An Explosion On Board | FULL EPISODE | Mayday: Air Disaster

[Music] on december the 11th 1994 philippine airlines flight 434 is two hours into the second leg of a routine flight from manila to tokyo an unsuspecting passenger is sitting on a ticking bomb [Music] the explosion on board cripples the flight control system unless the pilot can regain control the jumbo jet may crash into the pacific ocean [Music] this is philippine airlines 434 a bomb has exploded on board bravo oscar mike bravo the bombing is a frightening new development by a terrorist on the cutting edge of science the way that the timing device was hidden inside the casio watch just made the whole the whole thing very concealable and very worrisome but this is more than the hunt for a terrorist bomber this is a story of how investigators make a shocking discovery the explosion on pal-434 is only a test for an attack on american carriers an attack that would dwarf every other terrorist atrocity at the time [Music] it's before sunrise on december the 11th 1994 while most inhabitants of this city of a million at a half have a few more hours to sleep 26 year old amaldo fulani makes an early start fulani is not his real name it's the alias he's chosen for today's mission he's actually from pakistan not italy he is putting his latest invention through an important test everything must go like clockwork in his line of work there's no room for error he is a highly skilled terrorist bomb builder [Music] he packs the liquid explosive bomb very carefully from his apartment downtown it takes less than 30 minutes to get to the airport he arrives in plenty of time for his 5am flight with philippine airlines before he can board the bomber must outwit airport security screening procedures he's designed the components of his bomb to pass undetected by x-ray and metal detection equipment or so he hopes he bought the ticket as amaldo forlani he's a skilled forger and he has made himself a fake italian passport with that identity if his cover is blown his career as a globe-trotting terrorist is over having successfully got the bomb through airport security he boards his philippine airlines flight the final destination of pal-434 is tokyo but there's a stopover in the philippine resort town of cebu over 550 kilometers to the south of manila this is as far as the bomber is flying today that's 10 000 feet and weather's still looking clear thanks dex i'm engaging autopilot good morning ladies and gentlemen this year captain ed reyes speaking welcome aboard flight 434 flying south from manila to cebu and continuing onward to narita airport tokyo flight 434 is under the command of captain ed reyes a former air force pilot who's been flying for philippine airlines for nine years and our estimated arrival time is now 5 45. the first leg of the flight is fairly empty passengers are scattered around the jumbo jets 400 seats after takeoff the bomber is able to move he chooses seat 26k located directly over the center fuel tank in some 747s the cabin is tended by stewardess maria de la cruz she flies domestic routes and has worked for philippine airlines for one year can i get you some juice or coffee now the bomber must find a vacant lavatory to assemble the explosive device arming the bomb only takes minutes but requires total concentration the final step is setting the timer so it will explode in four hours time long after he leaves the plane he hides the bomb in the life jacket pocket underneath his seat he then changes seats [Music] when she returns maria de la cruz notices that the roving passenger has moved seats again she will remember that he left his breakfast untouched and that the rest of the flight passed uneventfully [Music] as philippine airlines flight 434 begins its final approach into cebu more passengers are getting ready to board the aircraft that will take them onwards to tokyo [Music] prepare for landing common doors to automatic pal 434 lands in cebu at 6 50 a.m and several of the passengers disembark including the terrorist with the alias amaldo forlani maria de la cruz will also leave flight 434 a new cabin crew will take over for the four and a half hour flight to tokyo 256 new passengers board the 747 that arrived from manila many of the passengers in this cabin are japanese among them is 24 year old engineer haruki ikegami he's looking forward to getting home to tokyo after his first trip overseas [Music] airport congestion delays the departure by 38 minutes but the timer on the bomb under c26k continues to tick 8 30 a.m december the 11th 1994 all passengers for philippine airlines flight 434 are now on board for the leg to tokyo none of them is aware that two hours earlier a terrorist planted a time bomb under one of their seats steward fernando bayat is assisting passengers in the forward cabin on this four and a half hour flight at 8 38 pal-434 is cleared for takeoff on the flight deck captain ed reyes is assisted by first officer jaime herrera and systems engineer dexter commendador reyes and commendador are both former air force pilots [Music] haruki ikegami is seated in 26k the seat occupied by the bomber earlier on the first leg of flight 434 from manila to cebu several passengers in this cabin