The NTSB and the FAA also immediately began an investigation as to what caused the catastrophic engine failure.  But, missing much of the fan disk that came from engine number 2, their investigation bordered on speculation until October 10 when an Alta, Iowa farmer named Janice Sorenson ran into two thirds of the enormous engine part while operating a combine in her corn field.  By then, General Electric was offering six figure rewards for any substantial recovery of parts from the damaged engine.  Weighing over four hundred pounds and partially submerged in the muddy field, the part still had some of the fan blades attached and GE paid Sorenson 116,000 dollars.  Days later most of the rest of the disc was found in another nearby corn field. 

But the professionalism and even heroism of the entire crew received national attention and plaudits culminating with a September, 1989 visit of all of the pilots and surviving flight attendants to the White House of George Herbert Walker Bush.

 Mark Michaelson, talked about how he and his wife and three children had survived the crash.  It was Michaelson’s daughter, 11 month old Sabrina Michaelson, who Jerry Schemmel rescued from the burning  aircraft.  After the interview, Michaelson and his family met Schemmel for the first time and after an emotional discussion, agreed to keep in touch. 

One of the two men that Jerry Schemmel observed at one of the plane’s exits helping passengers escape was named Michael Matz.  Matz was a nationally prominent equestrian show jumping rider who eventually would medal in the Olympics and was selected to carry the American flag during the US team’s participation in the procession that concluded the 1996 Olympic games.  He concluded his illustrious show jumping career in 1998 and embarked on another pursuit, training thoroughbred racehorses.  Only eight years later Matz reached the pinnacle of the sport when he successfully trained Barbaro, the dominant winner of the 2006 Kentucky Derby. 

Two weeks later, shortly after the start of the Preakness, Barbaro shattered many of the bones in his right rear leg.  Despite complicated surgery, extensive rehabilitation and Barbaro’s gallant will to survive, Matz had to make the agonizing decision to euthanize the animal on January 29, 2007, six months after the initial injury.