- It's okay, let's just do it slowly. - [Narrator] Did the pilots understand the flight system's well enough? Only the voice recorder
can provide answers. (plane engine roaring) (man screaming) Captain Kevin Stables is preparing to pilot Emery Worldwide Flight 17. His first officer is George Land. They're hauling freight
across the country aboard a 30-year-old DC-8 cargo plane. - Hi there. Is that the load plan? - Just before they finished up loading the last couple of containers, they would us give us a list
of all the freight containers and how much it weighed and what position on the airplane it was. - There you go, boss. - And we take that information and we would calculate
the weight and balance on the airplane and make
sure that it was all correct. (airplane engine roaring) - Airspeeds alive.
- Alive here. - 80 knots. - 80 knots. Elevator checks. - [Narrator] Just another routine takeoff. - V1. Rotate. - [Narrator] But as the nose
wheel leaves the ground, the DC-8 pitches upward much
more steeply than it should. - Watch the tail. - They recognized that they have an issue during the course of the airplane actually starting to rotate
as it lifts off the runway. - V2, positive rate. - [Narrator] The sudden
takeoff is quickly followed by an uncommanded left bank. - I got it.
- You got it? - Yep. - [Narrator] This is anything but routine. - We're going back. - What the hell? - The center of gravity
is way out of limits. - [Narrator] They need
to return to the airport as quickly as possible. - [George] Emery 17 emergency. - Emery 17, say again. - When a pilot declares an emergency, that really queues an air
traffic controller to know that this isn't just
an abnormal situation. This is a critical situation. - [Narrator] The ground proximity
warning begins to sound. - [Computer] Pull up. - We're sinking, we're going down guys. - All right, all right. - Okay, we're going back up. - [Narrator] The DC-8
starts climbing again. - Roll out, roll out! - [Narrator] But the pilots are still struggling for control. - Emery 17, extreme balance problem - Emery 17, roger. - The airplane started to go into these big perturbations dive and then
climb, dive, and then climb. - [Narrator] They push
their control columns all the way forward in a desperate effort to level the plane. - Power. - More? - Yeah. - Captain Stables and
his crew had managed to get their crippled plane to
within inside of the runway. - It was running very well, they made it almost all the way around to the backside of the airport. - They knew if they could
get back to the airport there was gonna be crash fire rescue that would have been
able then to help them. - [Narrator] They've now
got less than a mile to go. - They're still trying to
look ahead to figure out what needs to be done next. But they know that sooner or later they got to get on the ground. (blast sounds) - [Narrator] Emory Flight 17 has crashed into a car scrapyard one mile East of Sacramento's major airport. (ambulance siren sounds) All three crew members are dead. The job of figuring out why this happened now falls to the National
Transportation Safety Board. - Hey, this place is a mess. - Yeah. - [Narrator] With so much fire damage and thousands of car parts on site, just finding the airplane wreckage is going to be a huge challenge. The NTSB is John Goglia
helps lead the effort. - Put this in the plain
bin for me, please. - The mechanical pieces
especially after they're burned is very difficult to tell
a piece from an automobile from a piece from an airplane. So I looked at the scene and said, "Wow, we got a real
tiger by the tail here." - [Narrator] Investigators
will have to sift through a debris field about 450 feet wide and a quarter of a mile long. - That looks like a wiring from a car. - [Narrator] The team
soon makes a crucial find, the most important items of evidence in any air crash investigation. - Well done guys. - We did find both the
cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder, which actually sped up that
part of the investigation 'cause we could send those two boxes back on the airplane that we had flown in on. - [Narrator] The NTSB sends
the critical recording devices to Washington, where lab
technicians can begin the job of processing the data. At the same time, investigators hunt down as much other evidence as they can. They learn that flight 17 was carrying nothing unusual, mostly clothing. But they wonder, did the
positioning of the freight cause a dangerous imbalance? - If you look at an airplane, there is a point in the
middle of the airplane that is the center and