are co-workers traveling with a japanese tour group including kesuke aoki and masaharu [Music] i was reading a magazine then the meal was served after eating i went to sleep 31 year old yukihiko sui stayed up all night on the last day of his trip and he's ready to nap after breakfast he's sitting in row 27 one row behind the seat vacated by the bomber four hours earlier ladies and gentlemen speaking it's a beautiful day in tokyo sunny and 26 degrees i expect we'll be landing at narita airport in two hours time two hours into the flight pal 434 is cruising on autopilot 10 000 meters above minami daiito island southern japan to ease the pilot's workload the autopilot remains on throughout the flight keeping the aircraft on a constant heading at altitude [Music] god forgive me that was my inner thought you know god forgive me i think i'm going to die now then after that i had to do what i had to do oh i've lost control i have control decks check the presidentization loss be prepared check the qra although the autopilot instantly corrects the aircraft's bank to the right the effect of the blast is far from over there was a loud bang which woke me up i could feel the plane expanding from the pressure i saw smoke as well as debris falling like powdery the injured people were trying to get away from the area where the bomb was i stood up and saw that a lot of people were bleeding i thought my life was over the cabin crew's first priority is to stop passengers leaving their seats usually is sitting in the road directly behind the explosion both his legs are badly wounded stuart fernando bayat moves him away from the blast site [Music] now turns his attention to haruki ikegami he has been swallowed by the smoking hole where c26k used to be i saw this man only his head and his arms were peering out of the hole so i tried to pull him out after the struggle to lift him out bayat realizes that part of the lower half of ikagami's body is missing within a couple of minutes he dies the cabin crew do not want ikegami's death to panic passengers so they pretend to minister to him biot then reports to the captain [Music] captain okay keep the passengers calm make sure they stay in their seats there's been an explosion in road 26 one dead and several injured in the cabin's full of smoke there's a hole in the floor go inspect the damage dex yes sir reyes first concern is that the blast could make a hole in the aircraft's skin this would lead to sudden depressurization in the cabin and necessitate an emergency descent there was a huge gaping hole beside her and if a small tear in the skin of the aircraft was if there were a hole there it most probably would open up and then pull us out of the aircraft when i saw that there was no damage to the outer skin i went up and reported to the captain well we assumed that the pressurization system would hold immediately after the explosion the co-pilot steering wheel slams to the right and the aircraft banks in the same direction the autopilot immediately corrects the deviation but soon reyes discovers that the autopilot steering system is another victim of the blast then i said okay i'm going to try to turn the airplane using the autopilot but there was no reaction whether i tried it to make it go down or up or left and right turns no reaction i said now we have a problem this is not reyes only problem in the cabin one of the injured passengers needs urgent medical attention tokyo is still two and a half hours away and reyes decides to try and land at naha airport on the island of okinawa located 74 kilometers to the west he orders the co-pilot to make a mayday call yes sir [Music] pal 434 heavy declaring emergency explosion on board we have casualties requesting emergency landing at naha we will need full emergency services on landing please repeat say again pal 434 heavy declaring emergency explosion on board we have casualties request emergency landing at naha we will need full emergency getting the japanese air traffic controller to understand the emergency proves to be difficult this is philippine airlines 434 flight level 3-3-0 a bomb has exploded on board bravo oscar mike bravo bomb explosion request emergency landing at naha and there was silence then the controller came in another control an american okay philippine 434 i'm taking over the american air traffic controller is from an american base on okinawa turn left heading no i shut back uh we cannot turn at this moment yet we will tell you when we are starting to turn towards naha we have problems with our flight controls ladies and gentlemen this is your captain speaking we will be making an early landing at naha airport in okinawa we'll be landing as soon as possible so please remain in your seat with your seatbelt fastened but landing at naha is easier said than done the autopilot is not responding to any of reyes commands and pal 434 is heading straight past okinawa reyes must find a way to steer if he is to have any chance of landing safely but disengaging the autopilot might result in losing what minimal control he still has over the aircraft okay let's keep the seat belt sign on when we disengage the autopilot we might lose control so be ready since the autopilot won't react to