Do you remember where you were?

Lumen Message

by DAWN PROSSER
Director of Communications

A generation ago, Americans asked one another, “Do you remember where you were when President Kennedy was shot?” referring to the Nov. 22, 1963, assassination of John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas.

In more recent times, Americans recall where they were on September 11, 2001, now known as Patriot Day. I was headed to a meeting in Boone with John Steffes and Sharon Olerich of Kuemper Catholic Schools in Carroll when we heard about a plane crashing into a World Trade Center building. The horrific events unfolded from there.

We received a press release from the Mid-American Museum of Aviation and Transportation with an invitation to an open house and presentation marking the 35^th anniversary of United flight 232 crash landing at the Sioux Gateway Airport.Flight 232 Memorial (courtesy City of Sioux City)You don’t have to be from Sioux City or even close by to remember where you were when you heard about Flight 232’s fate on July 19, 1989. 

I was in my senior year at the University of Iowa, walking from my early morning class to the student union with a classmate. He explained he was from Holstein, and there was a terrible plane crash the day before not too far away in Sioux City. His brother was a medic on a local ambulance with a crew that traveled 46 miles to Sioux City to help. My classmate was troubled after talking to his brother about assisting at the scene.

At 22 years old and having spent most of my life in southeast Iowa, I had no idea where Sioux City was. A few months later, I was working in Storm Lake at the Pilot-Tribune with a talented young photographer, Dean Hopkins, who had been on site and sold his incredible photos of the crash site to Time Magazine.

A few miles away from Storm Lake in rural Alta, a farmer located a huge fan disc from the plane in their farm fields. The disc helped investigators determine the cause of the crash, as well as smaller pieces found in northwest Iowa farm fields in the flight’s path.

Many of us have seen the shocking video of the crash landing that KTIV reporters took at the airport that has been replayed hundreds of times. My husband saw the scorched earth and runway from a commuter jet when he was landing in Sioux City for his first visit to northwest Iowa in late 1989.232 Memorial (Courtesy City of Sioux City)
The first responders from smaller towns in the Sioux City area were lauded for their response to the site and the victims of the crash and for their disaster drill training.

Several of our diocesan priests tended to the victims at the site and hospitals. In the Aug. 19,1989, edition of The Globe, Father (now Msgr.) Mark Duchaine shared, “It was a scene from hell.”

Community members rallied around the victims, the survivors and their families in numerous ways. The humble pilots and crew members were hailed as heroes for their calm and the miraculous landing of a plane with one engine and no hydraulics.

In time the statistics were official and shared with the public. Of the 296 people on board, 112 died during the accident and 184 survived. The nation joined northwest Iowa and mourned the dead and gave thanks for the survivors.

In 35 years, there have been hundreds of stories told about Flight #232 and the people involved. Although the story cannot be told without acknowledging the tragedy, there was much focus upon the outpouring of compassion and love shown by northwest Iowans to strangers aboard that aircraft July 19, 1989.

Children, let us love not in word or speech232 Memorial (Courtesy of City of Sioux City)but in deed and truth. 1 Jn 3:18