Investigators Seek Clues in DC-10 Crash

SIOUX CITY, Iowa--Rescuers and survivors spoke of miracles, and investigators went "inch by inch" through a cornfield yesterday looking for an explanation of the fiery crash of United Flight 232.

At least 76 people were killed, and up to 43 others were missing and believed dead in Wednesday's spectacular crash of a DC-10 jumbo jet.

Rescuers said many of those unaccounted for probably were trapped in a large silver-and red-striped section of the charred fuselage that sat amid rows of corn four feet tall.

Russell Mack, an airline spokesperson, said yesterday that 197 of the 293 people aboard survived. City Manager Hank Sinda put the number at 174--which, counting 76 confirmed dead, would put the number unaccounted for at 43.

Some survivors just walked away from the wreckage.

Beginning at daybreak, National Guard workers began collecting pieces of wreckage and carrying body bags to ambulances and refrigerated trailers.

The plane, crippled by a loss of hydraulic power, pitched violently to its right just a few feet from the ground, scraped its right wing, cartwheeled into a ball of fire and broke into pieces during an emergency landing about 4 p.m. at the Sioux Gateway Airport.

Survivor Garry Priest, 23, of Northglenn, Colo., said those who got out of the plane saw what "looked like a war zone. Bodies, trash, magazines, luggage and pieces of bodies littered the area. It was the worst thing I've ever seen."

"We could not believe anybody could walk away from it," said Dr. David Greco, director of emergency services for the Marian Health Center and one of the first physicians on the scene.

Greco lauded the passengers and crew for maintaining calm and said the nature of the breakup of the plane largely determined the pattern of deaths and injuries.

The three members of the cockpit crew survived the crash, but Greco said the first-class section was devastated. Passengers in rows nine through 19 suffered only minor injuries, he added, but "there was nothing left of the rear half of the aircraft."

"One section was thrown so far so fast that it never got involved in the fire," he said.

Tales of heroism abounded, beginning with praise for Captain A.C. Haynes, a 33-year United veteran.

Gov. Terry Branstad visited Haynes' bedside and said at a news conference, "He was quite emotional about the situation, and tears came to his eyes when he talked about the number of people who lost their lives....I told him he did a valiant job."

Flight 232, from Denver to Philadelphia via Chicago, carried 11 crew members and 282 passengers, including three infants, said United spokesperson Lawrence Nagin. The plane has a capacity of 287 passengers.

Rachel Halterman, spokesperson for the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), said agency investigators met with emergency medical teams from the city, county and state and representatives of the airline, the plane's manufacturer and the pilots union to maximize the search for victims and clues from the crash.

The search of the crash site, roughly the length of three football fields, "will be an inch-by-inch thing," Halterman said from the NTSB's makeshift command center in the Sioux City Convention Center.

"The flight recorder will be going back to Washington sometime today and we'll start interviewing the crew and the survivors, eyewitnesses and everybody we can who has first-hand knowledge of the accident," she said. "We're also collecting maintenance records on the plane."

Before the crash, the pilot radioed to report that the 15-year-old jumbo jet experienced "complete hydraulic failure," Federal Aviation Administration spokesperson Fred Farrar said. Parts of the plane were found 50 miles away.

Hydraulic systems allow pilots to manipulate the wing and tail controls. Without them, aviation officials say, the plane would be uncontrollable.

Virginia Jane Murray, a flight attendant, survived by crawling out of an opening in the burning wreckage.

"She said she was tumbling," said her father, Don Murray of Chester, S.C. "The walls were coming in. She said a hole opened up and the sunlight came in and she climbed out the hole. She said she knew the Lord opened up that hole."