any inputs that i make i was scared if i disengage the autopilot the aircraft might make a sudden bang to the right that we might not be able to control at the count of three i'll disengage one two three one two three nothing happened and then there was we were relieved i can't turn using the controls looks like the explosion jammed the hell around dex what's the qrh say about jammed ailerons the qrh or quick reference handbook is the pilot's bible that lists procedures that must be followed in emergency situations jammed flight controls use maximum force possible including both pilots if required okay let's force it reyes tries brute force to activate the ailerons the panels on each wing which turn the aircraft since the explosion he can only fly straight i'm not getting anything from the ailerons can't get off this heading all right okay re-engage the autopilot while i work out our options it's taking much longer to land than was announced we were told it would only be 20 minutes but it was really one hour before we landed it was very frightening although they survived the bombing passengers are now getting anxious about landing safely at naha airport since there was so much time before landing i started writing a will i wrote the will to my son telling him to be strong as pal 434 looks like missing naha airport reyes comes up with another plan we gotta turn we'll have to use differential power disengage auto throttle pull back three and four captain reyes increases thrust to the engines on the left-hand side of the plane and reduces power to the engines on the right very slowly the aircraft starts to circle right he then lowers his speed to make a smaller radius turn with guidance from air traffic control reyes hopes that the maneuver will eventually line up with the runway at naha so while we were descending on low speed i tried to test the flight controls and there as there are some little reactions the elevator is beginning to respond the elevator is a control that makes the plane ascend and descend 250 knots flaps one on speed in order to land safely reyes will need at least minimal control over the elevator and rudder as pal 434 nears naha he continues to reduce his airspeed flap stand set speed two to five okay she's turning sir if we reduce our weight we will be able to reduce our approach and landing speeds suggest we don't fuel reyes orders the systems engineer to dump 36 tons of fuel less fuel means less strain on landing gear and breaks a touchdown check i was terrified when i saw the smoke trail behind each wing i thought something must be burning and there would be another explosion as the time to touchdown gets closer reyes worries that the bomb may have done more as yet unknown damage to the aircraft i'm not certain our landing gear will hold up strap yourself in the cursor so he talked to the head of the cabin crew and he said we're not sure if the gears will go down and in case the gears collapse while landing be ready to evacuate it's either you you make it or you die that's because you cannot do anything anymore runway in sight with only minimal control over the aircraft reyes faces the most challenging landing of his career [Music] 10 000 meters above the pacific ocean on a flight from the philippines to tokyo a terrorist bomb cripples the flight controls of a jumbo jet as pal 434 starts its final approach the 292 people on board are pinning their hopes of survival on the skill of captain ed reyes i know all everybody was scared we are all scared i know that gear down the gears were supposed to come down a few seconds but that was the longest second that because we were waiting for the greens to come on take a long time it took a long time it was a long few seconds until it when it locked three green sir hey i'm disconnecting the autopilot and landing manually okay dex monitor my descent rate call altitude and speed flaps 30. okay 500 feet on course flash 30 set help me with the elevator when i say push i want you to push okay 200 slightly left correcting push 100 50 30. power off your last command was pulled yeah i made sure that the throttles were closed because he might give a go around and i would make sure that we would stay underground okay oh ladies and gentlemen this is captain speaking we'd like to thank you for your cooperation your patience emergency crews are on their way we'll try and get you out of here as soon as possible thank you [Music] the philippine airlines 747 is now a crime scene under japanese jurisdiction as investigators from the okinawa police department set out to solve the mystery of what happened they turned their attention first to the dead man in c26k the forensic pathologist recovered 94 fragments embedded in ikagami's buttocks by the explosion he suffered severe internal injuries and massive loss of blood but tragic as it was the effects of the explosion could have been much worse if the explosion had been sideways it would have blown a hole in the plane and caused an air pressure problem in a sense it was good that the blast was vertical but we have to remember the victim he died to save the rest of us ikegami's body bore the brunt of the upward blast but the explosion severed the steel cables in the ceiling