everything flows around it. So if you have too much
weight in the back, right? The center of gravity is
gonna shift to the rear and the airplane is gonna fly differently. - All right, this looks a
little lighter than usual but as well within the
center of gravity limits. - [Narrator] Load distribution
was not the culprit. Something else must have caused the crash. The team is soon chasing a new lead. Past complaints to the
FAA from Emery pilots. It seems some pilots were worried about how the company was securing its cargo. They reported seeing
frayed straps and netting. - You know, if Emery was lax
with their loading practices the load could have shifted. What if the cargo wasn't properly secured? - [Narrator] They examined cargo fasteners recovered from the wreckage. If there was a load
shift, the metal clamps known as bear claws should
display distinct damage. - All right, let's take
a look at these things. - When we're looking at these bear claws we're looking for physical evidence. That is if the pallet was clamped in place and the energy from the impact pushed it, it would typically break
it or leave a witness mark or impact mark. - [Narrator] They find no such evidence. - All of these restraints look just fine. The thing is if there wasn't
a problem in the cargo hold, why were the pilots reporting a problem with their center of gravity? Is that the CVR? Oh, finally. All right, let's do this. - [Narrator] They hope
the cockpit voice recorder from Emery Flight 17 will
provide some answers. (soft beat music) TransAsia Flight 222 has crashed
into the village of Shishi less than a mile from
the Taiwanese Airport where it was scheduled to land. Time when this rescuers
race to the crash site of TransAsia Flight 222. They soon discover that of the
58 people who were on board, 48 are dead. At Investigation headquarters in Taipei, the team begins sorting
evidence while they wait to see what the black box data will reveal about the TransAsia crash. - What have you found? - [Narrator] But already media reports are filled with speculation. - People are saying that the
typhoon caused the crash. - Well, let's see what
effect the typhoon had. - [Narrator] They need to
know how the distant typhoon was affecting airport weather conditions at the moment of the crash. They take a closer look
at the weather data. - Wind speed 11 knots. Gusting to 21 knots. But within the operational
limits of the aircraft. - [Narrator] They calculate that winds may have been strong enough to push the commuter plane off course but not enough to cause
a catastrophic upset. - What about the visibility? - I've got images from
the airport at that time? - Visibility will be a very key issue for us to understand
whether the flight crew can visually locate the runway or not. - [Narrator] They know, that TransAsia 222 crashed at 7:06 PM. The airport images from
just before that time reveal some stunning evidence. - It's starting to be
more than just spraying that's a serious storm. - After seven, o'clock
start to getting stronger. We got heavy rain shower
and the visibility decrease very quickly just after seven o'clock. (plane engine roaring) - [Narrator] Pilots are
required to have a minimum range of clear visibility in order to land. Investigators estimate that
at the time of the crash visibility was so limited
the TransAsia crew would not have been able to see the runway until they were practically on top of it. - Visibility can be more than
a couple of hundred meters. How could they have been allowed to land? - [Narrator] TransAsia
Flight 222 has crashed into the village of Shishi less than a mile from
the Taiwanese Airport where it was scheduled to land. The team begins sorting evidence while they wait to see what
the black box data will reveal about the TransAsia crash. At a nearby hangar, investigators
sift through the remains of TransAsia Flight 222. They're looking for any
sign of a mechanical fault. Anything that could
explain why the aircraft veered off course and
crashed short of the runway. - So we check all the control service and the control linkage and
we check the power plan. - [Narrator] They find nothing that points to a control service
having failed in flight. Both of the turboprop engines appear to be mechanically sound and their electronic
circuitry all looks normal. - But we find there is
no evidence to show that there is an existing mechanical
problem or any problem. - [Narrator] The careful
analysis leaves no doubt. Flight 222 was not brought down by a mechanical or systems failure. Investigators are going
to need another theory. (soft beat music) Air crash investigators in
