315 people TRAPPED inside a Crazy Plane! Qantas 72

miles above the ocean disaster strikes as a Qantas Airbus A330 on its way from Singapore to Perth dips into a terrifying dive passengers are thrown into the ceiling and badly injured while the pilots are hanging on for dear life nobody knows what is causing the plane's violent Behavior or if it will stop before they hit the ocean below this is an incredible tale where science fiction meets horror and I've invited the captain himself to tell the story now I'm starting to think wow is my life going to end today this is the story of Qantas flight 7-2 thank you on the morning of October 7th 2008 303 passengers and 12 crew stepped aboard Qantas flight 7-2 at Singapore's Changi Airport they were Bound for Perth on the West Coast of Australia a five-hour Journey the weather on this day was perfect for flying clear skies light winds and to top it all off there was very little air traffic around Singapore if there was such a thing as an easy day for flying this was surely it but open the front of the massive Airbus A330 the pilots were already joking about the captain's reported record for attracting bad luck that Captain was 53 year old Kevin Sullivan you know I've had an engine blow up on me I've had fumes events I've had jet upsets I've had a lot of things and this was my reputation as the ship magnet despite his reputation for courting emergencies and malfunctions Sullivan was an outstanding pilot he had started his career in the U.S Navy and had gone on to become a Top Gun pilot making him part of a small group of some of the most elite fighter pilots in the world he joined Qantas in 1986 where he flew the Boeing 747 and 767. by this point he'd been a captain on the Airbus A330 for four years sitting to his right was an equally competent first officer Pete lipsit like the captain lipsid had gotten his start with the military in his case the Royal Australian Navy there he had been a helicopter pilot carrying out everything from search and rescue missions to anti-submarine Warfare and United Nations operations in the Middle East he had joined Qantas 12 years previously in 1996 where he built up his experience on the Boeing 747-737 and now on the Airbus A330 due to the combined length of the fight over to Perth and back there was a third fight crew member on board Second Officer Ross Hales was the youngest of the three pilots and had just over 2 000 hours total flying time most of this was built up flying smaller propeller aircraft in Western Australia and the Northern Territory he would be taking over from the captain and then the first officer during the cruise so that they could each get some rest the aircraft was buzzing with activity as the pilots programmed their route to Perth into the fight management computer and set up the aircraft for departure this was only the crew's second time flying together the first time was their fight into Singapore from Brisbane the previous day they had bonded over some beer and Satay that evening and now on the fight deck of the ray 330 this newly formed team was about to be put to the ultimate test at 25 minutes past 9 that morning flight 72 pushed back from the gate at Singapore loaded with fuel and 303 passengers not a single seat on board the plane was empty the pilot started the engines and began their taxi out to the runway in 4 hours and 45 minutes they would be in Perth Singapore's airport was uncharacteristically quiet on this morning and the pilots had reached the departure runway in just eight minutes Captain Sullivan lined the plane up and pushed the a330s engines to take off thrust moments later the plane was airborne and climbing cerini out over the Straits of Malacca the captain was flying the aircraft manually something that long-haul Pilots don't do all that often he had no idea that later this morning his long-standing belief in the value of Hands-On flying would be Vindicated in the most shocking and dramatic way imaginable in the back of the plane the passengers settled in for the journey they were treated as some stunning views of the waterways beneath the aircraft as it climbed out suddenly in the cockpit the master caution light illuminated the flight had barely left Singapore and already it appeared that Captain Sullivan's reputation for attracting trouble was rearing its head Sullivan turned on the autopilot to free up his attention so he could figure out what was going wrong meanwhile first officer lips had canceled the warning as per airbrush procedure so that it didn't distract the pilots while they were working through the problem the two men Drew their attention to the fault message appearing on their Central display known as the Ecom or electronic centralized aircraft monitor the message read air engine bleed one fault unlike what the name might suggest the engine was not bleeding rather this message meant that there was a problem with the system that siphons off air from the engine and feeds it into the cabin to pressurize it the A330 is a highly sophisticated aircraft and when something like this goes wrong the computers do more than just tell the pilots what the problem is they display on screen the steps required to fix it one by one the first officer carried out these steps while the captain kept an eye on the plane's flight path this splitting of Duties is a huge part of what makes flying so safe today and it would prove to be even more important as the fight progressed as the first officer worked through these steps known as Ecom actions the captain spotted some thunderstorms ahead he turned the plane off course to avoid them within a few minutes the first officer had rectified the issue with the bleed air and the captain had brought the plane into clear skies once again all was well on board flight 72. in the cabin the passengers never even knew that anything had happened this calm methodical approach to routine problems like this had characterized these Pilots entire careers it's the reason that Qantas has long enjoyed the title of the world's safest Airline but this is not where the story of flight 