that control the rudder and elevator the charge also severed the co-pilot's control cable to the right aileron one of the control surfaces on the wing which make an aircraft bank and turn the downward force blew a hole in the floor and could have ignited the vapors in the center fuel tank creating a catastrophic explosion but by chance on december the 11th c26k was not located above the tank [Music] fortunately for us we took a different version the sas version of the 747 that day and that specific seat for that version was two seats forward of the center tent the okinawa forensic investigators immediately start work collecting evidence from the bomb site they begin with the largest fragments of debris and then systematically work down until the smallest particles are retrieved by vacuum cleaner japanese investigators cannot identify the bombs detonator but by separating out bits of metal plastic and electrical wire that do not belong to the plane components of the bomb are pieced together [Music] one forensic investigator is able to identify the bomb's timer by reconstituting dozens of burnt fragments he discovers it's a modified digital wristwatch investigators also discover that one of the bomb's 9-volt batteries is only sold in the philippines it's another clue that suggests that the bomber could be based there philippine national police deputy chief sunny razon is on the case in the later part of 1994 we already started to receive information intelligence reports that there were middle eastern personalities that were here already in the philippines on the night of january the 6th 1995 almost four weeks after the bombing of pal 434 the philippine police get a lucky break in his manila apartment the pal-434 bomber has enlisted the help of an accomplice to mass produce his new undetectable bomb an attempt to burn off chemicals gets out of hand acrid smelling smoke spills out of the apartment [Music] it attracts the attention of the doorman who comes to investigate what's going on uh we play them with some fireworks but it's okay we put them out and we have all the windows open inside and we keep the door closed it would be fine okay yeah you all opened it up if we open the door the smoke come in the hallway keep it closed to go out the window okay it's okay it's okay until the smoke dissipates the bombers decide to wait outside the apartment the doorman isn't convinced by their playing with fireworks story and he calls the fire department and the police by the time the firemen come the smoke is gone and they leave after a quick check the bomber now realizes he's left a very sensitive item in the apartment and he persuades his friend to retrieve his laptop he was too clever a guy to come back and expose himself because all along he knew that that would be too risky for him to go back and be caught the bomber's fear of getting caught is justified once police inspector ada fareskal learns that they're from pakistan she insists on seeing their room for herself the police in manila are on high alert due to a planned visit by the pope in a few days what inspector farriskal finds confirms her worst fears about the intentions of the tenants you know stop [Music] [Music] the shot distracts the apprentice and he trips over a fallen palm tree but the cop discovers he has no handcuffs the doorman improvises with the drawstrings of his windbreaker in the meantime the bomber vanishes one of the first senior officers to arrive at his apartment is sunny raisin incident at the dona joseph apartment was the breakthrough in opening our eyes that the al-qaeda terrorist cell was already operating here in the philippines the philippine national police know they've stumbled onto something big and they inform interpol scotland yard and the fbi when news of the raid reaches the joint terrorism task force in new york it immediately grabs the attention of fbi special agent frank pellegrino for two years he has been hunting a terrorist called ramsay youssef and it looks as if this might be his man well he was always off focus since 93 i mean at the time that was the you know he was the biggest fugitive around as philippine police comb through the apartment they begin to find more evidence tying youssef to the bombing of pal434 [Music] there was a similarity between the watches that were found in the apartment and the type of watch that was used in okinawa putting together that that watch that was the watch that was on the bomb on that flight 434 and identifying those pieces eventually as a casio watch you know it was amazing youssef is a skilled forger investigators find several identification cards bearing various names and photos in each of which he looks quite different [Music] one id card is of particular interest so almost there's a dig to us this you know the id card used the first world trade center bombing date as the date that the card was issued so we knew right away it was was joseph that was had been in the apartment they knew chemicals the chemical dictionary was a very well used item underlined highlighted well-read notations throughout the book something that he used quite often and uh you know i don't remember the exact number i think there might have been 100 latent prints