Sully - spectaular, Gimli Glider - Great, but Sioux City DC-10 beats both

UAL 232, DC-10 crash-landing in Sioux City was the most incredible

Fan departs plane severing all hydraulics, only 2 engines to change direction or altitude or attitude. No controls at all. No brakes.

Somehow, they made it to a runway... a miracle in itself... but no way to slow the plane.

I remember listening on the radio at work as it transpired; originated here in Denver... turned out I knew/know a person that was on the plane that survived.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_232

The DC-10 went through design and construction in such a hurry that there were a number of SERIOUS issues with the plane - resulting in a number of losses.

 

Yes, but at least he had controls... 232 had nothing but 2 throttles.

 

I remember that a reward was offered by GE for the engine fan that caused all the damage when it departed the plane. They hired people to search for it.

Many looked for it, found small pieces, but it was finally found by a farmer running a combine. It was partly buried but stuck in the combine.

I think that MD added safety valves to prevent the loss of all hydraulics should that happen again. It had 3 hydraulic circuits but they all ran through the same area in the rear fuselege.
The DC-10 had no manual (cable) control back-up as some other other planes did.

I believe the L-1011 had 4 circuits with safety valves on some of them.