72 ends in fact it's now only just begun 30 minutes after departure flight 72 was cruising high above the Indian Ocean at 37 000 feet there was a holiday atmosphere on board with passengers moving about the cabin flight attendants preparing meals and light chatter filling the air at this point now 90 minutes into his duty time the captain got up from his seat and headed back outside the cockpit to his rest bunk here he would stay for a little over an hour while in his place sat Second Officer Ross Hales the purpose of This Crew change was so that the captain and first officer could be fully rested and alert for the most important parts of the flight namely take off and Landing three are on duty for takeoff three are on duty for landing so you do have in the critical phase of flight you have three sets of eyes on duty three sets of brains working together for the critical phases of flight of takeoff and Landing for the next hour or so the fight progressed as normal cruising south over the vast Indian Ocean meals were handed out and drinks served and the lighthearted atmosphere on board continued after a little over an hour Captain Sullivan's rest time was over he re-entered the cockpit which was now brightly lit from the cloudless sky all around it he swapped out with Second Officer Hales and once again sat at the Helm of the aircraft it was 12 35 PM Perth time the red Shoreline of Australia's northern coast was now clearly coming into view on the horizon first officer lipsit then took his break heading back to his bunk outside the cockpit he would be returning to the fight deck just before the plane began its descent into Perth hails settled into his seat and once again there were two pilots at the controls suddenly the autopilot disconnected the captain grabbed his side stick and began flying the plane manually in the right hand seat Second Officer Hales canceled the arrow alert tone while the captain engaged the second autopilot a dizzying array of fault messages had appeared on the ecam but none of the primary instruments hinted at the nature of the problem then suddenly the stall warning sounded this is one of the most urgent warnings a pilot can hear it indicates that the plane is flying too slow and that the wings can no longer support the plane's weight in the air according to the computers fight72 was about to start falling towards the ocean the pilots were perplexed they hadn't changed anything with the plane and all of a sudden it was telling them that they were about to fall out of the sky how could this be happening then the captain noticed something even more troubling emblazoned on his primary flight display was a red overspeed warning this was impossible his aircraft was telling him that he was flying both too fast and too slow each of these were extremely serious warnings but they couldn't both be true the question was were either of them true the pilots needed to check their speed the captain looked at the speed tape on his primary flight display but the readings were all over the place it was as if his flight computers had lost their minds and what's more his altitude readings were erratic too this was truly bizarre altitude and speed information are the most critical things a pilot needs to know to control a plane Captain Sullivan knew that he was dealing with a problem which had been termed unreliable AirSpeed by Airbus this is not a diagnosis the computers can make themselves given that they are the ones that fault to begin with in this scenario it's up to the pilots to figure out that this is going on and to take the appropriate steps to resolve it the captain glanced over at the standby instruments which are there in case of exactly this kind of scenario the readings they were giving seemed much more plausible he cross-checked these against the second officer's instruments which were showing the same readings at least he knew that these two instruments were accurate it would be inconvenient but he would be able to fly just by using the standby instruments and the second officer's instruments but very quickly the captain could see that this situation wasn't the normal unreliable speed scenario that he had practiced many times in the simulator his navigation display had now gone blank whatever was happening the plane was much deeper than a faulty airspeed indicator Captain Sullivan told Hales to call the first officer back to the cockpit the crew would need all the brain power and experience they could get to figure out what was going wrong in the cabin the passengers and flight attendants were oblivious to the rising confusion on the flight deck none of the warnings burying in the cockpit were audible back there and the aircraft was still flying perfectly normally the meal service had just finished and some of the flight attendants had taken to their bunks to rest before the descent into Perth but the problems which had started in the cockpit were soon about to wreak havoc on the rest of the plane Captain Sullivan disconnected the autopilot without basic information like speed and altitude he didn't trust the autopilot to control the plane safely with his left hand on the side stick and his right hand on the thrust levers he kept the plane flying at 37 000 feet it's not designed to be flown manually up there you can you sad to be careful it's very very minute corrections but it's very Twitchy out there he was using the standby instruments and the first officer's displays to manage his speed and altitude something he likened to driving from the passenger seat no matter how often the first officer tried to silence the alarms they kept blaring the atmosphere inside the cockpit was stressful and confusing the Pilot's training for emergencies was extensive but they had never encountered or even heard of a situation like this they were now truly in Uncharted Territory so now we're left in the dark and we're in no man's land of automation failure because we can't interact the plane's not communicating with us What's it gonna do next the pilots were confused but the plane's computers were even more confused