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I viewed this film as "A Thousand Heroes" on HBO and I appreciated having the opportunity to watch it without commercial interruptions.

This film, a true story, details the events leading up to the crash of United flight 232 in Iowa and the incredible survival stories in the aftermath. The Sioux City area emergency services teams drilled for just such an event and their efforts resulted in many lives being saved. These stories of survival are what make this film special and quite moving at times. James Coburn plays the gruff fire chief who at one point just can't believe that the bodies of the victims will have to remain on the tarmac overnight. "Shouldn't somebody say a prayer over them or something?" he asks during an emotional scene. A child survives the crash because he had the presence of mind to jump from plane before it broke up into pieces. An injured passenger is brought into the emergency room as the paramedic says "Take good care of him. We had to leave his wife on the runway."

The sense of duty and compassion displayed by the population of Sioux City and the gratitude of the passengers is very refreshing. The rapport that develops between the pilot (Charlton Heston) and the rookie air traffic controller on duty is very satisfying. Survival and stories of heroism are stressed rather than carnage and special effects. Especially chilling is the fact that news footage of the plane hitting the runway is used during the crash sequence.

"A Thousand Heroes" is quite an enjoyable film that depicts some of the best traits of human nature. It's worth a look!

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.

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.

First having aired on TV in 1992, CRASH LANDING is a highly well-made dramatization of the saga of United Airlines Flight 232 which, while enroute from Denver to Chicago on July 19, 1989, suffered a catastrophic explosion in its tail engine which severed all the plane's hydraulic lines. This meant that the crew, led by Captain Al Haynes, had almost no control over the aircraft, and that they would have to come in for an extremely difficult landing at Gateway Airport in Sioux City, Iowa. With no way to stop, the plane broke up on impact, scattering debris across the runway and into nearby cornfields. But miraculously, of the 296 people onboard, including Haynes and his crew, 184 managed to survive the horrific ordeal.

Utilizing some of the actual TV footage of UAL 232 coming in for landing and breaking apart upon touchdown, CRASH LANDING details how Haynes and his crew managed to keep the plane in the air long enough to attempt the landing in Sioux City, and how the Sioux City ground crew was prepared for the ultimate emergency. Charlton Heston does his usual professional job in his portrayal of Al Haynes, and James Coburn is equally commanding as Jim Hathaway, the chief emergency coordinator at Sioux City. Richard Thomas, though he does not necessarily escape his "John boy" image from "The Waltons", also scores as the green rookie on Coburn's ground crew.

Although it is a TV movie, the story and cast are all ably directed by veteran Lamont Johnson, with a good script by Harve Bennett (STAR TREK III). CRASH LANDING (later retitled A THOUSAND HEROES) is one of the best true-life airline disaster survival stories ever put on TV, and is well worth seeing.