Pilots of United Airlines Flight 232 disagreed over how best to control their crippled airliner seconds before it crash-landed at an Iowa airport, according to a transcript of cockpit conversation.
The transcript shows Capt. Albert Haynes of United Flight 232 called for left turns, right turns and a cut in power within the final 20 seconds before the DC-10 cartwheeled and exploded in flames at Sioux City on July 19, killing 112 people.But trainer pilot Dennis Fitch told Haynes that closing the throttles would take away the ability to steer the plane, according to the transcript released Monday by the National Transportation Safety Board. A report accompanying the transcript said Fitch believes he added power "just prior to contact with the ground."
Haynes, Fitch and two other pilots in the cockpit have been widely praised for bringing the jetliner down with no greater loss of life after one of its three engines exploded, severing all hydraulic flight controls.
The cockpit crew and 180 people survived the crash.
The transcript shows that just 15 seconds before impact, Haynes and First Officer William R. Records called for Fitch to "close off" both throttles.
But Fitch, who had been called into the cockpit from the passenger section to assist the airliner's three-man crew, replied, "Nah, I can't pull 'em off or we'll lose it. That's what's turnin' ya."
Fitch had been steering the plane by selectively applying power to its two wing engines after its tail-mounted third engine apparently threw out parts that severed hydraulic lines in its tail.
The DC-10's builder, McDonnell Douglas, last week announced changes in the design of its planes' hydraulic systems that James B. Busey, head of the Federal Aviation Administration, said would ensure similar hydraulic failure would not occur again.
John M. Martin, inspector for the FAA assisting in the NTSB investigation, said the plane's remaining two engines were operating when it hit. He said there were no apparent conflicts in statements flight crew members made to investigators about the landing, but acknowledged there was disagreement in the flight's final seconds over cutting back power.
Haynes' order to "close off" the throttles was to put the engines in idle, not to shut them down completely, Martin said.
The cockpit tape, on a loop that records over itself after about a half-hour, covers only the final 33 minutes and 34 seconds of the flight.