document: A crippled United Airlines DC-10 crashed a half-mile short of a runway while trying to make an emergency landing Wednesday afternoon , bursting into a cartwheeling fireball that broke into what one eyewitness described as `` 15,000 pieces '' and killing at least 123 of the 293 passengers and crew members on board . Remarkably , as many as 166 persons survived the violent crash , according to Richard Vohs , a spokesman for Iowa Gov. Terry E. Branstad . The fate of four others was not immediately known . Tail Engine Explodes The plane 's tail engine exploded before the crash but it was not immediately clear how the explosion contributed to what a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman called `` complete hydraulic failure , '' an occurrence regarded as extremely rare in the wide-bodied DC-10 , which has three independent hydraulic systems that operate all the plane 's control surfaces on its wings and tail , and landing gear and brakes . As rescuers worked underneath floodlights to remove bodies from the crash site , original estimates of the death toll -- one as high as 190 , which would have made the crash the second worst in U.S. history -- were reduced . `` We do n't have a firm count '' of the dead , Vohs acknowledged at a press conference seven hours after the crash . `` But right now , the number -LRB- of survivors -RRB- confirmed is 166 . '' The survivors of Wednesday 's United Flight 232 from Denver to Philadelphia via Chicago included several dozen passengers who managed to walk out of a dark , smoke-filled , upside-down section of the jet after it broke off and came to rest in a tall cornfield off the runway . `` I walked out -LRB- through the back of the plane -RRB- and found myself in the cornfield , '' passenger David Landsberger told Cable News Network . `` We were all walking around in shock . I just walked through it like it was a dream . I was a little dazed . '' `` It 's the goddamndest thing I ever saw in my life , '' said Charles Mertz of Castle Rock , Colo. , another of those who walked away . Suitcases , paper , mail , clothes , chunks of burning metal and bodies were strewn over the inactive runway at Sioux Gateway Airport , where the plane crashed after desperately circling for a half-hour . One hundred ambulances , fire trucks and helicopters from as far away as South Dakota plucked out the victims . The search for bodies was difficult because some of them were scattered in the cornfield . Many of the survivors were listed in critical condition with burns or broken bones . United Airlines declined to comment on the number of survivors or to release the names of the 282 passengers and 11 crew members . Eyewitnesses said pieces of the 15-year-old airplane -- one of the oldest airliners in United 's fleet -- were falling off as far as 75 miles from the site of the crash . A team of National Transportation Safety Board investigators left Washington Wednesday night for Sioux City . The hydraulic system that disintegrated Wednesday works the same way a power steering system operates in a car . By forcing liquid through a tube , the system provides enough power for a pilot to move an airliner 's huge tail rudder and elevators , and wing panels known as flaps and ailerons -- all needed to steer an aircraft . Some aviation experts , speculating on why Flight 232 crashed after completing less than half of its scheduled 930-mile trip to Chicago , suggested that the explosion of the tail engine sent shards of metal through the tail section , somehow destroying common lines that serve the three hydraulic systems . There were reports from passengers and observers that the plane 's right-wing engine also failed before the crash . In what survivors described as a heroic effort that nearly succeeded , the plane 's Seattle-based captain , A. C. Haynes -- a 33-year veteran of the airline who along with the other 10 crew members survived the crash -- struggled for a half-hour to maintain control of the wobbling plane . Radio transmission indicated the plane 's maneuverability was limited to right-hand turns . At one point , Haynes attempted a landing on Highway 20 near Cushing , Iowa , but chose not to touch down there in favor of trying to make Sioux City , a farming and livestock center of 82,000 in the northwest corner of Iowa along the Missouri River . Preparing for Crash Landing `` Then they said we were preparing for a crash landing . They said it would be about 30 seconds , but it was about five minutes , '' another passenger said . Haynes brought the plane into the airport 's 9,000-foot-long southwest runway , surrounded by corn , soybeans and pasture with some trees seven miles outside downtown Sioux City . At about 4 p.m. CDT , the plane made its final approach . Onlookers watched hopefully . `` We thought it was going to make it , '' said Glen Olson , city editor of the Sioux City Journal . It did n't . Shortly before touchdown the plane 's right wing began to dip and the nose began to fall . The wing hit the ground a half-mile before the runway . The impact caused the aircraft to turn over several times as it slid down the runway , `` breaking up very badly , '' catching on fire and then exploding , according to Bob Raynesford , an FAA spokesman . `` I think it turned over a couple of times . I think it landed upside down , '' said passenger Melanie Cincala of Toledo , Ohio , who said the plane burst into flames after she got off . A large piece of the fuselage barreled onto the runway . Huge clouds of smoke and flames billowed upward as firemen sprayed foam over the wreckage . Rescue helicopters hovered overhead . `` We were sitting there upside down and it began to fill up with smoke , '' said Cliff Marshall of Columbus , Ohio , who was returning home from Denver . ` Push Little Girl Out ' `` Then God opened a hole in the