- Autopilot's off. - [Narrator] The captain prepares
to fly the plane manually to touch down. As they get closer to the airport. (aircraft bangs) - Did I hit something? - Oh no! - Oh God! (First Officer screams) - [Narrator] The pilots
can't control the plane as it cuts through a small grove. (plane engine roars) - No! - Oh my God! - [Narrator] It's 6:45 PM. Loganair Flight 6780
cruises over the North Sea near Scotland. - Take a look at that. - I don't like it. - [Narrator] There's some bad weather developing off the end of the runway. - Approach. Logan 6780. There's a big storm cell on
radar just off the runway. We might need to discontinue. - [Voice On Radio] 6780, roger. - [Narrator] The pilots
consider their options. - How much fuel do we have left? - 2500 Kilos. You want to head back to Aberdeen? - Let's circle. Make another attempt. - [Narrator] As the pilots circle for another landing attempt... - Oh, crap! - Circuit breakers look fine. - And I have control. - [Narrator] But something's wrong. - The controls feel really heavy. - [Voice On Radio] Mayday! Mayday! This is Loganair 6780. Please clear the air space. - 6780. Copy. - [Narrator] Without knowing
what's wrong with the plane... - It's really fighting me. - [Narrator] It's too risky
to attempt landing in a storm at Sumburgh Airport. - We should divert back to
Aberdeen, pressure conditions. - Agreed. - [Narrator] Aberdeen
Airport is 190 miles away. - Let's try climbing to 4,000. - 6780. We're going to
divert back to Aberdeen. - Something's wrong. I can't get the plane to climb. How's your side? - It's really heavy. - [Narrator] And then
the unthinkable happens. - Oh, no! Come on! - We're dropping! - [Narrator] Flight 6780
plunges uncontrollably towards the North Sea. The pilots wrestle with air controls as the plane speeds toward the
water at 350 miles an hour. - Speed! Speed! - [Narrator] In a last ditch
effort to save the plane, the captain increases engine power. (intense dramatic music) - We're climbing. - Requesting flight level 240. - 6780, roger. Climb and maintain 240. - The controls are working better now. - [Narrator] The pilots
of Loganair Flight 6780 are on final approach to Aberdeen Airport. - Aberdeen 6780, established
on the localizer. Runway 16. - [Narrator] Not knowing which
instruments they can trust, the pilots carefully configure
the plane for landing. - Flaps, 35. - Flaps, 35. - Control feels normal. - [Narrator] Having avoided
disaster twice already, their sole focus is to get the
plane safely on the ground. - 130. Speed looks good. Decision height. - Runway in sight. Continue. All right. 50 knots, coming out of reverse. - Check. - Happy to be on solid ground. - [Narrator] Puzzled by the
crew's account of the incident onboard flight 6780, investigators turned to
the cockpit voice recorder for answers. - It will answer many questions as to why things were
happening the way they were, and how the crew were working together and interacting together. - [First Officer Voice] Aberdeen ground, 6780 taxing on whisky
for parking zone seven. - [Narrator] But something's not right. - Aberdeen? Now, this is from when they
landed back at Aberdeen. - Right, can you stop it
and go back to the top, and play it again please. - [First Officer Voice]
Aberdeen ground 6780. Taxing on whiskey for parking zone seven - That's all there is. Well, that's not gonna help us very much. Now is it? - [Narrator] The CDR has recorded
over the critical moments of the flight. It's a major setback
for the investigation. - Right. This is what we know so far. The lightning struck, the
auto pilot disconnected, they had control problems. Then the plane did a nose dive. - And let's review the data. - [Narrator] Will the data recorder provide the answers they
need to solve this case? - Flight data recorders
often add a level of detail that simply can't be gained
from the witnesses themselves, and crucially, quite often, the information that's gathered
from a recording device offers a slightly different perspective to what we might get from
personal recollections. - Stop. This is where the lightning
struck at 2000 feet. - Right. And then for the next
two and a half minutes, there's a slow uneven climb to 4,000 feet. And then they are in a very
steep nose dive for 20 seconds towards the North Sea. - [Narrator] What were the pilots doing to recover from the dive? - Look at the control column data. - Right after the lightning struck, the crew pull back on the control column to pitch the nose up. - [Narrator] The FDR data
