pilot told Susan he was willing to help the cockpit crew and Susan, knowing that a TCA was already up there, told him that but said she would convey the offer. At that moment, Susan thought that everything was building up to there being a slim chance at surviving the flight. The time was approximately 3:42:20 pm when Susan saw her friend, flight engineer Dudley Dvorak, quickly walking down the starboard aisle toward her.lxxxvi He was investigating the report of tail damage conveyed to the cockpit by Jan Brown’s second cockpit visit that had occurred seconds before. Susan White vividly recalls how pale and serious he looked, and not his jovial self. Dudley was directed by two men to look out a starboard window at the tail damage and Dudley had to hold on to the seat back as the aircraft wallowed in the air.lxxxvii After looking out the rear starboard window, he turned toward Susan and asked her “Are you ok?” She replied, “I’m ok, are you ok?” Susan lied as she was far from being ok as she just wanted to cry. It was at that moment she really felt everyone was going to die. He put his hand on her arm never answering her question and said, “Good luck”, and Susan responded, “Good luck to you”, and then he crossed behind the aft divider wall and looked out a port-side window at the left horizontal stabilizer and then he quickly walked forward up the port aisle to the cockpit to share his findings. As Susan watched him leave, she was convinced that she would never see him again. Susan could feel the stress and fear within herself building up as she envisioned all their inevitable deaths.
Frazzled, Susan knew she was on the verge of crying and wanted to compose herself and pray. Despite being trained not to panic, her fear, stress, and anxiety were overtaking her. She knew she could not break down in a crying heap because her job was to help passengers and keep them calm and focused during an emergency. Not knowing it, Susan was on the Debate step of the Survival Bridge. She realized that her fate and everyone on board were in the hands of the pilots over 150 feet forward. She turned and looked at the two starboard-side rear lavatories and both were occupied. Susan heard someone unlock and then exit the port-side inboard lavatory and she swiftly stepped in and locked the door. The time was approximately 3:43:05 pm. She blew her nose and could feel tears wanting to flow. Her options were few and consisted of either curling up into a fetal position crying on the floor, or to pray for God’s intervention and perform her duties as best she could. Like all the flight crew that day who displayed incredible courage, she performed her duties despite her fears. Knowing she didn’t have much time left, she prayed for everyone on board, the pilots, the passengers, the crew, and a prayer for strength to get through this. Susan was now on the Decide step of the Survival Bridge. She composed herself, looked in the mirror to ensure she looked as “normal and not afraid” as possible despite her palpable fear, and then stepped out of the lavatory to perform her duties. Susan had been in the lavatory for approximately 45 seconds.
As soon as Susan stepped out of the lavatory, she heard Jan Brown on the public-announcement (PA) system telling flight attendants to take up their “demo positions” [demonstration positions] to convey emergency information to the passengers. Susan grabbed her safety demo gear and slowly walked up the port aisle but after passing about one-third of the rows to her demo position at exit door 3-Left (3L), and at the same time Jan Brown held her PA microphone, Jan struggled to part her lips to speak because they were so dry from fear.lxxxviii Jan Brown’s seat and microphone position was just aft of the forward galley and Jan Brown reached into the galley to turn on a sink faucet to dab her fingers in water that she brought to her lipslxxxix. That simple delay prevented her and pilot Al Haynes from talking over each other, because at 3:45:04 pmxc, pilot Al Haynes spoke to the passengers and flight crew for approximately 12 seconds.xci The cockpit voice recorder did not record what was said to the passengers, but Susan recalled Al Haynes started by saying, “The flight attendants have already briefed you on the brace position….” and a woman in Susan’s section turned toward her and quickly chided, “No you haven’t!”, and Susan replied, “We’re just getting ready to do that” as Susan walked up the aisle. Years later, pilot Al Haynes stated in an interview that he said, “I’m not going to kid you, we’re going to make an emergency landing in Sioux City, not Chicago. It’s going to be a very hard landing, harder than anything you’ve been through. Please pay close attention to the flight attendants’ briefing, and we’ll see you in Sioux City.”xcii At that time within the commercial airline industry, flight attendants were primarily female, and pilots mostly male. As such, the female flight attendants often remarked that the larger the commercial passenger aircraft, the larger the ego of the pilot. She was eager to hear some promising news or perhaps some male bravado that everything would going to be ok, but what she heard was the deep honesty of a kind and seasoned pilot who was speaking from his heart. As Susan approached her demo position at exit door 3-Left (3L), Tim Owens stood there at his jump seat looking at her. Susan looked at him and said, “Demo position”, and he looked confused, and she nudged him to move him forward to exit door 2-Left (2L) which was his demo position. The stress of what was occurring was impacting her friend, and he realized he needed to move forward and quickly did so. As Susan turned and stood at her demo position, she thought that for a DC-10 pilot to say what she just heard was astonishing and his words drove home their dire situation. An internal monologue began to play in her head, “This is your last moments on earth alive with all these strangers. This is the career path you have chosen and now you’re going to die.” Susan snapped back and thought, “You were trained to do this job so be professional as all eyes are now on you.” Immediately after pilot Al Haynes went off the PA system, Jan Brown clicked on her PA microphone and launched into reading from the “Short Notice Emergency Landing Preparation” card on what to do for an emergency landing.xciii The quick and dirty announcement was underway. Susan was on the Do step of the Survival Bridge, and became slightly calmer.
As Jan Brown began to read the scripted information from the evacuation card, Susan stood at her demo position and scanned the passengers. There were many older adults, and several couples wore Hawaiian shirts whose festive patterns starkly contrasted to the mood of despair in the cabin. But at the time, all eyes were on her and the other flight attendants. Before cell phones and other smart devices, passengers would usually be reading a magazine, book, or newspaper, or talking with others rather than paying attention to the flight attendant during safety demonstrations and instructions. That was not the case now and Susan felt intimidated because it was the first time in her short 3-year flight attendant career that all the C-zone passengers were focused on her and flight attendant Donna McGrady at exit door 3-Right (3R). Undoubtedly, all the passengers onboard desperately wanted to increase their odds of survival with the flight attendant’s guidance.
