- Human Factors Case Study
- United Airlines Flight 232, DC-10
- 7/19/1989, Sioux City, IA, 111 Fatalities, 185 survivors
- Flight 232, DC-10 was a commercial flight owned by the United Airlines and operated from Denver to Chicago. The aircraft crashed during an emergency landing that occurred at the Sioux City Gateway airport, Iowa on July 19 1989. The cause of the accident is believed to be an air disaster that resulted to the aircraft in losing all the hydraulic systems. About 185 people survived the accident while about 111 people lost their lives. About 40 ground workers helped in saving the survivors within a short period although it took them more than four hours to retrieve the dead bodies. Although the accident managed to occur, the crewmembers demonstrated a high level of professionalism in handling the situation.
- The captain who flying the aircraft was known as Al Haynes (Charlton Heston) and the flight operated from Denver Stapleton Airport heading to Chicago. First Officer William Records (Carmeni Argenziano) was assisting the captain. The other officer who was assisting the captain was Dudley Dvorak (Bruce McGill). The aircraft started to indicate engine problems after reaching the attitude of 37,000 feet. During this moment, the captain was talking to the passengers over the P.A. As one of the crew attendant was entering into the cockpit, while carrying the food trays, a great sound like that of an explosion was heard coming from the engine of the aircraft.
- After the crewmembers realized that it was an engine failure in which a high-speed sharpel was being hurled from the engine, they tried to control the aircraft using all possible means. The engine of the plane lost all the hydraulic fluid but the crew managed to control the engine system by allowing the two remaining engines to work. The explosion of the engine resulted to a damage in the tail. This made the aircraft to have a continual tendency of turning to the right, which made the flight crew, have a difficult time in controlling the plane in order to stabilize. They managed to adjust the attitude by allowing the two engines to work together. Unfortunately, there was no additional back-up system that the crew could have used in order to help the two remaining engine improve their efficiency for some few more minutes in order to help the aircraft land safely.
- The crewmembers managed to call one of the officials in the United Airlines maintenance base and explained the situation. The technicians in the maintenance base argued that a loss of hydraulic on the plane was virtually impossible. They also illustrated that they had no idea of how to deal with such a situation. The crew tried to slow down the flight for landing but unfortunately, they were unable to do so because the flight had no controls. The airplane was forced to land on a high speed but despite the high ferocity of the accident, quite a large number of people managed to survive.
- According to the case study of the Sioux City accident, the crewmembers who were in the plane had managed to use all the knowledge that they had in order to prevent the accident. They managed to act and make an effort of controlling the accident within the first 14 seconds after realizing the existence of the accident. The crew members demonstrates that they tried their level best to control the situation considering that they even managed to call the United Airline base for any possible help. The judgment that the crew managed to make during the few minutes they tried to control the accident indicated that they were responsible for handling any aircraft task.
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