Dallas are trying to figure out why Delta Airlines Flight
1141 crashed on takeoff. - There was a lot of traffic
at Dallas Fort worth. We could be looking at a Wingtip vortices. - [Narrator] Wingtip
vortices are spirals of air that trail off the tips
of an airplane's wings. The heavier the plane,
the bigger the vortex. These tornado like winds can
sometimes be strong enough to pose an invisible
hazard to other planes. Was flight 1141 cleared
for takeoff too soon? Bringing it too close to the plane ahead. Air traffic records show
that the plane that took off just before flight 1141 was
Delta Airlines Flight 1486, another Boeing 727. - They get takeoff clearance at 8:59:17. - In this case, we did
calculate the probable location of the Wingtip vortices for the airplanes that were nearest to
the accident airplane. - By then the other Delta
plane was off the ground and already 7,000 feet ahead of them. - [Narrator] Investigators
know that the minimum federal aviation authority requirement for separation between
flights is 6,000 feet. We found that even assuming the vortices stayed as strong as
they could possibly stay and that they moved in a manner that put them as close as possible
to the accident airplane, that they would still be
a significant distance away from the accident aircraft. - [Narrator] The failed
takeoff of Delta 1141 is still a mystery. Crash side records of
Delta Airlines Flight 1141 suggests the 727 may not have been properly configured for takeoff. - Are you ready? - [Narrator] But is there
anything on the recording that can back up that theory? - [Man] I forgot to get my
paycheck, did you get yours? - [Man] Yeah, I got mine. - They should be focused on the flight and not talking about paychecks. - Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, we are now preparing for departure. Flight attendants,
prepare the cabin, please. - We are ready. - Thank you. - So far, they've heard nothing about the flap configuration. But what they hear next,
is another surprise. - We might as well start. Number start (indistinct). - 141 taxi to position
runway 18 left on hold. - Okay, 1141 position unhold. - Hold up a minute, stop. Here is where the controller
bumps them into first position and they've just restarted the engine. - So they did get a little rush there and it was attributed to
having the flight attendant in the cockpit and the
casual conversations that were going on. And they hit all the
items on the checklist. They could go right down the checklist and they got them all. - [Narrator] Once again, the
no flaps theory is in question. But investigators may
have a way to resolve the flap issue once and for all. - Let's dig up the Jack screw. Oh, perfect. - [Narrator] A device called a Jack screw is an integral part of the flap system. As it turns, it moves a nut that extends or retracts the flaps. It's the conclusive proof they need. The flaps were not
extended before takeoff. But the finding leaves them
with another puzzling question. - So why did the pilots
think they were extended? Let's go back to the start
of the takeoff checklist. - [Narrator] The team returns
to the cockpit recording, hoping to hear something that might explain that discrepancy. (suspenseful music) - They're on. - Flaps. - 15, 15 green light self controls, taps and bands are checked. They're set. Take off briefing is complete. - There was less than one
second between the flaps call and his response. There is no way he had time to check and see if the flaps were actually out. - [Narrator] Investigators are convinced despite his response, the first officer could not have extended or even checked the flaps
in the time available. The mystery of the
flaps is finally solved. A rushed checklist led
the Delta pilots to think that their plane was ready for takeoff when it was anything but. There's still one critical question. - The alarm would have saved them. Why didn't it sound? - [Narrator] Days after
the crash of Flight MH17 in Eastern Ukraine, Dutch investigators
are nowhere to be seen. Without access to the wreckage they risk losing crucial evidence. Despite the setback, the Dutch team refuses
to let any speculation about the crash affect
their investigation. - Best bet. - It was shot down. Proving it without any
wreckage is nearly impossible. - [Narrator] They may be able to disprove other theories being floated in the media speculation that flight MH17 may have encountered severe weather or a technical malfunction
or some other rare calamity. - Okay, let's start eliminating
