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Denny Fitch Dies of Cancer at Age 69

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  • Denny Fitch Dies of Cancer at Age 69

    As a trained pilot, Denny Fitch knew instinctively everyone aboard United Flight 232 could die in a matter of minutes.

    “I was 46, I had the world ahead of me, I had a beautiful healthy family, and at 4 p.m., I was trying to stay alive,” he said in a documentary interview.

    As the DC-10 thrashed, he took a second to think of his wife and three kids and what their last words had been that day back in 1989. “My wife said, ‘I love you, hurry home.' And with that knowledge and that peace, I was ready to die that day if I had to.”

    Fitch and 184 others survived, due in large part to his troubleshooting from the cockpit floor, pulling every aeronautical trick out of the book to control the plunging jet.

    But the man hailed as a hero couldn't stop the aggressive brain cancer he was diagnosed with in 2010.

    The 69-year-old St. Charles resident died Monday with his family around him.

    “Denny had a strong faith, and that helped him in the end,” his wife, Rosa, said Tuesday.

    “He fought the disease as valiantly as he fought to save our lives in 1989,” said flight attendant Jan Brown of Schaumburg, who was on board the fateful trip.

    Fitch was a United pilot and DC-10 flight instructor who happened to be a passenger aboard Flight 232 when it lost all hydraulic power July 19, 1989, flying from Denver to Chicago. The jet crash-landed into the Sioux City, Iowa, airport and veered into a cornfield, killing 111 people, but Fitch's and the flight crew's resourcefulness in bringing the aircraft down became legend in the aviation world.

    YouTube #8220;I was 46, I had the world ahead of me, I had a beautiful healthy family, and at 4 p.m., I was trying to stay alive,#8221; he said in a documentary interview. As the DC-10 thrashed, he t...

  • #2
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    That is sad news. I remember reading about him the first time I read about UA 232. R.I.P.

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    • #3
      This is an absolute MUST WATCH.

      Pilot Dennis Fitch recounts the gripping tale of United Airlines Flight 232. On board the DC-10 aircraft as a passenger, Fitch was called into action after t...

      --- Judge what is said by the merits of what is said, not by the credentials of who said it. ---
      --- Defend what you say with arguments, not by imposing your credentials ---

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