even though there was nothing wrong with the plane physically the computers believed it was in extreme Danger thankfully it was daytime outside and the pilots could clearly see that the aircraft was flying safely older Crews who experienced similar issues over the years were not so lucky but flight 72's look was now about to run out suddenly the nose of the plane dipped slightly the first officer who was in the Ford Galley felt a strange vibration through the floor and heard the engine power decrease the captain grabbed the controls tightly as soon as I felt that I put my hand on the stick didn't move it just had it there because it wasn't turbulence it wasn't anything I had done but the tail had just dipped a little bit then all of a sudden the aircraft violently pitched down the captain was nearly lifted out of his seat restrained only by his lap belt both Pilots braced themselves against the glare Shield as the plane lurched down heavy manuals and charts beside the Second Officer began to float up around him as the plane entered Zero Gravity he swatted them away towards the back of the cockpit Captain Sullivan was pulling fully back on his sidestick desperately trying to pull the plane out of its dive but the plane wasn't responding we're going down I'm pulling back nothing's happening now I go about we're in trouble in the cabin passengers and flight attendants who were not strapped in were flung to the ceiling their heads smashing through the plastic paneling passengers screamed as they were pinned to the ceiling along with luggage and meal trays the terrifying sight of the blue Indian Ocean filled the Pilot's windscreens the captain was helpless to stop the dive if this continued he and his 314 passengers and crew would soon be dead faced with this Terror Sullivan desperately searched his mind for a way out he had to wrestle back control of the plane somehow he had a flashback to his days flying fighter jets and an old trick occurred to him he did the most counter-intuitive thing possible and neutralized the controls but this did nothing the plane was still on a collision course with the ocean trying intensely to overcome the adrenaline coursing through his body the captain began making small movements on the side stick trying to coax the nose up finally it worked the nose started to rise the computers which had locked him out were now letting him back in but Captain Sullivan knew that behind him passengers were still pinned to the ceiling from the g-forces if he pulled up too quickly they would come crashing back down to the floor he carefully pulled back on his side stick slowly raising the nose the plane had dropped almost 700 feet in just a few seconds but when it started to level out the passengers were slammed back to the floor gingerly the captain started to climb his crippled aircraft back to 37 000 feet both Pilots were stunned Second Officer Hales asked what the hell had just happened the captain knew that there was only one possible culprit the prim is the name Airbus gives to the primary flight control computer these are the computers that mediate between the Pilot's inputs on the controls and the control surfaces themselves on the wings and the tail on an Airbus there are no mechanical connections between the Pilot's control stick and the control services who's moving those control surfaces the flight control computer that's the prim for some reason one of these computers had decided to send signals to the tail of the plane without any input from the pilots they had also decided to ignore the captain's commands to stop the tail from moving the prim had developed a mind of its own and it appeared to be determined to send the plane into the ocean why the plane's computers would do this was a complete mystery and worryingly this meant that there was no telling whether it would happen again rattled the captain temporarily handed Over Control to the Second Officer so that he could put on his shoulder harnesses it was beginning to look like you would need them in the passenger carbon it looked as if a bomb had gone off luggage meal trays and people were strewn everywhere bottles of red wine had smashed the contents pouring out over the cabin like pools of blood some passengers had been seriously injured with broken limbs While others had been knocked unconscious by their violent collision with the roof of the plane throughout the cabin people were screaming and moaning in the front Galley first officer Pete lipstead had Hit the Floor hard when the plane pulled out of its dive he was hurt but still conscious if the injection seats were fitted for the passengers and the crew it would have been fireworks people would have just been injecting themselves out of that plane because it was hell Captain Sullivan took control again once he had struck himself fully in both Pilot's bodies were surging with adrenaline after the life-threatening dive they had tunnel vision and were intently scanning their instruments looking for some clue as to what their deranged jet was doing this electrified State of Mind and Body known as the fight or flight response may have been helpful tens of thousands of years ago in the ancestral environment but in the cockpit of a modern passenger aircraft it would only hinder the Pilot's performance they now needed to fight back against their own bodily reactions so that they could manage this deadly situation 315 lives hung in the balance I got very angry and I channeled that anger into action I don't go crazy I just use that energy for higher workload Captain Sullivan encouraged hails to take some deep breaths both Pilots took a few seconds to do this and then hell's made a PA telling the passengers to be seated immediately the ecam was lit up with Amber fault messages maybe the pilots hoped they would be able to prevent a reoccurrence if they could just get through all of these alerts hails began dealing with them one by one while the captain continued flying the plane the Pilot's workload was immense even on a good day this would be a lot of issues to be dealing with but without being