Airline pilot Denny Fitch was hitching a ride home on a DC-10 in 1989 when heard an explosion somewhere in the back of the jet. He soon made his way to the cockpit to see if the crew needed help.
Inside, he found three men desperately trying to keep the giant plane in the air after losing all hydraulic power needed to control direction and altitude. Fitch took a seat in the only space available — the floor — and helped operate some of the only equipment still working — the wing engines — to try to land the aircraft carrying nearly 300 people.

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He was obviously put on that plane for a reason.

Some people rise to the occasion. Actually, I think that most people do...

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- Brian


1989 500SEL Euro
1966 250SE Cabriolet
1958 BMW Isetta 600

What an amazing story and a fitting tribute. Great pic of him in that article, too: you can really tell he loved life.



Thank you for that post, and RIP to Denny Fitch.

I remember when I watch the news footage of that day and seeing the landing of Flight 232 (not 292 by the way) in a fireball. I thought nobody survived that. I was amazed to hear people did.

Afterwards hearing what went on, the cause of the crash and the subsequent interviews of the pilots with their faces all cut up, I was glad those pilots had the skill and experience to bring that plane down to save some lives.

RIP - Denny Fitch



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1983 123.133 California
- GreaseCar Veg System

Fantastic story!

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-Evan


Benz Fleet:
1968 UNIMOG 404.114
1998 E300
2008 E63


Non-Benz Fleet:
1992 Aerostar
1993 MR2
2000 F250

To add a little bit to this story, the Captain of the plane was Al Haynes. As I said previously how I was glad their experience helped them out.
Denny Fitch finch said he was 46 years old in that story. Less than two years after the incident, Captain Haynes was forced to retire at the mandatory retirement age of 60. I always thought that was too young and a good pilot should keep flying. Fortunately today the retirement age is now 65.



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1983 123.133 California
- GreaseCar Veg System

i live 50 miles east northeast from sioux city and parts of the tail engine landed less then 10 miles from here.when the plane called in with problems they had first responders from 70 miles away heading towards sioux city even before the plane landed.they were prepared for the worst.

The response by the local PF/FD/ETC was another story of right place/right time. Everyone had just been thru a training session on Air Crash Response and was ready to go. They had adequate warning and knew what to do. Medical response was similarly awesome.

Very much like the Beaver County Haz Mat response to the US Air Crash in Alaquippa PA in the mid 90's. The local FD had very well trained response troops, they were well equipped and had awesome support from all around them. That week they basicly wrote the book on how to deal with a major air crash and process the wreckage with full de-con on site.