Susan saw people crying, leaning on each other, holding hands, praying, and some sat stoic, wondering their fate. Susan saw a row of five passengers holding hands as one man lead them in prayer. Susan also saw women stuffing driver licenses into their bras to help identify them after the crash, while others frantically wrote final goodbye notes which foretold the grime outcome for many of them. While Jan Brown was still reading, Susan noticed a petite blond-haired young woman dressed in a yellow outfit about her age that was sitting next to a port-side window crying very hard. The woman sat next to a man on the aisle who was about the same age as the woman. Susan initially thought they were a couple, but as the woman began to cry harder, he just sat there with a nervous look and took no action to comfort the woman. Susan left her demo position to comfort the fearful and panic-stricken woman. Susan quickly gathered they were not a couple, and she leaned over the man to hug the woman who proceeded to ask Susan in a rapid sobbing voice, “Are we going to die, I can’t die, I have three small children at home, they are at the airport waiting, they need me, I can’t die. Are we going to die?” On the verge of tears herself, Susan prayed to God in her mind, “Please do not let me cry” as she comforted the woman who was sweating from her sobbing with tears running down her face. Susan could not tell her everything would be ok, because she didn’t believe it herself and Susan didn’t want to lie. Not wanting to give false hope but wanting to give something for the woman to focus on, Susan told the young mother to be prepared for the rough landing the pilot had just said on the PA announcement. Susan added, “Take a deep breath and pray” which the woman did, and it seemed to calm her and the sobbing.
Shaken, Susan stood and returned to her demo position as Jan Brown read the final guidance to remove sharp objects, pens, other items from pockets and to take off eye glasses. The passengers were also instructed to demonstrate the brace position also on their safety card. The flight attendants were given instructions to check passenger seatbelts. Susan walked through the aft passenger cabin checking seatbelts and spotted a toddler on a father’s lap covered with a blanket. Picking up the edge of the blanket, she saw both were strapped into his seatbelt which would crush the girl by his forward momentum on impact. Susan explained the procedure was to wrap the child in blankets and pillows and place the child on the floor under the seat in front of him, which sounded to Susan horrible as she gave the instruction. He looked at her and said, “On the floor?”, and Susan calmly responded that this was the guidance they were trained to give. He agreed, and without hesitation two people seated nearby readily handed over their pillows and blankets to wrap and protect the child on the floor by his feet.
Susan continued on the Do step of the Survival Bridge and went row-by-row, telling passengers to tighten their seatbelt “low and tight across the lap” and she added, “until it hurts.” The latter instruction was not something they were trained to say, but it seemed logical in the circumstances and likely made a difference for many. Susan came to an unaccompanied minor, a cute young 13-year-old girl, sitting beside a man. The girl had told Susan earlier in the flight before the explosion, that she wanted to be a flight attendant, and Susan had given her some plastic airline wings to wear on her shirt. Now Susan tightened the girl’s seat belt and looked at the man sitting next to her. The man said they had a plan in that the girl would hold the back of his pants’ belt during the evacuation, and Susan was pleased with his kindness. Susan went further aft and instructed some other passengers to assist her if she was incapacitated by showing them how to notify the cockpit of fire and open the exit door 4-Left (4L) by her jump seat. She also told them to undue her harness and get her out of the aircraft if she was unconscious. Susan found the latter instruction difficult to verbalize as she desperately wanted everyone to survive the landing and open her exit door and direct passengers out.
July 19, 1989 – United Flight 232, Cockpit
Pilot Al Haynes demonstrated outstanding crew resource management and worked with the entire cockpit crew to ensure everyone had input. Al Haynes and first-officer Bill Records helped the aircraft toward an airfield runway by directing Denny Fitch, who manned the throttles, while Dudley Dvorak maintained critical communication channels and monitored flight systems. Although the runway was way too short for a DC-10, the thought process was that putting the aircraft down on an airfield, or as close to an airfield as possible, would give the flight crew and passengers the greatest chance of survival based on life-saving emergency response.xciv Denny Fitch, who had gained valuable experience in steering the aircraft, orchestrated a critical left hand turn, that when followed with a tight right turn, amazingly lined up the aircraft with a feasible runway and at a satisfactory altitude to attempt a landing.xcv The sequence of events and actions of this trained crew, such as Bill Records putting in the last flight control surface inputs before they froze, Al Haynes swatting the engine throttles to save the aircraft from rolling over, Dudley Dvorak dumping the fuel to make the aircraft lighter to make a runway and opening up key communications, and Denny Fitch volunteering to help and manipulate the power settings had all come together as favorably as possible based on the circumstances. As captured on the cockpit voice recorder before the landing attempt, a degree of optimism bloomed in Al Haynes’ voice that they might put the aircraft on the ground and all 296 souls onboard may safely evacuate the aircraft once it came to a stop, likely in a field.xcvi However, due to the locked position of the flight control surfaces and the speed needed to maintain some semblance of flight control, the aircraft approached Sioux City Gateway Airport at a very high rate of speed and a descent rate that exceeded the capabilities of the landing gear.xcvii
July 19, 1989 – United Flight 232, Aft Passenger Cabin – 4:00 Minute Warning
At the 4:00 minute warning announcement from the cockpit at 3:54:38 pmxcviii, which was slightly premature, Susan was strapped into her flight attendant jump seat at exit door-4 Left (4L) facing aft toward the two port-side lavatory doors. She was trying to put her life into context and imagine what heaven was going to be like. Susan looked up at the air-phone on the back of the aft divider wall that separated her and Donna McGrady who sat in her jump seat at exit door-4 Right (4R). The aft divider wall housed the onboard wheelchair, first aid kit, magazine racks, and air phones, and provided a visible barrier for the aft galley from passengers in the cabin. Susan had seen passengers using the air phones earlier and she so badly wanted to call her parents but knew it would just torture them. Susan also knew she should not be on the air phone as a crew member.
Susan’s self-doubt about her ability to survive her circumstances was overcoming her. She conveyed, “As we were coming down on final, four-minute warning, I thought, I have four minutes to think about my entire life” and she thought of my “pastor announcing my death in church and my mother in the congregation. I was so worried about my parents losing a child… I thought about my five sisters dividing up my jewelry and such and thinking about me… I prayed for God to save my life and tried to bargain [with] God thinking ‘Dear Lord, if you please save my life, I promise to go to church every Sunday, and then caught myself and told God I know I can’t bargain for my life, and if I’m meant to live I will but if not, I will accept my fate. I prayed for the pilots, the flight attendants, and all the passengers.”