other possibilities. And we'll see what we're left with. - We started from square one and we look to all the possibilities one by one in a very structural manner. - Let's zoom into the crush area. 'Cause this is MH17 intended flight path. Now this is the weather
at the time of the crash. What about lightening? Let's check the HTC reports. Oh, look here. This is their intended
path right into the storm but they requested a deviation. - The crew circumnavigated in the storm which is a normal operational action. - They bypass the storm. It wasn't lightening. Did you figure the maintenance truckers? These are some of the cleanest
accruing supports I've seen but tapping the logs the same. This was a well-maintained airplane. - We didn't find any worthiness
or maintenance factors that could have factored
in the investigation. - [Narrator] They even look
into the remote possibility that MH17 was hit by a meteor. - If it was brought down by a meteor, this is how we'll know. Ultra noise from the day of the crash. - [Narrator] Ultra noise
is a distinct sound wave that can be measured
when a meteor decelerates as it enters the earth's upper atmosphere. - It could happen once every 60,000 years. It is possible. Except not this time. There was no meteor
activity that day, at all. - [Narrator] Three possible
causes, no likely explanations for what brought down MH17. - Those were all excluded
because of the evidence we found that did not match the expected
evidence that you would see with these kinds of possible causes. - [Narrator] Investigators
will need to see the wreckage, but so far they still haven't
been able to gain access to the crash sites. In Jakarta the search for answer as to what brought down a
quad demonstration flight takes investigators to
air traffic control. - So can you tell me what happened? - Well they were just supposed
to do a 30 minute loop but then before I knew it, they
had disappeared from radar. - So why did they end up at Mt. Salak? - I don't know. - But weren't you supposed
to be monitoring them? - I was so busy. I lost track of the plane. - Investigators learn that the controller had an exceptionally heavy workload. He was monitoring about a dozen flights. - EY7136, clear to land. JT792 continue approach to runway 24. - [Narrator] Making matters worse, both his assistant and his supervisor were absent that shift. He was doing three jobs. - Why did you clear them
to fly at 6,000 feet? You must have known they would
never clear the mountain. - My system said it was a military jet. - [Narrator] Investigators discover that the airport status
system had incorrectly labeled the plane is
SU30, which identifies it as a Sukhoi military aircraft. - Military can fly pretty
much as low as they want. - Jakarta controls Sukhoi 36801, requesting to descend at 6,000. - [Narrator] When the
pilots requested a descent, the controller assumed they were heading for a military training area in Bogor right along the Sukhoi flight path. - Sukhoi 36801, clear to 6000 feet. EY7136, clear to land. JT792, continue approach to runway 24. - The ATC thought that it
was a military aircraft flying in the military airspace. So 6,000 is not a concern for them. - But I still don't understand why was the plane so far off course? - That's a good question. I really don't know. - I wanna know more about
how this TAWS system works. - [Narrator] The investigative
spotlight now shines on one of the Sukhoi super jets most important safety systems. It's called TAWS, terrain
awareness and warning system. Using GPS, it tracks the planes heading and predicts when it's at risk
of colliding with terrain. It's designed to alert pilots
in plenty of time to respond. - I think the system somehow failed. - [Narrator] While investigators wait for the cockpit voice recorder, they start with a flight data recorder which was recovered 21
days after the crash. - This is the original flight path here. - And we know from the
controllers that they requested permission to do
an extra 360 degree turn. But the question is, how
did they end up here? - [Narrator] The flight path data shows the planes exact route. - As he's going Southwest he's
on a heading of 240 degrees. - [Narrator] It also
shows all compass headings entered by the pilots. - As he starts to loop down,
he changes to 333 degrees. - [Narrator] At first,
everything seems to be going according to plan but then investigators discover something they can't expect. - Why did he do that? - The last input was 174 heading South, over here, right here. He should have put in another input heading back to the North. - [Narrator] A compass
heading of 174 degrees took the plane South into the mountain. The pilot needed to input