confirms the pilots were tackling a control problem. But why? - The captain said they were
also applying pitch trim. - [Narrator] Pitch trim moves
the tail elevators up and down to maintain the pitch of the aircraft. - Can we take a look at the
pitch trim data, please? - All right. - [Narrator] Investigators
make a puzzling discovery. - Look at that. The elevators are trying to
get the nose to pitch down instead of up. - [Narrator] After the lightning strike, some unknown force was
fighting the pilots inputs to both the control
column and the pitch trip. - The crew said, the lightning struck, the autopilot disconnected, and then they had control problems. - Can we take a look at
the autopilot data, please? - [Narrator] Finally, the
team zeros in on the answer. - The autopilot was on
almost the entire time. - [Narrator] Investigators discover that after the lightning strike, the pilots were in a tug
of war with the plane. - So we then had to look at
why did the crew misunderstand the status of the aircraft? - [Narrator] Execuflight 1526 is flying a short 35 minute flight north-east from Dayton to Akron, Ohio. - ZIPLINE 1526, descent at 13,000. - [Narrator] ZIPLINE is
Execuflight's call sign. - Descending to 13,000 feet. - [Voice On Radio]
Thank you. ZIPLINE 1526. - I'm going to check the weather. - [Controller] Automated
weather observation. Wind 290, at 07. Overcast, 1,800. Temperature, 09 Celsius. - All right. We have overcast weather. - [Narrator] The crew prepares
for possible bad weather in Akron. - Okay, let's see. Akron. Right. - Ending? - 249. - [Narrator] Flight 1526
continues its descent. - [Voice On Radio] Akron
visibility, one and a half mist. Sky condition, overcast, 600 broken. - [Narrator] The crew learns, the weather in Akron is getting worse. - [Voice On Radio]
Temperature, 11 Celsius. - [Narrator] They need to
know if it's still possible to land there. - One and a half mile visibility. - What visibility does this approach want? - One and a quarter miles. All right, so we have visibility. - [Narrator] Six minutes from Akron, the crew has a new distraction. A flight instructor is
teaching a student pilot how to land in bad
weather on the same runway assigned to flight 1526. Flight 1526 is now four
miles from the runway, as it starts its final approach. - Can you check if I've got everything? Ignition. - Everything is all set. Standby. - [Narrator] Two and a half
miles from the airport, the pilots are still
searching for the runway. Finally, the plane breaks
through the clouds. - Ground! Keep going. (plane engine roars) Okay, okay, level up now! - I got it. - [Machine Voice] Pull up! No! No! No! No! No! No! (pilots screaming) - [Narrator] Execuflight 1526 has crashed into a two-storey residential building. Everyone on board is dead. Incredibly, none of
the residents were home during the crash. The NTSB must now determine
what caused this fatal accident. Execuflight 1526 plunged into
a residential neighborhood in Akron, Ohio. At the crash site, investigators comb through
the records for clues. - We found the angle of attack indicator in the cockpit wreckage. That's important because at
a certain angle of attack, the wing will stall. - What angle were you? It was damaged extensively, but they could see that the
needle was in the red band. - [Narrator] Investigators
determined that the plane stalled as it approached the airport. Now they must understand why. - [Machine Voice] Pull up! Pull up! - That's great. Get that to Washington. - [Narrator] The cockpit voice recorder from Execuflight 1526 is recovered and send to NTSB
headquarters for analysis. The CVR is doubly important in this case, since the Hawker 700 wasn't equipped with a flight data recorder. While investigators wait
for the voice recording, they work with what they have, the documents found in
the cockpit wreckage. - Their weight and balance. Will you look at that? - We found that the weight and balance didn't account for the
auxiliary power unit. Say, a little jet engine in the back that helps power the aircraft
when it's on the ground. - So they had no APU. - [Narrator] The team
wonders how this compares to what they discovered at the crash site. - Hello, APU. Looks like they were carrying
more weight than they thought. - [Narrator] Investigators
believe they found an error in the plane's documented
weight and balance. - Were they too heavy? I wonder how much this
plane truly weighed. - [Narrator] The pilots
made their calculations without accounting for an APU, but there clearly was one on board. The NTSB calculates the