Susan then began trying to trick her brain into think she would miraculously survive, that they all would survive, and that everything would turn out fine. In high stress situations, the mind seeks normalcy as a coping strategy even when everything points to the contrary. As such, Susan’s mind began to worry about trivial matters. Susan began to worry about the United Airlines co-ed softball game that night in Chicago she played on. It concerned her because being a co-ed team, they needed a mix of men and women to avoid a forfeiture of the game. Susan felt terrible that she might be the reason for the forfeiture of the game. Susan leaned forward, and looked past the aft divider wall at Donna McGrady and quietly asked, “Donna, do you think they will know why I’m not at my softball game tonight?” Donna quietly and calmly said “Yes Susan, I think they’ll know why you’re not there.” Being on a six-day reserve block of work and Flight 232 being the last day of a four-day trip, Susan technically could be forced to work and fly the next two days. Seeking more normalcy, Susan leaned forward again, “Donna, do you think they’re going to release me for tomorrow? I just can’t imagine flying tomorrow after all of this.” Donna smiled and calmly and lovingly said, “Yes I think you’ll be released for tomorrow” which satisfied Susan and she sat back with some relief. For some brief moments her mind was disassociating herself from the bleak situation that she was in a crippled aircraft that was barreling way too fast toward a short and closed World War II era runway at Sioux City Gateway airport not long to handle a DC-10.xcix
July 19, 1989 – United Flight 232, Aft Passenger Cabin – 3:00 Minute
At about the three-minute mark, Susan leaned forward and noticed Donna McGrady didn’t have her earnings in, Susan chastised herself for telling the passengers to remove glasses, pens, and things in their pockets but not doing it herself. In an effortless motion Susan released her jump seat harness and stood. Donna McGrady turned, and glared at Susan and asked what she was doing in total disbelief. Susan meekly said she was taking her earnings out, which she did. She quickly put them into her tote bag, restowed the tote bad, sat down, and then reconnected her jump seat harness.
After sitting back in her jump seat, she would tug as hard as possible on her harness to tighten it about every 10-15 seconds. Her mind was in overdrive, and she began obsessing on trivial matters like her car, a Pontiac Grand Am, parked in the massive employee parking lot at Chicago O’Hare. She worried about how her parents would find and get the car without a set of keys.
July 19, 1989 – United Flight 232, Aft Passenger Cabin – 2:00 Minute Warning
At the two-minute warning announcement from the cockpit at 3:58:27 pmc, Susan crossed her arms in a brace position, and reflected on her short life of being 25-years old and getting the dream job to see the world but hadn’t seen that much. She also reflected on wasting so many years in a bad relationship and not having left it, and for not having a chance to live a happy adult life. She looked out her exit door porthole at the beautiful blue sky and the puffy white clouds when she recognized how fast the aircraft was flying for the landing and she described the feeling as, “I thought this is the last two minutes of being alive on earth and I was terrified and sad. Sad, I had no control.” She said, “I started thinking about heaven and thought I’ll be there soon. I had remembered a [1978] documentary I had seen in the 7th or 8th grade called ‘Beyond and Back’ about people who had died for a short time but ended up living. It had always been an impressionable documentary as I was always curious about Heaven and what it would be like… I focused on that and how wonderful it was going to be. Even as I felt I was too young to die, I was trying to convince myself that it was going to be ok. I was just more concerned for my parents and family than myself at this point.”
Pilot Al Haynes came on the PA system at 3:59:29 pmci and gave the signal “BRACE-BRACE…” for impact, and all the flight attendants across the aircraft barked and echoed “BRACE-BRACE-BRACE” and repeated it in cadence. Susan said she mentally stated the Lord’s prayer as she barked the cadence. As she yelled her commands, Susan looked over at the evacuation button and mentally rehearsed how to open her exit door one more time. Right before impact, Susan thought to herself, “Ok Lord I’m in your hands” and then she experienced no fear, and her emotional distress was released. Reflecting, she said “All that fear of being in front of everyone prepping the aircraft, talking to the Eastern [Metro Airlines] pilot, listening to Jan’s [Brown] words, seeing Dudley [Dvorak] and having him tell me ‘Good luck’, comforting that woman…. all that fear vanished, and I felt I was wrapped in God’s hands, and I was at complete peace.” It was 4:00:00 pm and Flight 232 was mere seconds away from contacting the earth in one way or another.
This article will be continued tomorrow on July 19, 2024, which is the 35th anniversary of this aircraft disaster.
July 19, 1989 – United Flight 232, Impact
Pilot Al Haynes, in a speech in 1991, stated that there were over 103 years of flying experience in that cockpit between himself, co-pilot Bill Records, flight engineer Dudley Dvorak, and TCA Denny Fitch.cii As such, never had a cockpit crew managed to get a crippled commercial passenger aircraft with total loss of its hydraulic systems and no operating flight control surfaces down on to the ground with significant survivors. In fact, the National Transportation Safety Board in its final report stated that “a safe landing was virtually impossible”, and that that under the circumstances, “the flight crew performance was highly commendable and greatly exceeded reasonable expectations.”ciii
The aircraft was lined up on the closed runway, but off to the left of the centerline during its final approach but within 100 feet of the ground the nose suddenly dipped and the right wing dropped. civ Denny Fitch applied power to compensate but the left engine spooled up faster, and according to pilot Al Haynes, the angle of the right wing went from approximately -2 degrees to -20 degrees in mere seconds.cv The time was 4:00:16 pmcvi when the right wing tip contacted the runway. Upon contact the aircraft slammed down on the #3 engine and right landing gear collapsed and gouged a deep rut into the concrete runway due to the aircraft’s excessive sink rate.cvii As the aircraft skidded down the runway the right wing tore off and the intact left wing gained lift due to the running #1 engine.cviii Due to the dynamics of the impact, the tail section broke off on impact along the circumference manufacturing seam. The tail section traveled down the airfield on its own tortuous tumbling path to the left of the aircraft’s main body which began to angle right. With the right engine, right wing, and tail missing, the DC-10 stood up vertically with its nose pointed down and pirouetted on its nose down the runway while the aircraft physically bouncing several times on noise causing it to shear away from the first-class section.cix The aircraft’s mid-section rotated 180 degrees and slammed down on its back plowing through a cornfield backward. The aircraft broke into five main sections—cockpit, first class section, mid-coach section, aft-coach section, and tail section. Although grainy, a news videographer had filmed the crucial moment of the crash through a chain linked fence surrounding the airfield. Figure 6 illustrates the runway gouge of the right landing gear and video of frame of Flight 232 breaking apart. Those witnessing the crash were confident there would be no survivors.

