Fifteen years after crash, survivor remembers

The pilot's skill is credited with saving nearly 200 people. One of the survivors remembered the crash with 9NEWS Reporter Cheryl Preheim Monday. Pete Wernick remembers hearing a loud boom. He remembers making sure his young son was strapped into his seat tightly. He remembers the impact. Fifteen years later, he says he doesn't dwell on what happened that day, but he won't forget it. In the beauty and serenity outside of Lyons, Colorado you will find a blue grass music camp and hear the melodies from Dr. Banjo, Pete Wernick. The song of his life spans 58 years, but one verse stands out as most dramatic. "We had no concept that a lot of people were going to die as we boarded the plane," Wernick said. It wasn't long before video cameras captured the crash of United flight 232. It cartwheeled down the runway and burst into flames in Sioux City, Iowa. "A lot of people saw the person next to them die or people who had boarded the plane with them; my family and I escaped that level of tragedy," Wernick added. Wernick and his wife Joan carried their then 6-year-old son out of the wreckage. They were all fine and even his banjo survived with slight damage. "You just keep thinking about how you could have die," he said. Fifteen years later the images are still clear in his memory. Investigators say the tail engine blew, crippling the plane's controls. One hundred and twelve people died. Wernick and 183 others survived. "If there's anything I got out of being in a plane crash, it's how suddenly life can go away and you don't get to plan the last day of your life," Wernick said. "Even if you didn't almost die you should feel lucky just to be alive. Tell your dear ones that you love them so that's the best thing that I know."The pilot of the plane, Al Haynes, came to one of Wernick's performances. The two had a chance to talk and Wernick had a chance to thank him in person for saving his family's life. Investigators say the fact that Haynes landed the plane at all, without controls, is remarkable and has become part of the lore of the crash. Investigators say the jet was going 200 miles an hour when it hit the runway.