able to use the autopilot to ease his workload Captain Sullivan had to split his attention between flying the aircraft by hand at thirty seven thousand feet and monitoring his colleague as he reconfigured the aircraft's countless crippled systems at the same time Hales had to split his attention between carrying out the Ecom actions and making sure the captain was flying the plane safely and amid all of this the computerized warnings continued to Blair the cockpit was a hellscape loud distracting and confusing with paper manuals strewn everywhere and no indication as to what was actually happening [Music] as the captain continued climbing back to crew's altitude the Second Officer reached a critical point in one of the checklists it involved resetting Prim 3 one of the plane's primary flight control computers to check that this was safe to do the pilots would need to consult one of their paper manuals but these were strewn all over the cockpit floor as if to mirror the chaos in the aircraft systems the captain grabbed his version from beside him and handed it over to his colleague resetting the print computers is a procedure that Pilots had practiced before in the simulator now they were about to see how closely reality matched their training Second Officer Hales read the checklist out loud including its various cautionary messages and caveats and then with the nod from the captain he reached up raised the guard which covered the switch and reset it immediately the stall warning stopped and finally there was peace in the cockpit it was 12 45 PM Perth time and the plane was now back at 37 000 feet for the first time since the emergency began some semblance of normality had returned all the pilots needed now was for the first officer to return to the cockpit so that they could all formulate a plan together while they waited the captain opened the flight control system page on the ecam to see whether these systems were functioning normally according to the computers everything was in the green things were Beginning to Look up for flight 7-2 sold stalled but suddenly the stall warning sounded again the passengers screamed as the engine spooled down just like they did before the last dive and then it happened the nose dipped for a second time Sullivan pulled back fully on his side stick but again the aircraft wouldn't listen both Pilots were lifted up and pressed against their shoulder straps as the plane traveling at 800 kilometers per hour began powering towards the ocean for the second time passengers were lifted out of their seats and propelled into the ceiling glasses smashed and bags and rubbish began floating in midair the aircraft's deranged computers seemed hell-bent on driving everyone on board straight into the Indian Ocean the first officer was still in the Ford Galley holding on for dear life he needed to get back into the cockpit to find out what was going on again the captain released his grip on the controls and then gradually began making small backward movements on the side stick after an almost 400 foot drop the plane started to respond gradually Sullivan pulled the nose up he was trying to be as delicate as possible any sudden movements and he would seriously injure the unrestrained passengers as the plane recovered everyone in the passenger cabin had been lifted up was once again thrown back to the floor the cabin was now an even more disarray than it had been a few moments ago this was a dizzying disorientating and terrifying roller coaster nobody on board knew what was happening up front the two pilots were rattled the automation acted violently and erratically and we couldn't interact and that's the science fiction scenario it's you know I Robot we were passengers just like the people that had paid money to sit in the back the captain again encouraged the Second Officer to take deep breaths holding them in for a few seconds to subdue their bodies start a response this was a fight to the death and they had to be under a game as Sullivan continued the climb back to 37 000 feet he noticed that the trim wheel which normally moves automatically to relieve him from constantly needing to pull back during a climb wasn't moving this was strange the aircraft he was flying had now been reduced to a level of automation similar to the 1950s airplanes he had been trained on back when he had first learned how to fly this aircraft was seriously sick and what little automation was still working was trying to kill everyone on board the captain moved the trim wheel back manually as he climbed back up to cruise altitude making a mental note of how very degraded his aircraft had now become The Falls which had appeared on the Ecom the first time round now appeared again it seemed that resetting the computers had achieved nothing the stall and overspeed warnings continued to Blair and the pilots had now become sickened by the Dreadful powerlessness of their predicament [Music] as the first officer worked through the error messages again he saw the most ominous one of all Prim 3 the flight control computer that had failed the first time had failed again the Ecom was telling the pilots to reset the system the two men looked up at the switch which is now displaying its fault light they looked over at each other the last time they pressed this button the plane had gone berserk the Second Officer had his finger ready to press the switch and asked the captain to confirm that he should press it no don't with it said Sullivan this was one switch which was better left where it was and it's like no don't reset it now it's like I gave that dog a bone and it bit me yeah I'm not going to give that dog a bone anymore by this point the captain decided that he needed to reassure the passengers that he and his fellow Pilots were still alive functional and fighting against their deranged aircraft Sullivan made a quick PA to this effect and told the passengers to stay strapped in but just as the pilots thought that their situation couldn't get any worse the alert chime sounded and the master caution light lit up the pilots looked at the ecam