come to the cockpit. the minute the door opened the atmosphere just hit me full force. it was like oh, no, this isn t an emergency. it s a bleep, bleep crisis. the situation is grave. the plane has lost all of its hydraulic fluid. hydraulics in a modern large jet airplane is the lifeblood of the airplane. it is how you physically move the flight controls. it provides the muscle to move these very large surfaces against very fast moving air in a controlled manner. we were keeping an ear, i ll put it that way. control, no. we were just trying to keep it flying. it was doing what it wanted to do. in the midst of the chaos a flight attendant informs the crew there s a united captain who was a dc10 flight instructor sitting in first class. his name is denny finch, and he s offering to help.