Body Retrieval and Morgue Operation at the Crash of United Flight 232

On 19 July 1989, United Airlines Flight 232, a wide-bodied DC-10, crash-landed in Sioux City, Iowa, ultimately resulting in 112 deaths. By using the first several hours after the crash to preplan carefully and to walk through the entire body recovery and morgue procedure mentally, the disaster management team was able to process the fatalitics from Flight 232 expeditiously. The team also prepared a rigid system of data management for the morgue, which allowed the staff to collate and process large volumes of information without significant error or mismatched records.