The impact was bone shattering hard, and Susan said she saw fire immediately engulf the aircraft outside her exit door 4-Left (4L) porthole and she calmly thought, “I’m burning to death, that’s how I’m going to die”, with total detachment and without fear. In her jump seat facing aft, Susan was not witness to the grand spectacle of a mammoth DC-10 wide-body aircraft breaking away and disappearing in dust, flame, sparks, and debris. Mentally she was in survival mode as pieces of metal were being thrown into the air around her as the tail section was being ripped away. The tail section of the aircraft violently tumbled, and she recalls her exit door being smashed three times. Susan was now on the Drive step of the Survival Bridge. She recalled metal, ceiling panels, wires, and interior trim pieces, all in the air as if she sat inside a gigantic swirling blender. The sound was roaring and deafening in her ears like a runaway freight train inches from her face. During high stress situations, the mind and body of some can shut down, and the person can go unconscious or semi-unconscious, while others can lose some senses. However, for Susan, she was fighting to stay conscious and alert with her eyes and ears open. The runway impact and deformation of the tail section caused the locked bathroom doors to blow open, and the blue septic water tanks banged and sloshed, and blue septic water spewed all over her as she rode out the impacts. Now her hands were over her head protecting herself from the flying debris, while her legs were in the air and extended to hold back a heavy beverage cart that she imagined might break loose from the aft galley and crush her legs. While in this defensive position, she felt the sting of a large piece of metal slice her pants at the top of her thigh and another piece of metal slicing her leather shoe. She kept her eyes open with the hope of deflecting debris that may injure her. In many situations like this, some people freeze, some may pass out, and some may disassociate themselves from what is occurring. However, Susan was on the Drive step of the Survival Bridge, and all her senses were collecting information, and she was fighting to stay alive. As she fought, she wondered if at any moment a piece of metal would slice her head off. She then realized that the fire was no longer outside her exit door port hole, but dirt and soot were being churned up behind her and she imagined the aircraft must have been breached, perhaps by the wings being ripped off. Little did she know she was strapped into a tail section that had broken off and was skidding and tumbling down the closed runway and grass covered apron. Susan’s brain was trying to process everything, and she said to herself, “Did we make an airport and is there a river that we are going to end up in, what do I need to do to be prepared for that situation? Are we on the highway?” Suddenly, Susan felt what she thought was the whole aircraft suddenly stop throwing her forward against her harness. There was a moment of silence and a large gray dust cloud in the air that enveloped the tail section. In fact, news video moments after the tail section coming to a stop, indeed showed a large gray dust cloud enveloping the now open and stationary tail section. The service carts Susan was concerned about had actually stayed locked in place despite the dynamics of the impact.cxi
July 19, 1989 – United Flight 232, Ground
Susan couldn’t believe she was alive, but she was strangely being pulled to her left. Based on the violence of the tumbling, Susan was afraid that Donna McGrady had been crushed as she began to shout and repeat her commands, “RELEASE YOUR SEATBELT AND GET OUT.” Even in highly stressful situations, the value of ingrained and repetitive training had kicked in as Susan barked out her commands. Susan then heard Donna McGrady join in and she was so relieved Donna was alive. They both kept yelling their commands as Susan looked around for the fire, she feared would be their demise. Susan also feared the aircraft might explode, as in the movies. Hanging in her jump seat harness and yelling her commands, her mind flashed to a car accident a year prior where she had been hit by a drunk driver in her mother’s car and was forced to climb out the window. As the fear of fire built up in her mind, Susan fumbled with her jump seat’s multi-point harness buckle, but it would not release. She kept yelling her commands and fumbling with the harness buckle. Just minutes before, she had effortlessly unlocked her harness buckle to take her earrings out, and now she fumbled with it and could not unlock it. She finally paused and looked down to discover that the harness buckle was not what she had trained on in the crash simulator. Muscle memory can be highly valuable in highly stressful situations, but illustrates the need for training with representative systems. She finally released the hardness buckle, and being athletic, she kept her left shoulder in the harness strap to support her weight as she dropped a little, pivoted around, and planted her right foot on the side of the aft divider wall, and her left foot on a seat. She finally was able to bring her head up and look forward and was astonished not to see her rows of passengers and the passenger cabin. The same passengers she had served lunch and drinks too, she had collected trash from, had checked seat belts, and even comforted; they were all simply gone, and what she saw was a huge gaping hole where the aircraft used to be. Figure 7 illustrates the broken tail section in the position it came to rest. Susan was now at the very top of the tail section looking down. Susan noticed immediately below her was a man trapped in debris that she could not reach, so she commanded him to “WIGGLE….WIGGLE-WIGGLE-WIGGLE” and he got himself free. When he was clear, she dropped down into the metal debris and being high up, her momentum carried her forward as she tried to keep her balance and not fall into the jagged metal. That momentum carried her out of the tail section in several giant bounding steps to the ground as if she was running, but she kept her feet. Susan was on the Deliver step of the Survival Bridge.

Donna McGrady had come out from underneath her position, and they suddenly came face-to-face outside of the tail section and embraced, celebrating they were alive. They even entangled their wrist bracelets with Donna’s bracelet coming off on Susan’s bracelet. Susan heard other survivors and looked back over her shoulder and saw a man and a young boy hanging from their seats. Susan told Donna McGrady “There’s still people in there, we have to go back in!” So, they went back into the tail section to assist and deliver others to safety, which showed a high degree of training and self-sacrifice; altruism is often seen in infrastructure disasters where people seek to help others. The two flight attendants commanded the man to release the boy’s buckle, and they’d catch him, which they did, and then they command the man to release himself with some coaxing and he dropped. Both the father and son escaped. As they continued to help others, rescuers from the Sioux City area were now in the tail section and Susan thought they were passengers. Susan continued on the Deliver stage of the Survival Bridge as she ensured everyone evacuated. News video showed prepositioned emergency vehicles on the airfield immediately responding after the aircraft sections had stopped on the airfield, and the tail section was no exception.
Susan had kept her eyes open during the crash and tumbling of the tail section. Now that she was outside the tail section, she was having trouble seeing as her eyes were burning from the dust and debris. A rescue worker handed her a water bottle, and she tilted her head back and washed her eyes out. That was when she looked forward and saw a woman face down on the ground. Susan blurted out, “That woman” and a male rescue worker put his arm around Susan in her blue septic water-stained uniform and said, “Come on we’ve already checked her” [woman was deceased]. Thinking of her friend Dudley Dvorak, Susan blurted out “The cockpit? What about the cockpit?”, and a rescue worker said they didn’t make it, and that the rest of the aircraft had disintegrated. Susan felt devasted by the loss of her friend, crew, and passengers. Not having the time before takeoff to meet the pilot and co-pilot, Susan’s mind raced, and she thought about how she was ever going to meet their wives when she didn’t even know what they looked like. Susan felt so ashamed and made a pack with herself once she returned to work, that she will always meet the pilots face-to-face before a flight. This was something that United Airlines used in later training videos.
With the tail section clear of passengers, despair washed over Susan as a rescue worker told her that they were the only survivors. She could not comprehend that statement. Just seconds ago, she was at peace with God and was ready to die, but then she struggled and fought to live and survived the crash, just to be told she was one of only a handful of survivors from the entire aircraft. What she was told was numbing, because other than Donna and a few passengers, she realized that all the flight attendants she had been with the past four days, the cockpit crew, the extra flight attendant Rene Le Beau, and all the passengers she had looked at and spoken with during the jetway boarding and on the aircraft, were gone. She wondered if that was a gift, or a curse to be one of only a handful of survivors from the almost 296 souls onboard.
