A plane crash survivor reveals how he and his brother only lived to tell their tale of survival because of their mum’s selfless final act to protect them
An iconic photograph of a young three year old boy being carried to safety by a soldier will be forever etched in Spencer Bailey’s memory.
It’s a picture that transports him back 36 years to July 19th, 1989 when United Airlines Flight 232 went down in Sioux City, Iowa, USA, killing 111 people including his mum.
Spencer Bailey, 3, was one of the very few survivors of the plane crash along with his big brother and as he approaches 40, he has paid a visit to what remains of Runway 22 at the city airport.
It was here where the plane first went down before sliding into a nearby cornfield. The asphalt is not really tended these days, with weeds growing through the cracks which is as it should be, Spencer, now a journalist and author, told People.
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“There’s sort of a beautiful metaphor that quite literally reflects the sort of scars and the temporal nature of lingering trauma,” he says. “But also being able to grow past it.”
“My mom was 36, so this year marks the amount of time she spent on Earth,” he said. “Obviously I carry my mom with me. I’m so grateful for those three years and 11 months we had together, but I have no memory of them.”
Although he has no memory of that day, he’s been able to piece together what happened through the subsequent investigation and via the media.
On a flight from Denver to Chicago the titanium fan disk in the passenger jet’s engine broke at 37,000 feet in the air, causing an explosion above the Iowa cornfields.
As the spiraling debris sheared through the plane, cutting all of the hydraulic lines needed to steer the craft, Captain Al Haynes miraculously managed an emergency landing at Sioux Gateway Airport.
It was the deadliest single-aircraft accident in the history of United Airlines. Of the 296 people on board, 184 lived including Spencer and his older brother, Brandon, who was just 6 at the time.
Brandon later told him how their mum, Frances, put her arm around them as the aircraft’s tail section ripped off — ejecting their bank of seats as the plane slid to a stop, upside-down. Brandon was severely injured and Spencer suffered brain trauma and went into a five-day coma.
Frances “Francie” Lockwood Bailey, a wife, teacher, artist and children’s clothing designer, died protecting her boys. “There’s a sense that she’s always been looking over us. It’s incredible for me to think [we] were the last thing she was holding onto,” Spencer says.
“I wonder, had she not put us down into the brace position, had she not put her arms over the backs of us, would either of us not be here?”
Spencer Bailey is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of the media company The Slowdown and host of the Time Sensitive podcast. He is also the editor-at-large of the book publisher Phaidon.
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