Blackout & natural disaster stories — July 2026

Story Tags: travel
Story Topics: 1980s

Reply by u/SuperJew113:

In the aftermath of United Airlines flight 232 July 19th, 1989, the roughly 185 survivors gathered in the cornfields of Sioux City Iowa. Almost everyone was injured at minimum, yet somehow miraculously a couple in fact came out completely unscathed, usually a total loss of hydraulic pressure of all of the flight control surfaces causes a loss of all souls on an aircraft, but massive credit should be given to the flight crew for averting that outcome as much as possible.

However after going over the passenger manifest and the 111 bodies, the rescue and recovery workers realized one of the passengers on the manifest, he wasn't in the group of 111 dead, he wasn't in the group of survivors that gathered in the cornfield. They had no idea where he was.

He turned up weeks later, renting a hotel room in Sioux City, Iowa. He got off the wreckage miraculously completely unscathed and in no need of medical attention. He walked off to a bar in Sioux City Iowa and got really drunk at the bar.

• OP’s reply to a deleted comment: I definitely read it somewhere. After nearly dying, if I'm unscathed, why wouldnt I walk to a bar and get shitfaced? I probably would, I'm not hurt so, there's nothing I need to see emergency workers about.

Not sure if this is the exact one. Yes I would, Im no doctor.

There were bodies everywhere. "We just sat there looking at all these dead people," Walker said. Most of them were lying in the grassy easement between the concrete and the crops. "And the most surreal thing I've ever seen in my life happened next. It actually looked like something from Night of the Living Dead, because many of these bodies all of a sudden started sitting up." Walker watched in amazement as a businessman in a suit stood and looked around as if searching for something. "He walked over and grabbed his luggage" and walked away, the National Guard pilot said.

https://www.popularmechanics.com/flight/a10478/the-final-flight-of-united-232-16755928/

More of OP’s replies to deleted comments:

• It's not my job to convince you. People can act all sorts of weird in a situation lioe that, and emergency workers probably had their handsful with 185 shrvivors, most wounded and looking through the wreckage.
• Anyways, I read it somewhere, as someone who's studied the disaster. Media's not gonna focus on that shit, and they rounded up 184 out of 185 surivors, that's almost 200 fucking people. You don't have to believe it. I definitely posted a source showing the guy grabbing his luggage and walking off. I did produce evidence, it was a guy who was picking through the wreckage for his suitcase and wandered off.
• Yea...but you know in the mayhem, he just wandered off and they didn't notice him. When you got 185 casualties...you're not focused on a head count. Head count comes later.
• I'm James...I study disasters, lots of them. And I don't give a flying fuck if you didn't like that anecdote I picked up along the way studying one of several several several disasters. I found flight 232 immensely interesting because it was a "successful disaster" utilizing CRM which was then a new concept compared to the Teneriffe disaster, and Eastern Airlines Flight 401.
• And btw, Teneriffe and Eastern Airlines Flight 401 are excellent examples of the former mindset of the industry. One thing I picked up...I saw this mentioned, was airlines use to be hostile to the NTSB. Overly burdensome regulations they thought, something of that nature, beyond the tragic loss of human lives, flight disasters are bad for business, look at the predicament Boeing is in today with the 737 MAX, one such disaster (and several.prior safety violations in favor of cutting costs) put Valujet under with the Florida Everglades crash in 1995. That said, the two disasters I mentioned, basicslly the captain was the brains of the entire operation, the crew acted as unthinking robots carrying out orders. Eastern Airlines Flight 401 and Teneriffe are examples of this dangerous way to operate airplanes and United Airlines Flight 232 is easily touted as a great example of successful changes in the industry in favor of excellent CRM and a divorce from the previous mindset in the industry.
• United Airlines Flight 232's CRM was so above and beyond what might be expected to the point that a First Class passenger with several thousand hours as a DC-10 trainer in simulators was the one crewing the thrust controls for the engines, he saved A LOT of lives that day.
• Ideally under most scenarios, no one ever survives a total loss of hydraulic fluid in the flight controls. Japan Airlines Flight 123 only had 4 survivors out over 500 crew and passengers (they assumed they all died and heavily delayed the recovery under the assumption it was a total loss, several injured passengers could have been saved, but died of hypothermia, the US Marine Corp equipped with helicopters offered to help but were fatally told to stand down by Japanese authorities). Turkish Airlines Flight 981 with also a DC-10 would be another example of what I'm talking about.
• That's why United Airlines Flight 232 is cited as a "successful disaster" because they had far more survivors than what would ordinarily be expected given the circumstances, and IMO one of the most interesting flight disasters to study.

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