The airfield was planted in seven-foot tall late-July corn, and the crash scene within Susan’s field of view was limited but chaotic, and she could not see any other large sections of the aircraft. Figure 8 depicts the tail section and detritus from the aircraft soon after the accident and the billowing smoke from the mid-section Susan, Donna McGrady, and the tail section rescuers were not aware of. Susan conveyed the scene, “Helicopters were landing, numerous firetrucks and ambulances were there, people in [military] uniforms all came running, debris, luggage, pieces of the plane, headphones, paper. Bodies were right there!” Susan wanted to cry but was in too much shock to cry. The two flight attendants went over to the injured passengers from the tail section and stayed and talked to them to keep them alive until help came. At one point, Susan saw Donna McGrady’s purse on the ground with the contents spilled out, and Susan bent over and swept it all back into the purse and gave it to her.

With the tail section to her back, and a large black cloud of smoke coming from the cornfield to her left, Susan saw something amazing. Passengers started coming out of the tall corn stalks and approaching her seeking help to find their loved ones. Susan considered it a miracle that others survived and was hopeful her fellow flight attendants might have survived and she grew anxious not knowing. Some of the passengers didn’t have a mark on them at all, or even dirty clothes, while others were bleeding and injured. Reverting to their training, Susan and Donna McGrady began to help triage the injured passengers, and Susan saw a woman with a compound leg fracture she spoke too. Susan went to five passengers that had not yet been attended too and told them to hang on, and that help was soon coming. The two flight attendants wandered slightly to the right of the tail toward the runway and looked left. They saw ambulances lined up in the direction of a hanger in the distance. Passengers who had escaped the now burning inverted mid-section of the aircraft were wandering and running through the cornfield in various directions, with some emerging and walking toward the ambulances which was now a makeshift triage station. A passenger Susan recalled being one of the last two to board in Denver came up to her and asked if she had seen his business partner. Susan had not and the man walked away. She found out later his business partner and good friend had died in the crash.
July 19, 1989 – United Flight 232, Triage
Susan and Donna McGrady walked toward the ambulances and the triage that was occurring and saw the severely wounded being taken away by ambulances and helicopters. At the triage, Susan saw Virginia “Jan” Murray, Jan Brown, and Georgeann DelCastillo and was overjoyed. Within minutes, Susan saw flight attendant Tim Owens being carried on a stretcher out of the cornfield. Tim has only been a flight attendant for two months and the two had become friends. Susan was so excited to see he had survived that she ran over to him and he got off the stretcher and they began to jump for joy they had lived. Susan hadn’t seen Barb Gillespie or Rene Le Beau. Later it was found out that Barb Gillespie had been thrown from her jump seat at exit door 1-Left (1L) into the cornfield breaking her back but surviving.cxii
Susan was on a massive adrenalin rush and was going about “100 miles per hour.” The reaction to highly stressful events can cause a powerful adrenalin rush, a physiological response that aides the body in its flight or fight responses for self-preservation. She was amped up on adrenalin so much that she felt elated to be alive, little pain, and a general euphoria. Susan wanted to find and help others, and she pestered a paramedic so much that he gave her a task just to get her out of his hair. Susan just wanted to help and represent her airline as best she good.
At one point, Susan saw a priest giving Jan Brown and others a blessing before he walked away, and she sprinted him down so she too could get a blessing despite the fact she was not Catholic. Susan heard that pilots had been pulled from the wreckage, but she was unsure if they were the cockpit crew or many of the deadheading pilots she knew were seated as passengers in A-zone. It was then she saw her friend Dudley Dvorak on a stretcher, and she shrieked with joy that he was alive and ran to his side. Dudley, like all the cockpit crew, had been badly injured and trapped in the cockpit remains for almost an hour.cxiii She trickled water into Dudley’s mouth from a water bottle and she wiped his bloody nose. She saw other uniformed pilots being tended too but was unsure if they were from the cockpit or were the deadheading pilots from A-zone.
Soon after the evacuation of the tail section, Susan had seen her tote bag near the tail section, but retrieving it at the time seemed so trivial when there were injured and dead passengers all over the airfield. As the triage effort was winding down, Susan realized she really needed the tote bag, as it held her car keys, wallet, and other life essentials. She asked several first responders to escort her back to the tail section, and eventually one agreed. The man asked Susan if she could handle it, implying having to see the dead bodies left on the field and nightmarish scene. She nodded yes, and despite taking a more around about way back to the tail section, not knowing at the time, but seeing the bodies and body parts added to her trauma and nightmares in the days, years, and decades to come.
After a while, the triage efforts and scores of ambulances and medical helicopters had taken away the severely injured and things began to settle down further. Those remaining were directed to the hangar, and when she entered, she saw little toiletry bags from the Red Cross and a bank of pay phones. She became anxious and wanted to call her parents to tell them she was alive. She made three attempts to call her parents using her memorized calling card number, but all the circuits were busy. A National Guard Chaplain noticed her and asked if she needed assistance. Susan replied that “I’m just trying to call my parents to let them know I’m alive”, and he introduced himself as Chaplain Greg Clapper. Chaplain Clapper took her to his office and asked that they pray together holding hands. At that moment, she realized that after almost two-hours of helping others before and after the crash, that someone was finally taking care of her, and it moved her. She called her mother with no luck and then she started to call her father. Unbeknownst to Susan, her father had heard about the accident after leaving work and was so convinced his daughter was on that flight that he was terribly stricken with fear and anguish. Susan’s oldest biological sister was visiting and staying with her father, stepmother, and two younger half-sisters that Susan adored and used to babysit in high school. In Wadsworth, Ohio, after the crash, but before Susan called, this group of family had all stood in a circle and prayed for Susan and others. They didn’t know if Susan was alive, dead, or even on the flight, but they held hands and prayed.
Susan dialed the number and her father answered with a deep and slow “Helllooo” as he was bracing himself for what might be terrible news. He had called United Airlines earlier demanding to know if Susan was on Flight 232 and they said they would have to check and call back, but United told him to keep his phone line open. Susan quietly said “Dad”, and he shrieked “SUSAN!” and started crying; in the background, Susan could hear an eruption of shouts of joy. He was crying and he said, “I knew you were on that plane!” and Susan on the verge of crying said in a little voice “I’m alive and well dad.” Susan then broke down and looked up at the Chaplain, and handed him the phone saying, “Please take this.” She had held in check the emotional distress of everything after the explosion in the air and after the crash as a survival and coping mechanism, but now, all of that broke free and came flowing out of her in a huge release of raw emotion. He took the phone and said what Susan recollects to be something like, “Mr. White this is Chaplain Clapper; you need to get down on your hands and knees and thank the Lord because your daughter is standing here alive and well and it’s a miracle!” Her father repeatedly said, “Thank you, thank you.” Susan took back the phone and asked her father to call her mother and let her know she was ok.