actual weight of the plane during it's final flight. - The APU weighs 300 pounds. - And according to the aircraft refueler, they were loaded with
8,160 pounds of fuel, but they only rode down 7,700. So how much in total were they over by? They were only 286 pounds overweight. - [Narrator] The plane's
actual weight was slightly more than what the pilot's recorded. - It wouldn't really make
a performance difference on the aircraft. - [Narrator] The weight of the
APU and the additional fuel was not enough to affect
the balance of the airplane. - But it did tell us that
this crew in this company wasn't following their
procedures appropriately. Somebody wasn't watching what they were supposed to be doing. - [Narrator] Investigators
need to look elsewhere to explain why flight 1526 stalled. It's almost six in the morning
in Lexington, Kentucky. The pilots of Comair Flight 5191 prepare for their preflight briefing. - Ladies and gentlemen, we'd like to take this time to welcome you on board
Comair Flight 5191, direct to Atlanta. We'll try to keep it as quiet as possible. Hopefully you can catch
a nap on the way there. It's our pleasure having
you on board today. - [Narrator] There are 47 passengers and one flight attendant
on today's flight. The pilots begin their briefing. - (indistinct) take off
procedures off of... He said what runway? 24? - It's 22. - [Narrator] Today they are
bound for Atlanta, Georgia. Just a 67-minute flight, straight south from
Lexington's Blue Grass Airport. Lexington's air traffic controller, clearest Flight 5191 to the runway. - At your leisure, Comair 121. - [Voice On Radio] Ready to go. - Comair 191, Lexington Tower, flight runway
heading, clear for take off. - All yours Jim. - [Narrator] Captain Clay,
hands control of the aircraft to First Officer, Polehinke for take off. - My brakes. My controls. (plane engine roars) - Set thrust, please. - Thrust set. (upbeat music) - That is weird with no lights. - Yeah. - 100 knots. - Checks. - [Narrator] Something's not right. - E1. rotate. - [Narrator] As 5191 prepares to lift off. - Whoa! Dammit! (passengers screaming) - [Narrator] Comair Flight
5191 hurdles into a field, less than half a mile from the runway. - This is Lexington. Alert three. West side of the runway with a Comair regional jet taking off. - [Narrator] 49 people are dead after the tragic takeoff
of Comair Flight 5191. First Officer, Polehinke,
is the only survivor. A question NTSB investigators
now need to answer is why Comair Flight 5191
couldn't get off the ground. NTSB investigators begin looking for clues to discover why Comair Flight 5191 crashed less than half a mile from
Lexington's Blue Grass Airport. The wreckage path tells investigators that the plane was struggling
to get off the ground. Was it engine trouble or something else? - It looks like they
took off from runway 26. Hang on. 26 wasn't in use last night. Lexington airport has two runways. Runway 26 and Runway 22. - According to the flight plan, they were supposed to
take off from Runway 22. So how the heck did they end up over here? - [Narrator] Investigators
are surprised to discover that flight 5191 took off
from the wrong runway. But being on the wrong runway, doesn't explain why the plane
barely made it off the ground. - Let's take a closer
look at those engines. Hey, they were spinning all right. - [Narrator] Evidence of deformed blades suggests the engines
were running on impact. - Something else must have kept
them from getting airborne. Maybe they were too heavy? - [Narrator] With engine
failure ruled out, the team wonders if the plane was loaded with too much weight to take off. - Oh, hear it is. CRJ's max take off
weight is 50,178 pounds. And the load manifested, the
plane weighed 49,087 pounds, on that day. It's close, but it's within their limit. - [Narrator] The aircraft
wasn't too heavy to take off. - In that aircraft on
that day with that weight, how much runway would be
needed to take off safely? - [Narrator] Using the
actual weight of the aircraft and the CRJ-100's specifications, investigators calculate how
much runway the plane needed to lift off. - 3,744 feet. - 3,744 feet. And Runway 26 is... - 3,501 feet. - [Narrator] Investigators
reach an astonishing conclusion. - Runway 26 is 243 feet too short. They ran out of runway. - [Narrator] They now
understand why the plane couldn't get airborne. But they're still mystified. Why didn't flight 5191 take
off from the longer runway? It's just after 5:00 AM
in Jakarta, Indonesia, as 181 passengers settle in
