Spencer Bailey, who is now 39 years old, was one of 184 people who survived the 1989 United Airlines Flight 232 crash in Sioux City, Iowa. At the time, Spencer was only 3 years old. Spencer’s older brother, Brandon, who was 6 at the time, also survived the crash. Their mother, Frances “Francie” Lockwood Bailey, did not.
During a recent conversation with People, Spencer revisited his memories of the plane crash, known as Miracle in the Cornfield, and its aftermath. The crash happened on July 19, 1989, en route to Chicago. Because of engine failure, the pilot attempted to land in Sioux City, Iowa. Spencer doesn’t remember details from the crash, but his rescue was caught on camera. While the historic photo is memorable to many, Spencer told People that he doesn’t feel particularly connected to the image.
“I never really saw myself in that image,” he told the publication. “It felt unworldly. It felt like something that was foisted upon me, a small form of celebrity I never asked for.”
At the time of the crash, his late mother was 36 years old. His brother Brandon later explained that their mother died protecting them. Reflecting on it now, Spencer said, “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,” he added. “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?”
Because he was so young at the time of the crash, he doesn’t have memories of it or his mother. He told People that he’s “so grateful for those three years and 11 months we had together, but I have no memory of them.”
Since he doesn’t remember the infamous crash, he’s not afraid of flying. However, in 2024, when he and his wife were on the way back from Japan, they experienced extreme turbulence for several hours. Spencer believes that the flight “brought up some very, very deeply buried whatever [that] I experienced on July 19, 1989.”
He added, “Other passengers were screaming and crying and vomiting, and my wife and I managed to keep our cool. But when the plane landed in Minneapolis … I was still shaking.”
Spencer’s father, now 71, never remarried after tragically losing his wife. According to Spencer, their family felt “broken” after the crash. But now, for his dad, it’s been “so rewarding to watch us grow up and each of us build our individual lives, to be at our weddings, to be at our graduations, to celebrate those moments together.”
He added, “It feels like my mom is still here in some sense. Her legacy lives through my brothers and me in the ways that we see and the ways that we engage the world.”