and saw an Amber warning message which then disappeared as soon as they caught a glimpse of it then another chime and another alert which disappeared before their eyes then another and another plane was now having a complete meltdown the pilots couldn't trust the thing their computers were telling them like I was doing looking at the instruments like what's what's going on the things that I could look at weren't giving me the answers I needed to cancel out all of the warnings Second Officer Hales pressed the emergency cancel button on the forward pedestal but nothing happened he pressed it again and again but still the warnings continued this system too was computer controlled and it was just as confused as the rest of the aircraft the very systems which had been so meticulously designed to help the pilots had now become their worst enemy the plane was still two hours from Perth at this point keeping it in the air for that long was a terrifying Prospect one more dive and it might be their last the pilots again called the first officer back to the cockpit they desperately needed all the help they could get to manage their impossible situation within moments the first officer burst into the cockpit after the captain granted him entry he scrambled into his seat swapping out with the day's Second Officer hails lipsa told the other two pilots about the abysmal condition of the passenger carbon and said he thought that he had broken his nose which was now turning red but that problem could wait with the two most experienced Pilots now sitting at the controls of flight 7-2 they needed to devote all of their attention to the task at hand Captain Sullivan filled the first officer in on the situation while alarms rang out in the background he told him that the Dives were computer generated and that he couldn't stop them with his controls that's quite difficult again for him to come in regardless of his experience to sit down and now immediately be able to function he can't because he doesn't know what's happened and basically I said the plane pitched down I tried to stop it and I couldn't and you know it's like what lips had suggested that they declare an emergency to air traffic control and divert to lermuth a military Airfield about 150 kilometers from their current position Sullivan agreed the computers could send the plane into another dive at any moment they needed to get on the ground as soon as possible however the captain disagreed with lipsit that they needed to declare a mayday he decided that they would declare a pan instead a pan is the international signal that a flight has a serious issue but that the plane and the lives of its occupants are not at immediate risk a Mayday on the other hand tells the ground that there is a serious threat to life and that emergency assistance is required the captain was not yet aware of the full extent of the injuries to the passengers he needed more information before he could justify declaring a mayday first officer lipset called Melbourne air traffic control and advised them that they were experiencing fight control problems the passengers had been injured and that they needed to divert to Lerman the controller cleared them down to 35 000 feet and gave them permission to go directly to Lerman all the other pilots on the same frequency immediately wondered what could be happening flight control problems which were bad enough to injure passengers were a serious issue something big was unfolding out of the Northwest tip of Australia Captain Sullivan told the Second Officer to ask for an assessment of the injuries in the cabin if they're bad enough he would have cause to declare a Mayday which would mobilize the full complement of Emergency Services meanwhile he began turning the plane left towards lermanth this was an unfamiliar airport for the pilots by Chance the captain had been there once before for a day in 1981 when he was in the U.S Navy but he hadn't landed there himself this would be the first time that any of the flight crew had actually flown into the airport they needed to find out what they could expect when they got there how long was the runway which direction was it in and what was the best way to approach it Sullivan slowed the plane down to give the crew time to Cobble together their approach charts and make a plan for their arrival but at the same time they would have to be fast at any moment the manic computers could strike again [Music] a perfect balance had to be struck here spend too long preparing everything in the air and the pilots would risk entering another death dive but try and land too quickly and the aircraft might throw some nasty surprises at them as they lowered the flaps and the gear this was an unknown emergency not covered in any of the manuals the adrenaline in the cockpit was through the roof but the pilots went about their duties professionally and methodically this was the ultimate test of their skills experience and their ability to work under pressure flight 72 was now 80 kilometers from near month and the pilots began preparing a plan for their approach as the first officer tried to put Lerman into his fight management computer he found that it wasn't responding to his key presses this meant that he couldn't get the airport to appear on his navigation display nor could he work out the speeds and altitudes for their approach to the airport not for the first time today the pilots were thrown back decades to the bygone days of visual navigation they would have to find the airport out their windscreens and navigate to it that way it wasn't that this was particularly dangerous but it dramatically increased their workload and stress levels at a time when they were already close to Breaking Point in the passenger carbon the flight attendants who weren't themselves badly hurt were rushing around to help the injured one of these was off-duty flight attendant Diana Casey who had been heroically tending to the injured passengers all while her husband protected her two daughters she answered the second officer's call on the interphone and for the first