United Airlines Flight 232 crash Essay Example

fluid drainage. The captain and crew members felt a jolt throughout the aircraft, and warning lights indicated disengagement of the autopilot and malfunctioning of engine number two.

The airplane deviated from its intended path and required an immediate reaction. The control column was incapable of rectifying this issue, and the pressure gauges for all three hydraulic systems were already indicating a value of zero.

The first engine failure caused the control surfaces to become immovable. Although the aircraft had three separate hydraulic systems to prevent one system failure from disabling the others, the shared route of these systems through the tail and debris penetration impacted the remaining systems.

Additionally, the absence of a backup system further exacerbated the situation (Haynes, 1991).

The airplane's difficulties continued as it turned right and maintaining stability became challenging. It started oscillating vertically, albeit slowly, in a phugoid cycle, typically indicating a loss of control surface command. After each cycle, the plane was descending by approximately 1500 feet.

Fitch, a DC-10 flight instructor and passenger on the plane, provided his help when he realized that the only way to control the aircraft was by adjusting the throttles of the two remaining engines. This method, called differential thrust, involved running one engine at a faster speed than the other to steer the plane. It also assisted in gaining or losing altitude by accelerating or decelerating the aircraft.

Employing this technique, Fitch successfully alleviated the cycle and attempted to manually lower the flight's landing gear. This effort aimed to dislodge the trapped hydraulic fluid and redirect it back into the lines, thereby potentially enabling movement of

the control surfaces.

However, even though he successfully adjusted the gear, the control response did not improve because most of the hydraulic fluid was lost through the punctured lines (Astronomy.com, 2009).

Following the failure of control response, the crew communicated with air traffic control (ATC) to organize an emergency landing at Sioux Gateway Airport. Despite feeling confused and anxious, Captain Haynes maintained a positive attitude and kept his sense of humor throughout the entire tragic incident.

Originally, the intention was to land on runway 31, a runway measuring 9000 feet in length. However, due to difficulties in controlling the aircraft, it was unable to properly align itself. In order to aid with the landing process, the plane opted to perform several right hand turns and also released a substantial amount of fuel.

The plane was intended to align with runway 31 for its landing, but runway 22, which was shorter and had limited maneuvering capacity, was assigned due to its altitude of 6,000 feet. Additionally, fire trucks were stationed on runway 22 because the landing was initially planned for runway 31. These trucks had to be swiftly moved before the plane landed.

To maintain the plane's descent, Fitch continuously adjusted the engine thrust as all hydraulic systems had failed. Consequently, the crew could no longer control the airspeed without sink rate.

The plane began to go at a velocity of 240 knots and was descending at a rate of 1850 feet per minute. A safe landing necessitates a speed of 140 knots and a landing velocity of 300 feet per minute, indicating that the aircraft was heading towards a

crash. During the final approach, the aircraft was descending even faster and veering to the right. Initially, the right wing tip made contact with the runway, causing fuel to spill and immediately ignite. Subsequently, the tail section broke apart, resulting in multiple bounces of the remaining portion of the airplane.

The plane's engine nacelles and landing gears separated, causing the fuselage to break into several main pieces. As a result, the right wing was torn off, leading to the main part of the aircraft sliding sideways. Eventually, it flipped over multiple times before finally coming to a stop upside down on runway 22 right.

Despite eyewitness accounts stating that the plane had cartwheeled, investigations disproved this claim by pointing out that it was a misunderstanding of a video footage depicting the right wing of the plane engulfed in flames and tumbling from one end to the other end (Haynes, 1991).

The crash resulted in the death of 111 individuals, including 11 crew members, out of a total of 296 passengers. The investigation determined that United Airlines' failure to implement adequate procedures for detecting fatigue cracks in the aircraft was responsible for the accident.

The cracks in the aircraft's fan disk were believed to have caused its fracture, as reported by Astronomy.com (2009). However, the emergency response in Sioux City in 1989 was credited for minimizing the number of fatalities despite the severity of the crash.