for a short domestic flight. Lion Air Flight 610, is a
90-minute journey from Jakarta over the Java Sea to Pangkal Island. (airplane engine roars) At 6:20- - Rotate. - [Narrator] The MAX 8 lifts
off the runway at Jakarta. (beeping) But immediately there's trouble. The captain's control yoke starts shaking. A warning that the
plane is about to stall. - Take off config. - Okay, but what? - [Narrator] The pilots can identify the source of the problem. They have no choice, but
to continue climbing. - Flight 610, fly heading 248. Follow standard instrument departure. Lion Air 610? - [Narrator] The air traffic
controller has no idea that there's an issue in the cockpit. The pilots get a warning that
their airspeed indicators do not agree. - Airspeed disagree. What's going on? Should we request our return to Jakarta? - Landing gear, up. - Flight 610, climb to flight level 270. - [Narrator] Still unaware of any trouble, the controller instructs the
crew to continue climbing to 27,000 feet. - Altitude disagree. - [Narrator] The first officer now notices that the altimeters also
show conflicting readings. - (indistinct) disagree. - [Narrator] The situation
is deteriorating quickly. Now flying 5,000 feet above the sea, Captain Suneja struggles to
keep the plane's nose up. - Flight path vector may be unreliable. - [Voice On Radio] Flight 610, turn right, heading 070 to avoid traffic hit - Set the pitch attitude. Roger. Heading 070. - [Narrator] Flight 610
is flying erratically over the Java Sea, and becoming increasingly
more difficult to control. Controller allows flight
610 to fly at any altitude the pilots choose. - Please clear 3000 above
and below of traffic. - Okay. Will do. What altitude would you like? - 5... It's diving. It's diving!
- It's okay. It's okay. - [Narrator] Flight 610 is
now speeding towards the sea. And the pilots are out of options. - Fly up! Up! Up! (water splashes) - [Narrator] 30 Minutes after
crashing into the Java sea, the wreckage of Lion Air
Flight 610 is located. There are no survivors. It takes three days for
search and rescue teams to log on to the signal
coming from the MAX 8 Lion Air Flight 610's
flight data recorder. Divers recover it from
a depth of 115 feet. The recorder has preserved
data from the accident flight and 18 previous flights, covering almost 1800 different parameters. - Master caution goes off as
soon as they leave the ground. Probably because airspeed
and altitude don't agree. Stick shaker activates here. - [Narrator] The data shows
a repeat of the problem on the previous flight. Faulty readings caused by a discrepancy between the left and right
angle of attack sensors. (speaking in foreign language) - [Translator] From the
FTR data we received, we learned that this plane had faulty angle of attack readings that affected both flights similarly. - Left and right angle of attack values are off by 21 degrees
for the entire flight. - [Translator] We suspected
the new angle of attack sensor installed in Bali was either faulty or
the installation process was done incorrectly. - [Narrator] On the MAX 8,
the angle of attack sensor, doesn't just measure the airplane's angle. - Altitude disagree. - [Narrator] It helps
calculate precise airspeed and altitude. - That explains why airspeed
and altitude disagreed throughout the low flight. - [Narrator] The malfunctioning
sensor on the captain's side resulted in a difference between the left and right side
speed and altitude displays. - Then there's this. - [Narrator] The data clearly shows that for every nose up trim input, there was a corresponding
automatic nose down trim input. - [Translator] The NTSB brought
a representative from Boeing to help us in our investigation. - We're trying to understand
these automatic inputs. - It looks like the MCAS kicked in. - What's that? - [Narrator] Boeing points to
an obscure automated system known as MCAS. The Maneuvering Characteristics
Augmentation System. - It only kicks in when these
three conditions are met. - [Narrator] Boeing explains
that MCAS only activates when it senses that the
angle of attack is excessive, when the autopilot is off and when the flaps are retracted. An extremely rare combination. Tragically, the data shows that because of the faulty maintenance on the angle of attack sensor, flight 610 ended up meeting
all three conditions. - [Translator] The series
of problems occurred when the left angle of attack
sensor was replaced in Bali. - [Narrator] Investigators
dig deeper into the data and discover, the MCAS
