Excerpt
CAREENING INTO THE FUTURE
At 3:16 p.m. on 19 July, 1989, the jet's tail engine blew apart. Twelve
thousand meters above the U.S. Midwest, shards of the engine's fan rotor cut
through the rear of the aircraft, shredding its hydraulic systems. As fluid
bled from hydraulic tubing, the pilots in the front of the plane lost command
of the rudder, elevators, and ailerons essential to stabilizing and guiding the
craft. Immediately, the plane twisted into a downward right turn. United
Airlines Flight 232 from Denver to Chicago—with 296 people aboard—was out of
control.
By itself, the failure of the tail engine was not catastrophic: the dc-10 had
two other engines, one under each wing. But cockpit gauges showed a complete
loss of hydraulic quantity and pressure. When the first officer tried to halt
the right turn, the plane didn't respond. As the rightward bank became
critical, the captain took over, pulling back on the control column and turning
the wheel hard left—but still there was no response. In a last-ditch effort to
regain command, he cut power to the left engine and ... read full excerpt from: The Ingenuity Gap ebook
