Events in Sioux City this weekend will mark the 25th anniversary of the crash of Flight 232. There were 112 people killed in the crash, but 184 passengers survived. Pilot Al Haynes, who guided the plane with engine problems into the Sioux City airport, and some of the passengers are returning.
The director of the Mid America Air Museum Larry Finley says things begin tomorrow evening with a panel discussion. “And that is a what happened, what we learned and how has what we learned helped others type program,” Finley says. He says they will also recognize the volunteers who stepped forward. “All those from emergency services to the pizza delivery people who just automatically showed up to feed the people standing in line at the blood bank,” Finley says.
He says Captain Haynes will participate in another panel discussion along with the emergency management officials and others about how they were able to handle the situation. “How did we get ready for this, how did we react and what did we learn? And then the final thing is, how did we share what we learned?,” Finley says. An explosion in the engine sliced hydraulic lines and forced Haynes to bring the plane in to Sioux City on July 19th 1989.
(Reporting by Woody Gottburg, KSCJ, Sioux City)