This episode is on one of the most iconic crashes. It was one the few crashes filmed back then, allowing even more to witness the tragedy. What those pilots did was beyond remarkable, and their attitude after is a tribute to what being a real hero is. I have seen a few documentaries about this crash, and this is one of the best. Sadly, any new one can't have some survivors telling their story, as they have began to succumb to father time. I am glad that this was made in time to hear them tell their side of events. Some crashes are very short, this one took awhile to happen, allowing the passengers and crew to think about things. Bc of the number of people on board who survived, it is tough to tell everyone's story. Other remakes focus on other passengers, but it did do a good job of doing what it could. This is an episode that could have been a two hour long one to tell more of the story, there is so much to tell. A top 3 episode of this amazing series for sure. When I get people to watch this series, this is the episode I have them start with. It simply doesn't get much better for the show than this one.
3 Reviews
No Less Saddening - & Heartwarming
kensirhan-8619813 February 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Even all these years later, on just now watching this episode (as an "Air Disasters" segment), it still brings tears to my eyes knowing of the high lost SOBOs (souls onboard), though beyond hope & prayer 184 eventually lived - the rote recitation, as here, of 185/111 seriously needs global correcting; the idiotic governmental 30-day rule about counting fatalities wants elimination, particularly when the last victim sadly succumbed 31 days later. Despite Captain Alfred Haynes's humble just-did-our-job refusal of the label, all 4 pilots who brought the plane in ARE "heroes," R.I.P. to Captain Dennis Fitch, who in a scene only mildly called "impossible" - as the narrator's script had him tell us THREE times that such a situation on such a plane of flawed design had never turned out successfully - they marshaled all their skills & strength to do just that. After all, aircraft with less damage have had catastrophic loss of all lives in accidents, yet those pilots had fought to the very end to save those SOBOs & the planes. I still have (though a recent bad-timing playful jump by my dog ruined the weathered but intact cover) an original Life which issue told the story of Flight 232, and now 31 years later this event leaves no less impression. I raise my lunch mug in toast & salute to all the 296 people of Flight 232, especially those who did not survive it and those who since then have gone to join them. I expect it's too much to hope that there will never again be an airborne situation in which hundreds of lives hang in the balance; but I believe that, whatever the outcome, we can celebrate the men & women in the cockpits who do their very best to avoid tragedy also as "heroes."
Too Heavy.
rmax3048233 October 2016
Two hundred and fifty six people die when an Arrow DC-8 lifts off from snowy Gander, Newfoundland, bring home troops from the Middle East, members of the elite 101st Airborne. The airplane struggles through the air for a thousand feet and then plows into the forest.
It's always interesting to see how emotionally moved some of the first responders are in the presence of bodies and body parts. Unlike, say, pathologists or ER docs they're trained to deal with trauma but don't deal with it very often. The accident took place on 12 December and everyone was prepared for Christmas. One investigator bemoans the fact that some of the dead were wearing novelty T-shirts saying, "I Survived Gander." President Reagan gave his condolences on television.
Given the weather conditions, the possibility of ice on the wings is looked into and ruled out. The same for a last-minute change of runway. A call is received from Hezbollah, a terrorist group, claiming credit, but there is no evidence of an explosion aboard. The airplane hit the trees in one piece.
The thoroughness of the investigators is astonishing. With the aid of a primitive flight data recorder, they measure the height of the trees whose tops were lopped off by the DC-8 and determine from modeling that the airplane was nose high, descending rapidly, with its right wing low, in an obvious stall. How the hell can anyone do that? The culprits are two. One is that the first officer checked the wings for ice before takeoff and found no heavy build up. But in 1988 it wasn't yet recognized that a thin film of ice, almost invisible to the eye, could compromise left. The second is that the weight of each passenger was estimated at the usual 170 pounds, accurate enough for civilian purposes that figure in men, women, and children. But these passengers were all men -- and big men. The combination of ice contamination and underestimate weight put the plane in danger. And the first officer pulled up the nose to gain altitude. That reduced lift further and doomed the airplane.
The lessons from the crash were distributed to the authorities and corrective measures taken.
It's always interesting to see how emotionally moved some of the first responders are in the presence of bodies and body parts. Unlike, say, pathologists or ER docs they're trained to deal with trauma but don't deal with it very often. The accident took place on 12 December and everyone was prepared for Christmas. One investigator bemoans the fact that some of the dead were wearing novelty T-shirts saying, "I Survived Gander." President Reagan gave his condolences on television.
Given the weather conditions, the possibility of ice on the wings is looked into and ruled out. The same for a last-minute change of runway. A call is received from Hezbollah, a terrorist group, claiming credit, but there is no evidence of an explosion aboard. The airplane hit the trees in one piece.
The thoroughness of the investigators is astonishing. With the aid of a primitive flight data recorder, they measure the height of the trees whose tops were lopped off by the DC-8 and determine from modeling that the airplane was nose high, descending rapidly, with its right wing low, in an obvious stall. How the hell can anyone do that? The culprits are two. One is that the first officer checked the wings for ice before takeoff and found no heavy build up. But in 1988 it wasn't yet recognized that a thin film of ice, almost invisible to the eye, could compromise left. The second is that the weight of each passenger was estimated at the usual 170 pounds, accurate enough for civilian purposes that figure in men, women, and children. But these passengers were all men -- and big men. The combination of ice contamination and underestimate weight put the plane in danger. And the first officer pulled up the nose to gain altitude. That reduced lift further and doomed the airplane.
The lessons from the crash were distributed to the authorities and corrective measures taken.
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