another heading of 333 degrees to turn the plane back
towards Halim Airport. Investigators wonder if
the navigation system somehow failed leading
the pilots off course. - Flight systems look fine. - [Narrator] Next, they look at how the terrain warning system performed. Did it alert the pilots
to impending danger? - There's TAWS warnings. - [Narrator] The data
shows the TAWS sent out multiple alerts in the
final 40 seconds of flight. - I don't get it. If the warnings worked- - Then these guys would
have know what to do. - [Narrator] Investigators are stumped. Flight data shows the
captain made no attempt to turn the plane. Even more baffling, the
TAWS system was deactivated 28 seconds before the crash. Why that happened is a complete mystery. (plane engine roars) Qantas Airways Flight 72,
cruises above the Indian ocean headed for Western Australia. Flight 72 departed from Singapore. The flight path covers almost 2,500 miles across the Southern Indian
ocean to Perth, Australia. - All right Ross, out of my way. - Captain is back in action. - [Narrator] Captain
Kevin Sullivan is a former top gun fighter pilot for the US Navy. Ross Hales is the second officer. First officer Peter
Lipstadt is the next pilot scheduled to go on break. - So Peter what's the update? - We're 100 nautical miles from the coast. Lear month is to our left and still a cruising at 37,000 feet. - All right, have a good rest. - Perfect weather is making
for a comfortable flight - They are over the ocean
and things were very smooth. - Any changes? - Altitudes and air speeds
the same, smooth sailing. (bell rings) Don't tell me, I just jinxed us. - [Narrator] The Captain
notices his autopilot is no longer engaged. - Autopilot one disconnects,
and I'm hand flying. It's a bit annoying,
but we have two systems. Engaging autopilot two. I engaged autopilot two. And no sooner had I done that than we started getting over
speed and stall warnings. E-cam showing you a lot of errors. - Overspeed warning. How can we be in a stall and
over-speed at the same time? - We can't, airspeeds unreliable,
disconnecting autopilot. That's the first phase
of unreliable speed, memory checklist, autopilot off and I'm hand flying now, manually flying. - [Narrator] Flight attendant Posey Mayaba finally has a moment
to grab a bite to eat. - And so I focused probably on the timer, 13 seconds, 13 seconds,
was the actual time. All I could see was the floor disappearing like away from my feet. We were going up. - [Narrator] Sudden
G-forces flew passengers up from their seats. (dramatic music) Anyone not strapped in
hits the cabin ceiling. - Bang, I must have hit the
ceiling 'cause it knocked me out and I'm not sure how long it was for, maybe two or three, seconds, tens. I just wasn't sure. - The G force was enough even
with our three point harness to lift us both out of the seat
and push us forward as well. That's quite disorienting. - [Narrator] Flight 72 is
suddenly in a dangerous nosedive. Captain Sullivan grabs the side stick to try to level his plane. It doesn't respond. - Once I pulled back on the
stick and nothing happened I'm thinking, okay, I'm not
in control of this plane. - [Narrator] Investigators from the Australian Transport Safety
Bureau arrive in ligaments. - In the cabin there was
quite a lot of damage mainly to the ceiling panels
and the ceiling fixtures. - [Narrator] Investigators
hope data from the plane's quick access recorder can
shed light on what went wrong. They focus on the flyby
wire control system. - I'm seeing two abrupt changes in the elevators position at cruise. Looks like that's what
caused the pitch downs. - Were those commands
coming from the pilot? - Oh, they weren't, weird. - We have a NAV IR fault. - That's not right. - [Narrator] It seems the
plane's flyby wire system was sending wrong commands to
the flight control surfaces. - What the hell is going on? - Nice to meet you. - Hey. - [Narrator] Investigators
need to hear the pilot story. - We went through everything
that they recalled and anything unusual in
the period beforehand. - Describe the flight leading
up to the pitch towns. Anything that could have
caused these erratic movements. - I had a pretty good recollection, but had not explanations
as to why this happened. - And you were getting a lot of faults? - Oh yeah, there were a few. Have a look for yourself. It's like the plane had a mind of its own. - [Narrator] The A330's post-flight report logs all the cautions and warnings that were affecting the plane. They studied the list,
looking for anything that might connect the various warnings. - The first question you have is, what's the common element all these? - All areas are connected to ADIRU 1. - The ADIRU or Air Data
