RIP Al Haynes

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Siouxland News has confirmed the death of 87 year old Captain Al Haynes, one week away from his 88th birthday.
Haynes died in a Seattle hospital after suffering a brief illness.
Woodbury County Emergency Manager Gary Brown tells us Haynes was a "humble, lovable individual who always gave credit to the crew of Flight 232 for saving as many lives as they did."
Brown adds that Haynes considered Sioux City his second home and gave thousands of speeches and seminars about his experience in July of 1989.


Funeral services for Captain Haynes are pending.
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RIP sir. Still the second funniest presenter at a safety meeting I’ve ever attended.

“It was at that point I said the dumbest three words of my career, ‘I’ve got it’...”. :)

That and his recollection of sliding through a corn field in Iowa thinking, “They really do grow it that tall here.”

He and Denny and the rest in that cockpit kept their cool and saved lives in an almost uncontrollable aircraft.
 
Al lived a long good life, but it is still sad when someone with such character and who is a decent human being passes. The saddest thing about this event is that he and Denny were so greatly affected by this incident. It is bad enough to have a serious crash as they experienced, but it is also the stress of the event itself, coping with your injuries and recuperation, but far worse is the survivor's guilt and the effect the loss of life has. You see this sometimes in Military members as well. When you are taxed with the responsibility of all the souls in your charge, it can be a heavy burden. Sadly, they never got over the guilt and the loss of life from this incident. It weighed often on them for the rest of their lives. Even though under another pilot's hands, I seriously doubt that the result would have been anything but a complete loss of life, it still deeply and negatively affected them both.

This is an excerpt from an interview that Al gave several years ago:

"It was very hard to get past the guilt of surviving. My job had been to get people from point A to point B safely, and I didn’t do it. I felt that I had killed them. I had a lot of psychiatric help at the hospital and afterward. Finally, one psychiatrist said, “You’re not going to find an answer. You just have to accept that it happened.”

Somewhere along the line, this snuck into my thinking and became my way of doing things. Questions like “Why me?” and “What if this had happened?” just don’t do any good. But I was never really able to make peace with what had happened."

From an interview that Denny Fitch gave:

"To find out 112 people didn't make it, that just about destroyed me," Fitch said. "I would have given my life for any of them. It was a really tough time." I know personally that Denny cried for several days after the crash because of the pax who were lost, that he was very distraught and he kept mulling over in his mind, what he could possibly do for their families and loved ones. Over the years, he often said that he wish he could have traded his life for the lives of the pax. It affected him that deeply. Denny did some volunteer flying for Lifeline after this and became involved in some other charities as well. He was a gentle, loving man.

Both Denny and Al were what I call old school pilots. They loved being pilots, it was far more than just a career for both of them. Denny was one of the best instructors that I ever knew. They were both excellent pilots but beyond that, they were really decent, honest, moral, hardworking and good men. Everyone admired and respected them long before the crash.

RIP Gentlemen, you will never be forgotten.
 
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I was just a young punk flight instructor when I hear Al Haynes talk in 1994. The room reserved for the talk was designed for a maximum of 250 people, but about 400 showed up, spilling out into the aisles and hallways. No one minded. One of my flight students had saved me an "extremely choice" seat, strategically located behind a large cement post. I had to contort myself around the post to see the stage, but it was still one of the most amazing events I've ever attended. Captain Haynes gave a superbly organized, terrifying and inspirational talk.

Years later, I'd study a transcript of Haynes' talk as I prepared for my recurrent training and simulator sessions. It's truly horrifying to think about what Haynes and his crew had to deal with. The controllers and rescue personnel involved in this accident also did a superb job, so that 187 people could survive an unsuvivable crash landing.

Here's a quote from Al's talk:

"The preparation: how do you prepare for something like this? I gave a talk at Anchorage to the Alaska Air Safety Foundation and they subtitled my talk: disaster in the air, are you ready? No, you're never ready. But you might be prepared."

You're never ready... but you might be prepared.

Captain Haynes: Thanks for inspiring a punk flight instructor you met for 5 seconds. Thanks for all that you did for the aviation community, thanks for the man you were, thanks for your service to our country and community.

Fearless
 
NovemberEcho said:
@N90-EWR knows the controller that worked that flight
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Kevin Bachman was the controller in Sioux City that worked UAL292 and Cpt Haynes in that day. He did an amazing job, but always downplayed his role in the events, even though we all knew he did make a difference. After Sioux City Kevin went to Newport News for a year or so before transferring to N90, where he worked in the LGA area for 3 years then transferred to the EWR area at the same time I transferred from Liberty to EWR, so we were on the same class, and worked together for many years. He checked out in 3 months in the EWR area (still a record to this day), and was one of the best controllers I ever worked with. Notorious for his ability to keep his cool under pressure, quick wit, and great gallows sense of humor. He left N90 for C90 during the white book days, then retired shortly after. One of my all time favorite coworkers and a good friend.
 
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