Following the phone call to her father, Susan was taken with many other survivors to the hospital to be checked out. She quickly found herself in a wheelchair waiting in a hospital hallway. After getting checked out, she and other uninjured or slightly injured passengers and crew were sent to the hospital’s cafeteria. Susan slipped into her flight attendant role, bringing soup and drinks to people seated at her big table.
It had been ingrained in Susan that when a flight results in injury or death, you call and notify the United Crew Desk in Chicago. Susan started to write down the names of the flight crew and their status. A passenger at the table said, “The redhead didn’t make it.” Susan instantly knew that the passenger was referring to flight attendant Rene Le Beau and she quickly asked him, “The young one with the long hair?” and he responded “Yes, I saw her” implying deceased. Susan retorted with a, “Are you sure?”, and the passenger confirmed he was. Rene Le Beau facing aft with the cockpit to her back by exit door 1-Right (1R) had been ejected from her jump seat and aircraft as the cockpit ripped away from the first-class section. Her body was found on the airfield with her long red hair blowing in the wind.cxiv More grief washed over Susan as she wrote 23-year-old Rene Le Beau’s name down as having died. Susan went to a payphone near the cafeteria and called the United Crew Desk. The United Crew Desk answered, and stated they wished they could put Susan on speaker phone, because there were a lot of flight attendants on the other end of the phone in Chicago who were upset and crying not knowing the status of the Flight 232 crew, many of which were known or friends to them. Susan passed on the names of the flight crew alive and injured but withheld Rene Le Beau’s status not wanting to get ahead of the death notification handled by other formal and more appropriate channels.
Back at the table, Susan was approached by a United Airlines union representative. She told him that she didn’t have any clean clothes to wear as her blouse was stained in blue septic water. He took the shirt off his own back and handed it to her, which Susan felt was very kind. Some of the survivors were eventually taken to a hotel, but Susan and Georgeann Delcastillo were taken to Briar Cliff College whose empty summer dormitories were opened for passengers and crew. The two were placed together in a shared room with two beds. Social works came and spent time with the two of them to listen and begin the long journey of processing what they had experienced. Susan and Georgeann talked to about 3:00 am, and Susan is pretty sure she didn’t sleep that night. The adrenaline rush wore off, and the weight of the crash set in, and Susan and the flight crew struggled emotionally and physically. Susan was physically sore from the crash and emotionally spent and felt very tired and fragile the following day.
The flight crew were kept in Sioux City and told not to mingle or talk to other passengers so as not to compromise their unique perspective of the events before and after the crash, as they had not yet given their official statements to investigators. In the end, Susan, and other flight crew members well enough, spoke to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), Federal Aviation Administration, United Airlines Safety and leadership, and/or union representatives. Susan’s father bought a ticket and flew to Sioux City. He was graciously shuttled by a stranger from the Sioux City community to a hotel conference room where Susan was waiting to give her NTSB statement on Friday morning. Susan unexpectedly saw her father appear in a suit and tie, and the two embraced and cried. Susan gave her NTSB statement, which would begin a lifetime of telling her story on the Divulge step of the Survival Bridge.
Susan wanted to go home, and she had planned to wear the sweatpants and sweatshirt given to many survivors at Briar Cliff College. Still her supervisor, who had flown in from Chicago, requested Susan wear an outfit of hers because the media would be waiting in Cleveland. Susan wore the purple blouse but feared staining the white pants. The following morning, Susan and her father boarded a chartered commercial airline flight from the same Sioux City airfield to Cleveland, Ohio, via Des Moines, Iowa, where they didn’t have to disembark. As they taxied for takeoff in Sioux City, Susan looked out the first-class window at the debris field and saw the tail section of Flight 232. Traumatized by the ordeal and the loss of life, Susan wept as her father held her. Susan was afraid the whole flight and had sweaty palms, especially during the two landings in Des Moines and Cleveland.
The media was indeed waiting in Cleveland, and she had been pre-briefed by a United Airlines supervisor who met her on the jetway to make no statement, so Susan avoided the media and didn’t interact with them. Her entire family, mother, stepmother, and sisters met her with ballons and a sign. Figure 9 illustrates the family homecoming with Susan White in the purple blouse and white pants surrounded by her family and the United Airlines supervisor in a blue uniform.

Epilogue
Seven days after the accident, in a private conference room just before the flight attendants had a press conference, Rene Le Beau’s parents were present, and her father came up and grabbed Susan in a hug, and while weeping he said, “You were the last ones to be with my baby.” Susan felt they were looking at her as being young like their daughter and wishing Rene could have survived like Susan. It was the worst moment of survivor’s guilt Susan had felt, and she thinks of that scene and Rene Le Beau’s parents often.
As more information about the names of the survivor and fatalities emerged, Susan was crushed to learn that the sobbing 25-year-old mother she comforted had died and left behind three young daughters. Susan also learned that the 31-year-old father and 3-year-old girl, who had initially been strapped into her father’s seat belt under the blanket, also died. Even the mother and daughter who handed over pillows to protect the 3-year-old girl on the floor had died. Susan was further devastated when she learned that the cute unaccompanied 13-year-old girl who had wanted to be a flight attendant, even after her father died in an aircraft crash himself in 1981,cxv had died when the tail section ripped away. The amount of death in Susan’s area of C-zone was overwhelming.
The loss of 111 passengers and Rene Le Beau was devastating to Susan as she was the sole person on the entire aircraft, on July 19th, 1989, who came into contact or spoke with all 112 fatalities while taking boarding passes at the jetway entrance and speaking with Rene Le Beau before the flight. Furthermore, once the aircraft’s doors were shut preparing to push back in Denver, Susan’s walked the full length of the aircraft and counted all the souls on board. Furthermore, Susan directly interacted with passengers as she served meals, drinks, collected trash, instructed, and checked seat belts between rows 9 through 38 in seats A, B, C, D, and center seat E. These rows 9 through 38 and seats A through E spanned the port-side aisle of the entire coach cabin consisting of B-zone and C-zone. In these rows and seats sat 142 passengers that Susan had direct interaction with before and during the flight. An astounding 59 of these 142 passengers suffered fatal injuries of which was one-lap child. As an aside, Jan Brown was deeply impact by the senseless loss of the lap child and began a lifelong crusade to end the practice and require the FAA to issue guidance that all young children, regardless of age, must have a designated seat, but sadly little has changed.cxvi The 59 fatalities that Susan had direct contact with amounted to more than half the total 111 passenger fatalities. Susan readily agreed with the now late pilot Al Haynes, that the survival rate of Flight 232 was a group effort of the entire flight crew, many other favorable factors, and the outstanding ground response in Sioux City. Despite the impossible survival rate, the loss of the 111 passengers and Rene Le Beau weighed very heavily on Susan moving forward in life.