time the pilots got a report of the injuries on board there were broken bones lacerations possible spinal injuries and even passengers hanging half out of the ceiling after bursting through it during the last dive immediately the pilots agreed that this called for a Mayday declaration the first officer radioed air traffic control with their Mayday saying that they had a significant number of serious injuries on board this activated a nationwide alert with emergency help coming in from far and wide to the remote airport of Lerman with their electronic charts not working the pilots began looking for their paper charts which were scattered across the cockpit floor as the stall and overspeed alarms blared they needed to locate the approach charge for lumoth amid the hundreds of pages in their massive folders as the first and second officer did this a new problem emerged which the pilots noticed when their ears started popping lipsa checked the carbon pressurization and sure enough the automatic system for controlling the carbon pressure had now failed too this meant that as the plane descended the pilots would have to control the cabin pressure manually constantly adjusting it so that the air stayed breathable it was as if the automation was playing a deadly game of spinning plates handing the pilots more and more plates until they all came crashing down Second Officer Hales volunteered to control the carbon pressure while the other Pilots dealt with navigating the stricken aircraft to the airport and setting it up for landing amid the cacophony of confusing alarms Captain Sullivan had to rely on the old flying principle of aviate navigate and communicate to prioritize his tasks if he could keep this Mantra running in his head he would be able to stay on top of the most important items while preventing the less urgent tasks from distracting him but in order to prioritize his tasks he first had to know what the aircraft's problems even were Sullivan and lipset methodically stepped through the almost innumerable items appearing on the ecam making a note of each one but with the state their plane was in was it possible that there were some problems that the computers weren't telling them about the last thing the crew wanted was a nasty surprise on Final Approach lipsit used the satellite phone to call the Qantas maintenance unit in Sydney the A330 being a modern aircraft constantly streams data to the airline's home base if there were additional problems not being shown to the pilots perhaps this maintenance unit could see them as ellipset called Sydney Second Officer Hales had found the charts for the airport now he would be able to help his colleagues plan their approach his assistance would be vital as the plane descended towards the airport Lerman had nowhere traffic control which meant that the pilots basically had to be their own controllers they had to look out for other air traffic and alert them to their own presence as they made their way in all three Pilots were carrying out their own duties while at the same time keeping an eye on each other I had to delegate Peter used his initiative Ross used his initiative and we would separate and come together and this was our CRM which is is pretty amazing for something like this how can I help how can I unload the captain what else can I do to enhance our operation they're working independently we come back together we talk about things we go back again that's pretty special to be able to do that this was teamwork at its finest but teamwork alone would not get the plane down safely at the back of Captain Sullivan's mind now creeping its way forwards was the possibility that low to the ground the plane would pitch down again this was The Nightmare scenario on Final Approach the plane wouldn't have enough altitude to recover from a dive Sullivan needed to minimize the chances that this would happen but if it did happen he needed to somehow maximize the chances of recovering from it for that he was betting on a last resort technique he learned as a fighter pilot which we'll see in a moment at this point Captain Sullivan told his colleagues to pause what they were doing he was now going to brief them on his plan it was vital that each pilot was on the same page as the plane got closer to the airport their workload would increase exponentially as with the consequences of another upset Sullivan's plan was to enter a holding pattern above the Airfield and to gradually descend to an altitude of 10 000 feet there the pilots would extend the flaps just as they would normally do at a much lower altitude for landing with the flaps extended Sullivan would check the controllability of the plane turning it left and right and ensuring that nothing unexpected happened if all went well the pilots would continue their descent and carry out an approaching landing on Runway 3-6 the Northerly Runway at Lerman the other two pilots agreed that this was a good plan the seriousness of their situation hit home again as if it wasn't already clear enough the ground was their enemy and yet it was where they had to go things were now about to start happening really quickly Captain Sullivan updated the passengers on his plan letting them know that he was aware that there were serious injuries on board and telling them that he intended to land in near month as soon as possible as the captain made this address the first officer was flying the plane he began announcing the flight's intentions to other aircraft over the radio without air traffic control to watch them or hear them the pilots were responsible for maintaining their own separation with other aircraft the plane was now over Lerman and the captain began circling he kept the runway in view out his left hand side without any electronic maps to help him this was the only way he could see where the airport was to the passengers the runway was a reassuring site but still so high above it they had the terrible sense of being so close and yet so far get that very thing being so far was exactly what the pilots needed for the next step in their plan Captain