RIP Capt. Al Haynes.
 

Captain Al Haynes of UA 232 fame has died. What he and his crew accomplished at Sioux City in 1989 is nothing short of remarkable airmanship. RIP Captain.

Remarkable indeed. These were no children of the magenta and for which 185 souls on board must have been profoundly grateful.

They say we should never meet our heroes... if that were a rule, then Capt. Haynes was definitively the exception.

'Had the privilege of having a one on one dinner with him back in 2002. I was only 20, but it remains one of the highlights of my career to this day.

Not only did he and his colleagues accomplish something remarkable on that fateful day in Sioux City, but he continued to enrich others by giving freely of his time. He was truly a hero, mentor, and inspiration.

Rest in peace Captain Haynes, and Godspeed.

Rest In Peace Captain, you earned it and then some.

I once had the pleasure in meeting Captain Al Haynes at a safety seminar. A most unassuming and quietly spoken man who exuded great passion for safety in aviation but also outside of his profession. He deeply cared about "people being prepared" for such disasters as earth quakes and spoke at many venues on this very subject.
R.I.P Captain Al Haynes

Rest In Peace, Captain Al Haynes

RIP Capt. Haynes. A good pilot that he was was even an excellent human being.

When I was just starting my aviation career, I had a privilege of having a beer with him back in 1994 in Oshkosh. What he told me, changed my way of thinking on procedures, checklists-orderly approach to anything.
Will be grateful forever.
Rest in peace Capt. Haynes.

hoistop

They did a great job indeed. Nice to hear that the impression he made was also true in real life.
The lessons learned were not only on the piloting side. The accident helped in supporting safer design solutions that were already there, and future designs.

All about attitude.
 

RIP Cpt Haynes. Just after the accident, I posted my opinion, which was roundly condemned by most but not everyone, thankfully. I made the point that Iowa is a largely flat state. I suggested that pilot's not unnatural desire to get their stricken aircraft back to an airport and to land on a runway made Cpt Haynes job a lot more difficult than if he had simply looked for the largest cornfield and glided it onto the ground. His ingrained attitude, save the aircraft and hence the passengers, led him to try what was proved to be an almost superhuman manoeuvre that sadly led to the loss of 110 lives. How about we just scrap the aircraft and save more lives, indeed, such is the strength of the DC10 that there may well have been no lives lost. Hypothetical, I know but I thought it bears repeating that there are often more than the obvious outcomes to such situations.

obviously you've never walked through one of those "flat cornfields"" if you had, you might realize how ridiculous your idea is, also first responder services in that "flat cornfield" might be hindered by their ability to reach the scene....sorry buddy, this crew made the best decision....

"Glided it onto the ground"? I'm speechless!

Cheers,
Grog

" I been flying jets since 68 and never had anything happen like this." Capt Al RIP

It was powered all the way to the corn field.No gilding.

Posted on what? Pretty sure there were no internet bulletin boards in 1989.

Quite! A bizarre comment

Usenet newsgroup, perhaps?

I'm not surprised your opinion was widely condemned. The fact that 185 survived is the story here. It's really outrageous given what those guys did to get the plane down.

This incident is used as a case study of effective emergency management. Bringing the plane into an airport saved many lives. Not taking anything away from Capt Haynes or the crew, because this was an exceptional example of crew resource management, a big factor in the survival rates of this incident was the efforts of Sioux City to engage in comprehensive emergency response planning and response which was led by Gary Brown, the Woodbury County Disaster and Emergency Services director. He is an unsung hero of this incident, and someone Haynes has said is the true hero. Disaster arrangements all around the world have been modeled on Gary Brown's emergency planning, which would not have worked anywhere near as effectively if the plane was "glided" into a random cornfield.

It's such an outstanding example of how people can and should respond to critical incidents in the cockpit and on the ground.

Worth stating that the crew were forced to use asymmetric power on the remaining engines to maintain control, rolling off power on both engines on final may well have been the cause of the wing drop and subsequent cartwheel on touchdown.

So easy to recommend a different course of action, but don't forget that Captain Haynes did say, when asked which runway he wanted to use "you want to be particular and make it a runway huh?"

RIP Captain Al Haynes