Baby thrown, but survives

Press, 21 July 1989, Page 6

Baby thrown, but survives

NZPA-AP Sioux City, lowa When the pilot of a United Airlines DC-10 told passengers to expect a “very rough” landing at Sioux City’s airport, Lori Michaelson held her daughter, Sablina, tight. But the crash separated mother from daughter. Mrs Michaelson, a Denver, Colorado, resident, said about an hour from Flight 232’s scheduled arrival in Chicago, the pilot said over the intercom that the tail of the airplane had been damaged and that an emergency landing was necessary.

"He said we’d have to land and that it would be a rough impact. He advised us to go into a crash position,” she said. Sabrina was on her lap, and she held her tightly. Nearby was her husband, Mark, and their two sons, Doug, aged 6, and Andy, aged 4. Twenty minutes later, the plane crashed while attempting an emergency landing at Sioux Gateway Airport. Mrs Michaelson said the plane flipped when it hit, and she felt the child sliding to the floor.

Smoke filled the cabin and when their section of the airplane came

to rest, the couple and their sons fumbled around until finding a way out. As they climbed outside, Mark Michaelson asked, “Where’s the baby?” Desperate, he went back into the wreckage but encountered thick smoke and was forced to leave. Then they saw the child, apparently unharmed, in a woman’s arms. Asked how she had come to have the child, the woman said some man had handed her over. “God, I wish he hadn’t,” said Mark Michaelson. “I’d like to thank him personally.”