 Flight 173 was piloted by an experienced cockpit crew, consisting of Captain Malburn "Buddy" McBroom (age 52), First Officer Roderick "Rod" Beebe (45), and Flight Engineer Forrest "Frosty" Mendenhall (41).McBroom had been with United Airlines for 27 years; he was one of the airline's most senior pilots with more than 27,600 hours of flight time, of which about 5,500 hours had been as a DC-8 captain.Beebe had been with the airline for 13 years and had logged more than 5,200 flight hours.