Volo 232 - Atterraggio di emergenza

Compared to all the disaster movies released over the years, "Crash Landing: The Rescue of Flight 232" is surprisingly well done and gripping. The fact that it is a true story makes it all the more appealing.

The movie details the heroic efforts of both the flight crew and the emergency responders on the ground at Sioux City.

The movie begins by showing the people at the Sioux City airport engaging in a disaster simulation and shows how they learned how to better prepare for a real crash.

When the flight crew of flight 232 lose all hydraulic control they start flying in circles and have to learn how to control the direction of the plane by adjusting the amount of thrust in each engine.

We see many interesting details like the fact that as the crippled plane was coming in for a landing, the control tower realized they were lined up on the wrong runway - which happened to be the same runway where all the emergency vehicles were sitting. Dozens of firetrucks and ambulances had to quickly scramble to get out of the way of the jetliner.

Overall, despite the fact that this was a made-for-TV movie, I thought it was far superior to most any disaster flick I have ever seen.

Although I scored this film as a "6" because it suffered some from lack of character development and pedestrian acting, it is a powerful viewing experience. A skilled United Airlines crew and unprecedented community organization saved many. In fact, the emergency workers in the Sioux City area achieved, on a smaller scale, what those in New York did in 2001. Charlton Heston was ideal in the role of Captain Al Haynes.

I worked in the city government at Sioux City and then at St. Luke's Regional Medical Center years before these events. I participated in some of the very early planning that paid off in 1998. What I saw in the film rings true.

This is just a TV film with no cinematography, no character development, thronged with technical details about which most audiences would understand nothing, and in poor TV quality as well, and yet it is an amazing film well worth spending some time following for an hour and a half and every second of it, so many people being involved, and every detail being true to meticulous accuracy. It happened for real, it was an impossible situation, the entire hydraulic system being put of order by an accidental explosion in the tail, and still the pilots did their best to manage the plane with 300 passengers manually and get it down with an unavoidable crash for a result, leaving 110 dead but 186 survivors, which actually was a miracle, managed by the skill of the pilots, the captain being Charlton Heston here, and he is perfect for the role. The most impressing thing about the film is its documentary value as a detailed reconstruction of a tremendous air plane emergency and accident, actually involving a thousand heroes in the very extensive rescue operations. The incident has become a legend, and the film succeeds brilliantly well in immortalizing the epic occurrence. If you often go travelling by flight, this film is recommended for a warning and important information of the consequences of a possible accident.

I am an airline employee. After seeing this movie, I studied the things that happened and how they controlled the aircraft. To turn this aircraft only to the right in a "fugoid" and to arrive exactly on course to land on runway 22 was absolutely brilliant!! Especially doing the math in his head to figure out the headings. Capt. Al Haynes was truly a great and incredibly intelligent pilot. If it wasn't for his great flying, a lot more people would have been killed. I applaud him, Denny Finch, and his whole crew on a very well job done. I hope they all will enjoy retirement and remember that a lot of people are alive today because of them.

I give this a 9 out of 10 for accuracy in portraying the events / crash of UA232. Having personally met and spoken with survivor Jerry Schemmel, as well as reading his book and other accounts, this film was fantastic to say the least. As far as rating it as a 'movie' goes, of course it was only a 'made for TV' movie, and as such lacking much of the big-production Hollywood quality - still, this was finely done, emotionally compelling, and effective at bringing home both the tragedy and the Victory of the day.

Read the book(s), (Chosen to Live- ISBN: 0965208656), enjoy the movie. For additional viewing, check out 'Fearless' starring Jeff Bridges. This movie was taken loosely from the event, although in no way non-fictional.