basement -LRB- the bottom of the plane -RRB- and I pushed a little girl out . I grabbed another , kept pulling them out until they did n't come no more . '' Marshall said he thought he helped a half-dozen out and then he ran . Dr. Romaine Bendixen , clinic commander of Iowa National Guard 's 185th tactical fighter group , said he was the first doctor on the scene , about three minutes after the crash . He had just landed in another plane . He said the living were scattered among the dead . `` In one group of six seats , a woman sitting in the middle was barely injured , her husband beside her was dead and two behind her were dead , '' Bendixen said . He said rescuers pulled out three of the flight crew alive . Hewitt Graham , manager of Graham Flying Service , a charter service and corporate aircraft maintenance firm that operates out of the building closest to the crash site , said he was in his office , answering phones , when five crash victims -- a man , his wife and young son and two other men -- walked in . `` It was amazing . They were in remarkably good shape . From looking at one or two of them you would n't know they were in the accident , '' Graham said . Their clothes were clean , not mussed , their hair was in place and they had no scratches he could see , he said . Survival Rate Remarkable C. O. Miller , former chief investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board , said the crash 's survival rate was remarkable and was probably the result of the pilot 's ability to maneuver the plane close to the ground before losing complete control . `` If an airplane cartwheels , it is very fortuitous that anybody got out , '' said Miller , now a private aviation safety consultant in Sidona , Ariz. . He said the huge mass of the DC-10 must have helped the pilot slow the plane as it approached the ground and helped keep portions of it intact . He said a smaller plane , such as a DC-9 , would have been far more likely to break up more severely . St. Luke 's Regional Medical Center said 80 to 90 crash victims had been admitted and of those 70 were expected to leave the hospital Wednesday night . A spokesman said they sustained light injuries . About 50 survivors were housed overnight at Briarcliff College . Lavonne Quirin of Alta , in Buena Vista County , 75 miles from the airport , said she and her husband found a cone-shaped section of the plane in a cornfield at their seed corn business . ` Size of a Car ' `` It 's about the size of a car , '' she said . She said no one at the farm saw or heard the object fall . McDonnell Douglas Corp. , which builds the DC-10 , said the plane was delivered to United in 1974 . United , the nation 's second largest airline , has one of the oldest fleets in the industry . The average age of its aircraft is 13.5 years . The average for the entire industry is 11.7 years . No unusual weather was reported . Wind speeds were clocked up to 30 m.p.h. . A DC-10 was involved in the nation 's worst air crash 10 years ago . On May 25 , 1979 , American Airlines Flight 191 lost an engine on takeoff , banked sideways out of control , slammed into a field and exploded . All 258 passengers and 13 crew members died , as well as two people on the ground . The National Transportation Safety Board cited `` maintenance-induced damage '' -- a 10-inch crack in the engine mount -- that caused the left engine to tear loose . The NTSB also criticized McDonnell Douglas ' design as vulnerable to maintenance damage . McDonnell Douglas suspended production of the DC-10 airliner in 1983 . DC-10 orders collapsed in 1979 because of the recession and the May , 1979 , crash . In all , 369 DC-10s were produced . Wednesday 's tragedy was the worst in a recent series of accidents and mishaps involving United . Nine persons were hurled to their deaths last Feb. 24 when a cargo door popped open in flight , tearing a gaping hole in a United Boeing 747 jetliner . The cause of that accident , which took place over the Pacific near Hawaii , is under investigation . Turns Up Deficiencies The accident probe has turned up deficiencies in United 's procedures regarding the cargo doors . The airline told NTSB investigators that it had `` somehow overlooked '' an FAA recommendation to inspect the cargo door latch locks each time the door is closed manually , rather than electrically . On July 10 , a United Boeing 747 was forced to make an emergency landing at Miami International Airport after the plane was damaged in heavy turbulence over the Florida-Georgia border . None of the airliner 's 108 passengers were injured . On Tuesday , a United DC-10 with 249 people aboard slid 300 yards on the runway after landing at rain-soaked O'Hare International Airport in Chicago but there were no injuries . Last Dec. 23 , a United DC-10 bound for Chicago with 287 passengers had engine problems after takeoff and dumped 52,000 gallons of fuel over the Pacific before returning safely to Los Angeles . The second-worst crash in U.S. history was an Aug. 16 , 1987 , crash that killed 156 people when a Northwest Airlines jet crashed on takeoff at Detroit Metropolitan Airport . One child on the plane survived . J. Michael Kennedy reported from Sioux City and Bob Baker from Los Angeles . Also contributing to this story were Larry Green and Tracy Shryer in Chicago , Tamara Jones in Denver and Penelope McMillan and Denise Gellene in Los Angeles . HYDRAULIC LOSS -- The `` complete hydraulic failure '' reported by the United pilot is one of the most feared events in flying . Page 17 RESCUE TEAMS READY -- The Sioux City , Iowa , fire-and-rescue operations had practiced for a major emergency . Page 18
extractive_keyphrases: emergency landing violent crash complete hydraulic failure explosion crash landing flight crew crash victims air crash tail engine
abstractive_keyphrases: united airlines dc-10