Inertial Reference Unit relays important information
to the flight computers about the environment outside the plane. - That ADIRU obviously became an important part of the puzzle because it was associated
with so many faults. - Look at this. I never seen anything like it. - [Narrator] They spawn
something highly unusual. - These are wild angle
of attack fluctuations coming from AOA 1. - [Narrator] Angle of attack or AOA is the angle of the plane's
wing relative to airflow. The higher the angle, the less smooth the airflow over the wing. - And if the aircraft angle
of attack gets too high, then the aircraft can stall. So it's a very important parameter. - From over 50 degrees
nose-up, back to level then negative 50 degrees. - That's not what the
pilots described at all. - [Narrator] The crew
testified that the plane pitched nose-down twice. They never said it pitched up. - What do the elevator reading say? - 10 degrees, nose-down. - [Narrator] He checks other FDR readings that record the planes pitch. That data also confirms
what the crew reported. - Show me the angle of attack again. From the flight data recorder information, we could see that the elevators moved in a nose-down direction about 10 degrees. There was an abrupt rate of change. The plane did not pitch up. There's no way this
airway data is correct. - Who faulty data like this to 2330? - I'm not sure. I bet it's not good. Let's go ask Airbus. - [Narrator] Joining the
investigation is Bob Benson of the US National
Transportation Safety Board. - Because the aircraft was manufactured in the United States, our role is really to assist the Swiss government
in determining what happened. It looked to us like the
aircraft had struck the trees in a bit of a level attitude. Although parts of the right
wing had had been sheared off by the trees and that
caused a more lift to occur on the left side of the aircraft causing the aircraft to roll to leaves. Eventually impact was nearly inverted. - So they were cleared for runway 14, looks like they're on the right heading. They are way too low. It's like they don't even
know the hill is there. - [Narrator] Investigators
begin with the flight data, looking for any sign of a
mechanical problem on board. - Thrust is good. Pitch and roll fine. Flaps, good. - Yep. - No stabilization problems. Everything seems normal from
a mechanical standpoint. - Even the glider is smooth and straight. It's just all over a
thousand feet too low. - Okay. - [Voice Over Radio] Can
we do a radio approach? - Yes. - All right, just over
4,000 feet right here, which is well below the glide slope. - Okay, so what? They need to level off
to capture the glide. But they kept ascending. - On one. - Let's do it on one. - Radio one confirmed. - [Narrator] ILS transmitters
send radio signals to two navigational
receivers in the cockpit. Nav Radio one and Nav Radio two. The pilots can use either
one to guide the plane. Investigators now know the
crews selected Nav Radio one, but they're still hoping
to discover something about the unusually low glide
slope and about the GPWS. - [Voice Over Radio] Aliatalia
404 reduced to 160 knots. Reducing 160, (indistinct),
just around the beam. - Stop it there. On the beam? They are well below the glide slope there. - They are more than 1000 feet below it. - So why is the captain saying they are in a decapture level? - [Narrator] What they're
hearing from the cockpit only deepens the mystery. - Did they misread the
altimeter and look wide slope? - I mean, that doesn't seem possible. Let's keep listening for the GPWS. - Okay. - Flaps 25. - Flaps 25. The other marker check is at
1,250 feet, almost four miles. - Can we pass in? Can we pass the other marker? - No, no, it hasn't changed yet. - Something in that cockpit
is confusing these pilots. - [Voice Over Radio] Alitalia
404 speed is convenient contact tower 118.1. - 118.1, goodbye. - That doesn't make sense to me. - Go around. - No, no, no, hold the glide. - The CVR had the first
officer attempting to go around and then being countermanded
by the captain. There was a lot of confusion there. - Can you hold it? - Yes, sir. (men screaming) - [Narrator] Investigators are stunned both by what they've heard and
by what they haven't heard. - No ground proximity warnings at all. - And the captain called off a go around. - [Narrator] They now face
more questions than ever. The crew of Alitalia Flight
404 is nearing the end of an evening flight
to Zurich, Switzerland - Alitalia 404 flight heading
