Video: 'Air Crash Investigation United Flight 232 'Impossible Landing BOC'

(Wednesday, July 19, 1989, 4:00:16 p.m. CDT) — United Airlines Flight 232, a regularly scheduled flight from Denver to Chicago, continuing to Philadelphia, crash-landed this afternoon at Sioux City, Iowa, after suffering a catastrophic failure of its tail-mounted engine, which led to the loss of many flight controls.

Of the 296 passengers and crew on board, 110 passengers and 1 flight attendant died in the accident and 185 survived (one passenger died a month later from his injuries for a total of 112 fatalities), making the crash the fifth-deadliest involving the McDonnell Douglas DC-10.

Despite the deaths, the accident is considered a prime example of successful crew resource management because of the large number of survivors and the manner in which the flight crew handled the emergency and landed the airplane without conventional control.