The wikipedia article gives the story:<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_232" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_232</a><p>The quotation I like comes from this page:<p><a href="http://www.airdisaster.com/special/special-ua232.shtml" rel="nofollow">http://www.airdisaster.com/special/special-ua232.shtml</a><p>where they say:<p><pre><code> Subsequent simulator tests showed that other DC-10
crews were unable to repeat the effort of the crew
of 232. Investigators concluded that, in its damaged
condition, it was not possible to land the aircraft
on a runway. As a result, the crew was given much
praise for managing to put the aircraft down just
off the runway centerline and saving as many lives
as they did.
</code></pre>
I've heard that the simulator was run repeatedly with the scenario, and no crews hit the airport, let alone the runway, let alone landed the plane.<p>Outstanding flying by the original crew.
<a href="http://www.airdisaster.com/download2/ual232.shtml" rel="nofollow">http://www.airdisaster.com/download2/ual232.shtml</a><p>The above is an mp3 of the last 10 seconds on the cockpit voice recorder. Just before the noise of impact you can hear the ground proximity alarm go off with a <i>vwoop-vwoop</i> "pull up!" <i>vwoop-vwoop</i> "pull up!". This isn't noted on the transcript.