found on that that belonged to him they knew electronics the way that the timing device was hidden inside the casio watch just made the whole the whole thing very concealable and very worrisome the identification of the bomber of pal 434 and the discovery of his bomb factory is very disturbing news for those responsible for airline passenger safety ramsay youssef is an international terrorist who knows how to get his bombs past airport security bombs that are small but if strategically located can blow up a jumbo jet and kill not just one but hundreds of people and the bomber of pal-434 is still on the loose the philippine national police have stumbled on the hideout of an international terrorist the fbi identified him as ramsay youssef evidence that amaldo fulani the man who planted the bomb on pal 434 is the same person as ramsay youssef comes from the travel agent who sold him the philippine airlines ticket [Music] ramsay youssef is just one of several aliases of a man who tops the fbi's most wanted list an international terrorist with a two million dollar bounty on his head [Music] youssef whose real name is probably abdul karim was born and raised in kuwait where his father worked as an engineer it was there that he met the friend that he enlisted to help him in the manila bomb factory when he was 18 youssef's family returned to their pakistan homeland yusef married and had two children soon after returning home his parents sent him to study in britain he was taking classes both in engineering and in using the computer so he definitely has some talent in summer breaks from college in the late 1980s youssef returns to pakistan he puts his new engineering skills to use by teaching bomb making to militants in training camps near peshwa pakistan these camps are fertile ground for making contacts with militants [Music] worldwide [Music] in september 1992 youssef flies from pakistan to new york to prepare for a major terrorist attack on arrival at jfk he presents a fake iraqi passport and asks for political asylum from saddam hussein the ploy works and he's allowed to enter the country [Music] six months later on february 26 1993 one of the largest homemade bombs in american history explodes in the garage below the world trade center killing six people injuring hundreds and causing 500 million dollars worth of damage that night youssef is on a plane back to his home in pakistan he was an action figure he wanted to keep doing things he wasn't happy with the one success he had 18 months after the world trade center attack yusef flies to manila to fine-tune the bomb that he plants on pal-434 according to sunny razon the philippine capital suits him come see yourself loved to enjoy life he was a he is a ladies man he associated himself with a lot of girlfriends and he liked to party [Music] he also drunk a lot and he enjoyed the life terrorism they are your normal day-to-day people the guy next door after the bombing of pal 434 youssef arranges for his childhood friend abdul hakim murad to assist him in manila but on january the 6th 1995 two weeks after his arrival murad is arrested and sent to the philippine police headquarters for interrogation it took 67 days to extract the details of how yusef planted the bomb my impressions of him was that i was strong-willed he was determined initially he did not break down in questioning and it was only when the fbi team that came in and provided us with additional information or pieces of the puzzle that we did not have that he started to talk tiny chemical traces of the explosive were found on pal 434 and murad eventually admits that yusef uses liquid nitroglycerin that he's stabilized and concealed in a bottle of contact lens solution murad also reveals that youssef hid the bomb's potentially suspicious components in the heel of his shoes most airport security systems only detect metal above the ankles i bet you he was cool as could be he was somewhat uh cavalier in his attitude towards these explosives and chemicals to carry a container of nitroglycerin on an airplane and you know maybe a little nuts murad's confession provides details of youssef's actions after he successfully got the bomb components past airport security can i get you some juice or coffee yousef designed the device so the innocent looking components can be quickly transformed into a lethal bomb [Music] youssef has modified a digital wristwatch as the bomb's timer this is wired to a detonator inside the bottle of nitroglycerin [Music] two 9-volt batteries provide an additional electric charge to the exposed filament of a light bulb that will spark the explosion yusef sets the alarm for four hours later when he anticipates the plane will be flying high over the pacific ocean yusef plants the bomb in a life vest pouch under his seat a place ground crews are unlikely to inspect during the stopover in cebu soon after he gets off the plane and disappears [Music] four hours later the time bomb under c26k awakes the airline industry to a new kind of terrorism [Music] murad's confession confirms pellegrino's suspicions this is just the kind of sophisticated plot he has come to expect from ramsay youssef but pellegrino is still shocked by what murad says next pal 