325 radar vectors to ILS 14. - Radar vectors to
runway 14 on heading 325. - [Narrator] Captain Rafaella Lee Berti, is a senior Alitalia pilot with more than 20 years experience. - How much is the visibility? - Visibility is nine kilometers. - [Narrator] First officer Masimo D. Fryer is the pilot flying the plane tonight. He's new to the airline
having joined just last year. (plane engine roaring) The plane is a McDonald Douglas DC-9, that's been flying since 1974. - The DC-9 was one of the
mainstays of the industry. And from the 1960s through the 2000s, it was very very popular
in the US Western Europe and around the world. - [Narrator] Flight 404 left
Milan's Leonatti Airport, 25 minutes ago. The flight path takes
it almost directly North over the Alps to Zurich's Clutton Airport. At Zurich Air Traffic
Control, it's a busy evening. - Zurich 3611 maintain 230. - [Narrator] Alitalia 404 is lining up for its approach to the airport. The pilots are preparing
for what's called an ILS or instrument landing system approach. - Instrument landing system
is a series of technologies primarily radio transmitters on the ground that allows an aircraft to align itself both vertically and
horizontally with the runway. - [Voice Over Radio] Alitalia
404 reduced to 180 knots. - Reducing 180, 404. - Do you have the glide slope? - It's on one- - Let's do it on one. - [Narrator] The crew sets
the navigation instruments to pick up the ILS signal from the runway. - Radio unconfirmed. - There's a set of signals,
which goes out at an angle from the ground that gives them
an idea of the glide slope. - Capture log, capture glide
path so we are on the beam. - [Narrator] Flight 404 is
third in line on approach with a runway 12 miles straight ahead. The pilots can't see it yet, but their navigation instruments show they're locked on
to the proper signal. (plane engine roaring) All they need to do now
to finalize the approach is intercept a radio beacon
known as the outer marker. - The outer market check is
at 1,250 feet almost 4 miles. - Can we pass it? Can we pass the other marker? - No, no, it hasn't changed yet. - Alitalia 404, speed is
convenient contact tower 118.1. - 118.1, goodbye. - That doesn't make sense to me. - The runway should be just ahead, but the first officer still can't see it. Something is not right. - Go around. - No, no, no. Hold the glide. - Can you hold it? - Yes, sir. (people screaming) - [Narrator] The next
morning investigators from Japan's Aircraft Accident
Investigation Commission survey the devastation. The Airbus is completely destroyed, shattered into thousands
of scorched pieces. They have no idea why and
everyone wants answers. - Make sure you get shots of everything. - Investigators hope the debris field can help them piece
together what happened. Nagakatsu Kawahata is working with the Aircraft Accident
Investigation Commission. (speaking in foreign language) - [Translator] The scattered parts give us hints about the accident. For example, if metal parts were worn out and had disintegrated in the air, we would see evidence of that. (speaking in foreign language) - They didn't miss by much. - Proximately 360 feet
East from the runway. - [Narrator] The plane crashed just to the side of the
airport's one runway. Why would a sophisticated aircraft with an experienced captain end up here? - Impact scars. - [Narrator] The soft earth
by the runway offers clues. Investigators find a series of scars where the plane hit the ground. - This was much deeper. - Looks slightly less than landing gear. - [Narrator] The evidence paints a picture of how the plane came down, at a four degree nose-up
angle and leaning to the left. The landing gear hit first,
then the left and right engines. The wings were ripped from the fuselage rupturing the fuel tanks. The question now is why
was the plane coming in in such a sharp angle? - Do you mind if I
record our conversation? - Go right ahead. - [Narrator] Investigators
hope the air traffic controller has some answers. - Any idea why the
plane missed the runway? - None. They got a bit close to
another plane on approach, but I slowed them down. - Reducing 180 knots. - A few minutes later,
I cleared them to land and they copied that. - Through to land runway 34. - And I heard nothing until they said they were going around. - How did the pilot sound when
he radioed for the go round? - A little rushed, but not panicked. - And he didn't say why? - No. - [Narrator] A go around isn't considered an emergency situation. - To go ahead in tower
dynasty going around. - [Narrator] It's used to avoid one. - Go around mode is a series of commands sent from the flight management system. It will apply the climb