Sullivan was now about to test how the aircraft flew with the flaps extended if something were to go wrong it was much better that this happened at 10 000 feet than at one thousand feet on Final Approach the master caution chime continued to ring it took incredible concentration for the crew to continue ignoring this alarm which throughout their training they were told to treat with utmost importance first officer lips had continued pressing the emergency cancel button but it was as useless as ever Sullivan made the art joke to his colleagues trying to keep morale High but there was no denying the gravity of their situation [Music] while the captain had his hands full with the aircraft the first officer continued multitasking he was speaking to maintenance over the satellite phone he was providing headings and altitudes for the captain to follow who is broadcasting the plane's location to other aircraft on the frequency and at the same time he was monitoring the aircraft's distance from a ground-based radio Beacon to keep track of the plane's position seeing how much lips it had on his plate the captain decided that it was time to take some of it off he made the finger across the throat signal to his colleague signaling that he should end the call with maintenance they weren't going to be able to fix their problems at this point all three Pilots had to have their full attention on the task now at hand first officer lipsit began listing off the inoperative systems to the captain the list was overwhelming it would almost have been easier to list the things that were working and in fact that's what Captain Sullivan did he reminded himself that despite all of these inoperative systems he still had working engines landing gear and three working Pilots and those Pilots would be pushed to their limits on Landing for one thing they wouldn't be able to use the full flap setting which meant that their approach speed would be higher than normal second the automatic braking which applies the wheel brakes automatically on Landing wasn't working either that was okay the captain could just apply the brakes manually but he would have to be careful his plane was heavy if he brakes too hard on Landing the tires could deflate or explode on top of that some of the spoilers on the wings which helped the plane slow down on Landing weren't working all of this meant that the plane would use up a lot more Runway than usual however thankfully the runway at lurement was long barring any nasty surprises Sullivan should be able to bring the plane to a stop just to double check Second Officer hails input all of these limitations into the Pilot's so-called performance laptop which would calculate the plane's stopping distance down to the meter he was able to confirm what the crew had hoped even with its faults the plane had ample room to stop the first officer ran the calculation on the laptop himself too just to triple check and sure enough the A330 would be able to stop on the runway but with all of this discussion about Landing distances and inoperative systems the pilots were somewhat getting ahead of themselves now approaching 10 000 feet it was time to see how the plane would behave at lower speeds with the flaps extended just like the plane would be set up when coming into land the captain stopped the plane's descent as he reached 10 000 feet and asked the first officer to extend the flaps to the first notch three Pilots watched the e-com anxiously as it signaled the extension of the flaps Captain Sullivan held his side stick tightly readying himself for another pitch down but after a few seconds all was well the flaps were now at their first Notch and the plane was flying normally the pilots breathed a collective sigh of relief but it wasn't over yet lipset moved the flap lever to the second notch again the pilots waited and again all appeared normal the captain then needed to check that the plane could maneuver properly at this speed and flap setting he turned the plane to the left and then back to the right there were no unusual movements in the side stick and the plane was handling well the aircraft was as ready as it would ever be to make its approach into Lerman Captain Sullivan asked his colleagues if they were ready too and they were Sullivan pushed the nose down and began descending meanwhile lips has set a Target altitude of 3000 feet on the autopilot panel the captain would aim to be at this altitude 10 miles from the runway the tension in the cockpit was increasing as the plane descended if the aircraft nose down now it could spell disaster each pilot was scanning the instruments looking for any sign that the plane was deviating from its flight path the false stall warnings became even more concerning as the plane near the ground however unnerving they had been at altitude a stall warning close to the ground can easily be a death sentence the captain kept a close eye on the standby airspeed indicator while the first officer monitored his airspeed indicator it was very disconcerting to be on approach and the stall warnings going off is it real is it not have we missed something it's like pulling the pin and sit on a hanger date and sitting on it and like do I move if I move is that pancreat going to go off that uncertainty is huge at 27 minutes past one that afternoon Captain Sullivan lined the plane up with Runway 36 at Lerman they were on a 10 mile final at 3 000 feet first officer lipsit made a final broadcast to the other traffic in the area alerting them that an A330 was now about to land at Lerman he then made an announcement to the passengers telling them that Landing was imminent and that they needed to follow the crew's instructions in the cabin some passengers were praying and others were crying they could see out their Windows how close to the ground the plane now was in a few seconds it would all be over with the plane now closing in on the runway the first officer warned the captain that his speed was high Sullivan acknowledged this but a high speed was exactly what he wanted and needed if the plane's computers pushed