434 was only a test a dry run for a much larger terrorist plot that will kill thousands of airline passengers a highly skilled terrorist ramza youssef has already set off a new type of bomb on an aircraft now the fbi discovers youssef wants to blow up more planes and he continues to evade capture fbi investigators find evidence of youssef's meticulous planning on secret files on the laptop that he so desperately wanted his accomplice to retrieve on the laptop computer found in the joseph apartment building was a file which laid out a plan for five individuals using code names individuals not mentioned on the plan to board about three planes each two planes a couple people have three planes planting bombs on the planes uh and then returning back to their home hoping when they planted the bombs and with the timing devices if everything went well all bombs would go off within about a six-hour time period any more than one would have been been an airline disaster so you know if they were 50 successful in their plan i think it would have scared a lot of people for a long time the file on yousef's laptop reveals that the plan codenamed bojinka is foiled with no time to spare the bombing of 12 american planes is meant to kill 4 000 passengers youssef's campaign of terror against the airlines is scheduled to start less than two weeks after the bust of his bomb factory in manila by the time pellegrino and the fbi team arrive in the philippines yousef is long gone so it was a worrying it was a missed opportunity but we we also on a lot of these fugitive type cases you know we're all not that different and everybody goes home everybody needs to go home and so the investigation again would focus back to pakistan the fbi immediately begin a publicity campaign in pakistan promoting their 2 million reward for assistance in arresting yusef the strategy works yusuf's latest recruit for yet another airline bombing blows the whistle on the day yusuf is due to leave his hotel in islamabad at pakistani swat team moves in [Music] in yusuf's room are delta and united airlines flight schedules as well as bomb components hidden in children's toys the informer receives the two million dollar bounty for the tip-off which prevents yet another airline attack [Music] he was shocked did not think he would be he would be caught he had a certain confidence about him and i didn't think he thought we'd ever catch up to him within hours of his capture youssef is extradited from pakistan and put on a waiting us government plane with the cooperation of the japanese and philippine governments the fbi arranged for yousef to stand trial in new york city for the pal 434 bombing as well as the earlier 1993 attack on the world trade center in a convoy of federal and local patrol cars ramsey ahmed youssef was brought into new york city late wednesday night ending at worldwide manhunt he was arrested tuesday in pakistan by pakistani authorities and brought back by the fbi on a u.s plane then into custody with heavy security on the street in case of any terrorist attacks prompted by his arrest at his trial a year later in new york southern district court youssef decides to handle his own defense against the advice of the judge he performs better than expected but he's found guilty on all charges related to the bombing of pal-434 and conspiring to bomb 12 american passenger planes youssef is also found guilty in a second trial for the world trade center bombing in his final summing up youssef justifies his actions yes i am a terrorist and proud of it and i only support terrorism so long as it's against the united states government and against israel because you are more than terrorists although pakistani yusef describes himself as palestinian by choice and he justifies the pal 434 and world trade center bombings as punishment for a u.s foreign policy that favors israel over palestine for both crimes he's sentenced to 240 years in prison the judge recommends solitary confinement for life in the most secure prison in the united states located in florence colorado it houses the country's most violent and dangerous prisoners and it's where youssef will spend the rest of his life confined in a cell for up to 23 out of every 24 hours we cannot afford to just sit down and count our victories with the arrest of ramsey youssef somebody else has already replaced him and somebody else is already thinking of how to circumvent these security measures that we put up in the year following yousef's attack on pal 434 the federal aviation administration certified a machine to detect explosives not one american carrier bought it only after 9 11 was a law passed that required u.s airports to deploy explosive detection systems but the most reliable models are expensive or too slow and still not widely employed well they were still saying you know we have to be right 100 of the time terrorist only has to be right once although there hasn't been a successful airliner bombing since pal-434 those who forget the past may be destined to revisit it you

Channel: Mayday: Air Disaster

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Id: KGbphrJNVwE

Length: 49min 18sec (2958 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 09 2021