thrusts required to bring it up to a safe altitude after an
approach has been aborted. - Roger, stand by for
further instructions. - [Narrator] The controller acknowledged the go around procedure. But just moments later,
the Airbus hit the ground. (people screaming) - Didn't hear from them again. It was all so fast. - [Narrator] The interview
only deepens the mystery. - Thank you, I'll let you know if I have any other questions. - All right. - Investigators still don't know why the crew called for a go
around or why it went so wrong. Japanese investigators
call on Airbus for help. - Thanks for coming. - [Narrator] The French manufacturer sends a technical expert who
knows the A300 inside and out. - I've been examining these instruments but I'd like to get your take. - [Narrator] Confident
that the planes engines and wing flaps were not
factors in the crash, investigators turn their attention to the cockpit instruments. - In any actual investigation, you want to document the cockpit. Document the position of switches, any indicators that might
show what the position was at the impact. - [Narrator] They focus
on the thrust levers. - Tower dynasty going around. - [Narrator] Were the thrust
levers in the right position to provide enough power for a go-around? - Forward position,
right where we want it. - [Narrator] To investigators
it looks like they were. And it matches what the
controller told them about flight 140 requesting a go around. - Roger, standby for further instructions. - So the flight computer
would have kicked in for the go round mode. - [Narrator] What
investigators have uncovered so far is puzzling. It appears the plane
was properly configured to perform a flawless go around. - The flaps and slaps were set. The engines were at full power. Everything was where it needed to be. So what went wrong? - To understand the fatal
crash of Flight 140, investigators first need to figure out why the air China pilots
aborted their landing just moments from the runway. - Are we ready? - [Narrator] They now have an
important tool to help them. In 1994, the digital flight data recorder is relatively new. The data should reveal if there was an onboard system malfunction
or any alarm warning that landing would be unsafe. - This is the timeline of the airspeed. - [Narrator] Investigators
can see that the speed drops on the initial approach
when the air China crew is dealing with wake turbulence. - Better reduce the speed a
little more, reduce it to 170. - [Narrator] But the speed
only dropped slightly. - Speed is still good for an approach, nothing to worry about. - [Narrator] The turbulence
didn't prompt the pilots to go around. The buffeting stopped in plenty
of time for a safe landing. As Flight 140 descends towards 1000 feet, everything looks normal. - They activate the go
around mode right here. I don't get it, why would they do that? Everything seems fine. - [Narrator] The black box
data leads investigators to turn a spotlight on
the pilots themselves. - What were are these guys thinking? - [Narrator] Digging into
their personnel files, they learn that the first
officer joined China Airlines as a student training on small aircraft before working up to the A300. He made first officer just
a year before the crash. The China Airlines
practice is for new pilots to keep learning on the job with an experienced captain at their side. - Captain Wang Lo Chee, 42 years old. - [Narrator] Captain Wang
should have been up to the task. He had more than 8,000 flight
hours over a 24 year career. But when investigators drilled down, it's not so clear cut. - Not a lot of time in the Airbus. - [Narrator] They learned that the captain flew Boeing 747 for most of
his time at China Airlines and just as a first officer. He was only promoted to captain a year ago when he started flying the A300. He was as new to the
plane as his first officer with just over 1300 flight hours. - So you have a captain that's
come from an older generation of airplanes and you
have the first officer that's come from a newer
generation of airplanes but only from a school background. So that's two relatively new
pilots on the same airplane. - [Narrator] By 1994, there
were 100 of A300 in the skies. Airlines needed trained pilots to fly these technologically
advanced aircraft. The crew on the accident
flight was part of this search. - It's okay, let's just do it slowly. - [Narrator] Did the pilots understand the flight systems as well enough? Only the voice recorder
can provide answers. (plane engine roaring) (man screaming) (upbeat music)