the nose down now a high speed would make the control services more responsive he would need that responsiveness to recover the aircraft he also had a last resort technique he could draw on from his years of military flying if the plane entered another dive rather than trying to pull the nose up with the side stick which hadn't worked previously he would turn the plane onto its side and then stomp on the rudder to lift the nose in other words he would use the rotor as a kind of makeshift elevator it was a risky maneuver untested in a giant aircraft like the A330 but it was the plane's only hope Sullivan's Only Hope was that he wouldn't have to use this technique that was the last ditch like if all else fails I'm I'm already thinking this is the only other thing I can do what else can I do now getting close the pilots lowered the gear they watched anxiously as the gear extended and locked into place they were one step closer to getting there lipset then armed the ground supporters which would help the plane stop on the runway the tension was mounting as the plane got closer the ground was the only place they could be safe but at the same time it was the very thing threatening to kill them if the plane pitched down again the first officer lowered the third Notch of flaps and now the plane was fully configured for landing the captain readied himself adrenaline was coursing through his veins and he was poised to use all of it if the plane's nose dipped he made minor corrections to the plane's pitch using the side stick and to the power using the thrust levers no words were spoken as the plane crossed the runway threshold only the sound of the stall and overspeed warnings filled the cockpit the rear wheels touched down Captain Sullivan applied the brakes and lowered the nose in the back of the aircraft the passengers erupted into cheers and Applause flight 72 had landed the Pilots Taxi the aircraft back to the apron and shut down the engines but the ordeal wasn't over yet this was a remote Airfield with only two ambulances and a volunteer fire truck coming up to meet the aircraft of the 315 people on board 118 had been injured many of whom seriously in the hours that followed the most badly injured passengers were airlifted to hospitals in Perth incredibly given the sheer violence of the Maneuvers and the extent of many of the injuries everybody on board had survived but one question remained what on Earth had caused such a devastating loss of control day 330 had an excellent safety record one of the best of any airliner and it had a whole host of modern systems to improve safety but as it turned out it was exactly this modernness which spelled disaster on flight 7-2 an extensive and Incredibly detailed investigation into this accident was carried out by the Australian Transportation safety board by forensically examining the aircraft's computers they found that a glitch inside the CPU of one of the aircraft's computers caused them to generate a host of bad information which was then fed to the other aircraft systems these led to the erratic readings on the captain's airspeed indicator and altimeter as well as the flurry of ecam warnings crucially one consequence of this bad data was that it led the computers to interpret the aircraft's position as being 50 degrees nose up relative to the airflow this led the computers to push the nose down in order to save the plane in reality of course the plane was flying straight and level and the computers ended up pushing it down towards the ocean remarkably the initial cause of this glitch could not be determined everything from Hardware faults to electromagnetic interference and even cosmic rays was examined by the investigation team nonetheless in the days after the incident Eros came up with a procedure for Pilots to carry out if they experienced similar warnings to those which had occurred on flight 72. a number of other Crews actually came across the same issue in the following months and thankfully each of them was able to carry out this new procedure before they entered a dive the software in all a330s has since been modified so that this kind of junk data cannot lead to the violent Maneuvers which took place on Qantas 72. these changes have made flying safer in the years since but the recent crashes of two Boeing 737s due to software malfunctions shows that we're not out of the woods yet with the dawn of a new age of automation on the horizon thanks to recent developments in artificial intelligence we have to wonder about how manufacturers like Airbus and Boeing will balance the safety benefits of such technology with the new risks they introduce let's look at the world ahead automated Vehicles more Automation in airplanes artificial intelligence this is our future which is now you might think it's easier but now you're interacting with an exotic system that can fail in an exotic way is there a requirement to do it for safety or is it for market share I don't know if you'd like to watch the rest of my interview with Captain Sullivan then you can join these people here and join the patreon and I've put the link to that just on the bottom of the screen here patrons on the channel get lots of perks like this as well as Early Access to every video I make and as well as that it's a great way to support the channel also if you've watched a few of these videos you'll know that I don't really do any plugs or anything at the end but in this case the captain has actually written a book about his experience and I put the link to that in the description as well it's a fascinating story it's quite personal and harrowing in Parts but there's loads of detail in it that I just couldn't capture in the 50 or so minutes of this episode here so definitely check that out if you're interested in finding out more about this story so hope you enjoyed this one and I'll see you soon for the next episode

Channel: Green Dot Aviation

Views: 742,186

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Id: Qv00kZ0Av7U

Length: 51min 27sec (3087 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 13 2023