Captain Al Haynes.
Sioux City will be represented by a six member honor guard that will travel to Seattle, Washington on October 5th to participate in the funeral for United Flight 232 Pilot Captain Al Haynes.
Brad Echter of the Sioux City Police Department helped organize the honor guard. He says Captain Haynes made such a huge impression on the city following the crash in 1989. “I thought it was only fitting that we go out and do something for him for all the good words he has said about the police department and the fire department and the emergency services…,” Echter says.
Haynes was the pilot of Flight 232 flying on its way from Denver to Chicago in 1989 when the DC-10 sustained hydraulic failure and made a crash landing in Sioux City. While more than 100 passengers perished in the flight, more than 180 survived the crash. Echter says Haynes children told him they would love to have the Sioux City honor Guard at their father’s service.
“It was great coordination on all of our parts and the family was happy to have us on board. We’re obviously happy to go out there and do this for them, for the city of Sioux City, and the police department, and the fire department and the county,” Echter says. United Airlines offered to fly the Honor guard to the service at the airline’s expense. E
chter says two police officers, two firefighters and two Woodbury County deputies will make up the Honor Guard.
(By Woody Gottburg, KSCJ, Sioux City)