Due to the lateness of the accident in the day, and the need to preserve the location of bodies and personal effects as evidence for identification purposes, the bodies of the passengers killed in the initial crash were covered by blankets and sheets and left on the airfield overnight under spot lights and guards. The next morning after the crash, those bodies on the field were pinpointed on a grid map and then collected and processed through a temporary morgue set up in an aircraft hangar to identify each victim. The bodies of ten people transported to the hospital who succumbed to their injuries were returned to the temporary morgue at the airfield to be include in the identification process.cxvii The morgue operation lasted days and included photographs of the body, clothing, and personal effects; full body X-ray; dental X-rays; fingerprinting; a quick autopsy to determine general cause of death from trauma, smoke asphyxia, or both; embalming; and release of the body in a casket for transport to relatives.cxviii
Figure 10 illustrates an injury map of the passengers and flight crew. The injuries are colored boxes indicated as people with no injuries (solid green), minor injuries (yellow with dots), serious injuries (orange with hash marks), fatal injuries due to smoke asphyxia (red with hash marks and an “S”), and fatal injuries due to trauma (red with hash marks). Many passengers that ultimately died of smoke asphyxia also suffered some trauma.

On September 7th, 1989, most of the surviving flight crew of Flight 232 was formally recognized by President George H. W. Bush in a White House ceremony for their efforts to save as many people as they did. President Bush, being a former World War II pilot, likely understood the accomplishments of the Flight 232 flight crew more than most. Also in attendance was flight attendant Kathy Shen, who had been a dead heading in A-zone, who had volunteered to help, and eventually was seated next to Barb Gillespie in a jump seat at exit door 1-right (1R). President Bush was gracious with his busy schedule and photos were taken in the Oval Office. Of note, in Denver, Jan Brown had searched many plant nurseries looking for a rose bush to present to the President in memory of Rene Le Beau. When it was her turn for a Presidential photo, she presented the rose bush in Rene Le Beau’s honor and then handed President Bush the name, phone number, and address of Barb Gillespie who was still recuperating from her injuries but was heartbroken not being able to attend. Jan asked President Bush if he could thank Barb Gillespie, and to his credit, he later placed a phone call and spoke with her.cxx When it was Susan’s turn for a photo opportunity, she recalls being very nervous as she was still struggling to cope with what had occurred, including survivor’s guilt.
Her family and friends supported Susan, but her relationship with her fiancé grew further strained as she coped with the trauma of Flight 232. Susan eventually returned to work within six months but was scared and afraid. Susan loved her job and knew in her heart that this was the career she wanted, so she pushed herself to overcome her fear of flying. But Susan was not whole as she struggled from survivor’s guilt, the attention of having been on Flight 232, and what she felt to be an obligation to repeat her story over and over to various flight crews who inquired. Never seeking special accommodations, a flight crew scheduler would try to help Susan avoid DC-10s, but that was not always possible. When boarding a DC-10 after Flight 232, Susan’s gut would churn, and she would be a nervous wreck. While working on DC-10s, she would see seats and recall many of the faces of Flight 232 victims that sat there. It was also pure torture when she was assigned to seat 4-Left (4L) on flights , especially on landings. It was a huge stress relief for Susan when United Airlines eventually retired the DC-10 from its fleet. Susan faked normalness and told others she was fine when she was not. Her cheerful disposition masked the fact she didn’t sleep well, and at times was haunted by visions of bodies, fire, and aircraft debris in her sleep. She often awoke sitting straight up in bed with a racing heart, night sweats, and occasionally a guttural scream. A reoccurring dream was an inability to move a large man collapsed in front of her exit door; another dream was being in the crashing tail section and seeing her mother on the ground behind a chain link fence watching; or another dream of her crying by herself in the middle of a field of deceased crash victims. About a year after the crash, while on a trip in a Boeing 727, Susan broke down sobbing, and she sought much needed help.
In 1990, a large commemoration in Sioux City was held next to the runway that Flight 232 crashed on. Susan attended, as did the entire surviving flight crew, many survivors, and many family members of victims, with the latter seeking a degree of closure for their loss. In fact, many family members of those that Susan may have interacted with on the flight sought her out during the commemoration and showed her pictures, and even 8”x10” portraits of their lost loved ones, just grasping for any kind of final memory Susan might have. This was gut-wrenching, emotional, and over-whelming for Susan, but she persevered to divulge what she could recall. Susan was on the Divulge step of the Survival Bridge, and it undoubtedly helped many families in the healing process of their lost loved ones. Susan spoke to the young widow of the handsome Eastern Airlines Metro pilot and told her how be pulled his pilot credentials from his boot and offered to help, which made them both smile, as his widow conveyed, “He was always afraid of being robbed.” The mother, grandparents, and perhaps an uncle of the unaccompanied 13-year-old girl who had wanted to be a flight attendant came up to Susan with the girl’s picture. This was heart breaking for Susan and she conveyed to the family she had given the girl plastic wings to wear on her shirt after the girl had expressed interest in being a flight attendant. They all shared tears when the family told Susan that those plastic wings had been part of her personal effects returned to the family with the body. Some family members of victims Susan spoke with were bitter and angry, and Susan sympathized with their pain and loss.
Despite the highs and lows of the commemoration, a large family of survivors was forming, and many of them shared their stories. Many would also share lasting physical and psychological damage, both visible, hidden, and some yet unsurfaced. In 1991, United Airlines authorized a special flight from Denver to Seattle with the Flight 232 crew as pilot Al Haynes commanded his final fight before retirement. Bill Records served as the first officer, Peter Allen served as the flight engineer, and the flight attendants served on board, absent the loss of Rene Le Beau. Dudley Dvorak has not yet returned to flight status. Figure 11 illustrates the Flight 232 cockpit crew in a presentation after the accident and the Flight 232 flight attendants on the final flight of pilot Al Haynes in 1991.

For Susan, life moved forward with the normal ups and downs, but survivor’s guilt still plagued her, but she hid it well with a cheerful attitude. Susan found some relief working those who lost loved ones on Flight 232, to include a husband who lost his wife on Flight 232 leaving him behind with three children to raise. Despite this, Susan struggled with the trauma and what her life’s purpose was having survived Flight 232.
