35 years later, flight attendant remembers Flight 232

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KCAU) — Friday marks 35 years since United Airlines Flight 232 made an emergency landing at the Sioux Gateway Airport. Susan White was an attendant on that flight.

“It was a miracle for me to come out,” White said. “To see all the devastation and that so many survived… this is truly a miracle.”

White worked in the back of the plane, where most of the 112 lives were sadly lost.

“Where the tail was, where I was, and then seeing where, the whole section, and everything just comes back,” she said.

The flight was en route from Denver to Chicago, with its final destination at Philadelphia. But about two hours into the journey, the aircraft suffered a catastrophic failure.

“United DC 10 came here because it had a hydraulic failure,” Pam Mickelson with the Mid America Museum of Aviation and Transportation, said. “It was a total hydraulic failure, which means there was no controls that the captain or the co-captain could use to help navigate it wherever it needed to go.”

Around 4 p.m. that day, the plane came tumbling down the runway. However, first responders were prepared.

“Here [at the Mid America Museum] we have a wall that shows the pictures of a drill, a disaster drill that was carried out by Sioux City first responders two years before the crash,” Kevin Blosch with the museum said.

185 people survived the initial impact and toxic smoke that rolled through the plane cabin. Many officials thought landing a plane experiencing total hydraulic failure and no manual controls was impossible, leading the event to later be called “the impossible landing.”

“It’s very emotional, but its okay,” White said.

“We’re glad she’s here,” Mickelson said.

“But I wanted to be back,” White said. “It felt good to be back and just pay my respects.”

The Mid America Museum of Aviation and Transportation maintains a Flight 232 exhibit year-round for curious people to learn about this event.

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