Things slowly improved over the next ten years until another unimaginable day caused unaddressed trauma to resurface. By 2001, Susan was close friends with United Airlines pilot Jason Dahl and his wife. Susan had called him on a Monday in early-September about plans for a surprise 5-year wedding anniversary party Jason was throwing for his wife Sandy. The following day, Captain Jason Dahl was the United Airlines pilot of hijacked Flight 93 that went down near Shanksville, Pennsylvania on Tuesday, September 11th, 2001. Instead of being on a planned vacation, Susan, who lived close to Sandy Dahl, was now helping her plan a memorial service and pick up the pieces of a broken life. This loss and the broader loss of life of September 11th utterly devasted Susan. She quickly spiraled and all the Flight 232 trauma she had endured and had pushed down came rushing back to the surface as if it had just happened despite the 12 intervening years. In the ensuing days, Susan became deeply depressed with severe mental anguish and could not sleep having renewed nightmares of fire and bodies. After retrieving Jason Dahl’s pickup truck from the employee parking lot at Denver International, which had replaced Denver Stapleton Airport, she gathered with neighbors in his cul-de-sac, and Susan was in tears. A comment was made that Susan had been on United Flight 232, and a shocked neighbor of the Dahl’s, who happened to be a mental health professional, immediately recognized the compounded trauma and intervened to get Susan the much need help she needed. With the help of trained professionals and a structured mental health therapy program, Susan was able to begin dealing with her current and past trauma and learned techniques that would help with other life’s trauma not yet to occur, to include the end of her 24-year marriage and the painful loss of her stepmother. Despite all the trauma, Susan shared, “Not a day goes by that I don’t thank God for saving my life and I try to live life with a purpose to try to make an impact on someone’s life.” Over time, Susan began to realize that her purpose in life was helping many fellow crew members and passengers who were suffering various trauma and loss in their lives by simply being there in the moment with kindness, a hug, a listening ear, and crucial assistance. She’s also proud that she’s helped other women escape unhealthy relationships through the years.
Conclusion
Susan White readily admits she wouldn’t wish her Flight 232 experience on anyone, however, July 19th, 1989, had a significant effect on her life and how she views things, how she looks at people, and the patience, kindness, and understanding she has for others who have experienced loss and trauma. Susan has given countless interviews over the years about her Flight 232 experience. In essence, she still stands on the Divulge step of the Survival Bridge as testimony to her willingness to share her experience and the large amount of time supporting this article.
Susan has an extraordinary man in her life for many years who shares her passion for travel and fun, and she feels deeply blessed by his love. She is looking forward to retirement someday having proudly flown and served as a United Airlines flight attendant since 1986. In the words of a seasoned soul who has seen a lot of life, trauma, the good, and the bad, Susan shared, “We never know how long we have and when our day is up. Be happy, be kind, be helpful, make memories, tell family and friends you love them, don’t pass up opportunities, you might not get them again.” In a speech many years later she told an audience, “Know that life truly is a gift…embrace it!”
Dedication
Of the 296 passengers and crew on board, 184 survived, 111 passengers died, and 1 flight crew member died. Those who died from Flight 232 are often lovingly referred to as the “112” in remembrances by the family of survivors who have gathered periodically over the years in reunions large and small. This article is dedicated to the 112 victims of United Flight 232 in Sioux City Iowa. This article is also dedicated to the countless family and friends of those 112 victims, the 184 survivors, and all the first responders and healthcare professionals in the Sioux City community whose lives were forever changed that day.
Author’s Note
The lessons learned of Flight 232 are many and what occurred in the sky and on the ground on that warm Wednesday afternoon on July 19th, 1989, in Sioux City, Iowa continues to add to the body of knowledge regarding human behavior under incredible stress as well as the human spirit of those fortunate to survive an infrastructure disaster of such impossible odds. The lessons learned from Flight 232 ultimately increased aircraft flight safety systems, crew resource management, airfield emergency ground response, mass causality mortuary operations, and how a diverse community can come together to support others. However, one of most significant lessons learned for those who survive traumatic infrastructure disasters is the need to seek trained mental health professionals as part of the healing process.
Better understanding the steps of the Survival Bridge is hopefully informative and provides context to the challenges people must overcome to increase their odds in crossing from the side of danger and death to the side of safety and life.
Author’s Appreciation
Significant appreciation in the writing of this article goes to flight crew survivor Susan White (seat 4L) for her willingness to share her time and recollections, her engagement to find answers to countless questions, her willingness to have her memory challenged, and the numerous introductions to other flight crew members and passengers who survived Flight 232. Thanks to flight crew survivor Jan Brown (seat 2L) and Dudley Dvorak (flight engineer position), who provided their unique perspective of what occurred that fateful day. Thanks also goes to passenger survivors Donna Lewis (seat 4F) and Martha Conant (seat 38D) who each shared their unique context. Lastly, much appreciation goes to Lawrence Gonzales—who authored the definitive history and outstanding book on the crash of Flight 232—for his kindness, and willingness to share NTSB documentation not readily available.
Flight 232 in Popular Media and Memorials
In 2016, the House Theatre of Chicago produced a play entitled United Flight 232, directed and adapted by Vanessa Stalling, and based on the book “Flight 232 – A Story of Disaster and Survival” by Laurence Gonzales, discussed below. The play’s central theme was understanding tragedy and reveling in human ingenuity when faced with dire circumstances. The play was also performed in other cities.
In 2014, W. W. North & Company published the award-winning book written by Laurence Gonzales on the crash of United Airlines Flight 232, entitled “Flight 232 – A Story of Disaster and Survival”. The book was released in time for the 25th anniversary. The author masterfully documented arguably one of the most remarkable stories in commercial aviation history. The book is truly outstanding in its scope and depth and a recommendation to read and own this book cannot be overstated.
In 2014, Mid-American Museum of Aviation Transportation at the Sioux City Gateway Airport officially dedicated an updated Flight 232 gallery in time for the 25th anniversary which includes pilot Al Haynes’ seat, Susan White’s uniform blouse worn in the crash, the cockpit of a commercial airliner in United paint scheme of the time, a timeline of the crash, and many other relevant artifacts and photographs of the local Sioux City community response.
In 1994, Sioux City dedicated the Flight 232 Memorial in Larsen Park to commemorate the “Spirit of Siouxland” and the local community’s incredible response to Flight 232. The memorial features many plaques and a statue of an Air National Guard officer carrying a 3-year-old survivor to an ambulance based on a photograph taken on the airfield.
In 1992, a made for television movie, entitled “Crash Landing: The Rescue of Flight 232”, aired on ABC on February 24, 1992. The movie starred Charlton Heston, James Coburn, and Richards Thomas and depicted the flight, crash, and emergency response of personnel in the Sioux City community and the tri-state area.
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Thank you for this article to commemorate the anniversary. Admittedly, I did not know much about this event, being a small child at the time. What brought my attention to it was seeing a dedication at a park bench in a Denver suburb. The inscription was for Janet Wendschlag and her son Bryan who lived in the neighborhood and perished in the crash. I discovered the bench yesterday, July 18, on the eve of the anniversary. I am thinking and praying for all involved: the victims, survivors and their families.