system had no fail safe. - [Translator] The MCAS
installed in the plane relied on only one sensor. - [Narrator] MCAS only took data from one angle of attack sensor. Not both. Most protection systems are
designed with redundancies. So that a single failure
doesn't result in catastrophe. Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 is boarding for a trip to Dallas, Texas. The crew flew in earlier
today from Nashville. The four hour trip to Dallas will be their second and
final flight of the day. As flight 1380 climbs
to cruising altitude, controllers at LaGuardia
hand the flight over to New York area controllers. - [Voice On Radio] Southwest 1380, contact New York Center, 133.47. - Copy that. 1380. - [Narrator] 20 minutes after takeoff. - Thank you. (loud bang) (passengers screaming) - Everything changed. What the! We heard a very large bang. We had multiple warnings
going off in the cockpit, and a very severe vibration
throughout the entire plane. - [Narrator] First Officer Ellisor struggles to control the aircraft as it banks steeply to the left. - I immediately grabbed
the yoke to stop the roll. - You still got it. - I was not able to see
any of the instruments because the vibration was so severe. It was just a blur of colors. And so I can't see anything. - Still got it. - Luckily it was a clear
day, a very clear horizon, and I was able to roll out of the bank and recover the airplane. - First officer Ellisor,
reduces engine power and begins a steep descent. Flight 1380 is 10 minutes away from Philadelphia International
Airport and closing fast. At an altitude of just 1000 feet and three miles from Philadelphia
International Airport, the pilots prepare for
an emergency landing. - [Voice On Radio] Southwest
1380, Runway 27, Left. Clear to land. - 27, Left, clear to land. Southwest 1380. - [Narrator] It's
seconds before touchdown. Flight 1380 is flying towards the runway at breakneck speed. - Speed brake. - Armed with the green light. - [Narrator] The pilots
are unsure of the damage to the plane. They're making a high speed
approach with a reverse thrust from only one engine to slow them down. They might not have enough
runway to stop safely. - 50 Feet. 30 feet. - [Narrator] Captain Schultz
is a veteran Navy pilot. She's landed F18 Hornets in war zones, but this is a landing unlike any other. - Speed break's up. - [Narrator] The thrust
reverser on their only engine deployed. If the reverser doesn't work, the plane could overshoot the runway. - We touched down. It was a great landing. - Thank you, Lord. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Lord. Just gonna pull her around
here to the firetrucks. - [Narrator] Flight 1380 rolls to a stop. Investigators study the inspection history for the fan blades in the
left engine to flight 1380. - They did a full overhaul in 2012. - Let me see. - [Narrator] They learn
that all the fan blades, including fan blade 13, were inspected during a
major overhaul in 2012, 6 years before the
incident on Southwest 1380. During the overhaul, the protective coating on each
of the blades is stripped. Then a fluorescent dye
is used to help identify any fatigue cracking. Investigators review the work
orders done on the fan blades during the 2012 overhaul. - This checks out. Says they did a full
inspection of blade 13. - [Narrator] Investigators determine that at the time of the 2012 overhaul, all the fan blades were found
to be in good condition. But how were the fan blades maintained by Southwest Airlines after the overhaul? They're supposed to be
lubricated and visually inspected between 1500 and 3000 flights. - There's seven more routine checks here. They're all comprehensive,
all done on time. - This was the appropriate and
approved maintenance process that all technicians used at that time. - [Narrator] If fan blade
13 was checked routinely for six years and passed
all its inspections, investigators wonder when the crack began. - So what do you got? - Have a look. - [Narrator] A microscopic examination of the fracture surface might tell them more about
when the metal fatigue started. - I see. The crack was growing. - [Narrator] Using high magnifications, investigators can see tiny
tracings called striations. - There's thousands of them. - [Narrator] Investigators
tally the striations in the fractured blade. That means counting tens of
thousands of microscopic marks on a tiny piece of metal. - There's over 32,000 striations. (sighs) - What's that telling you? - [Narrator] By counting the striations on the base of fan blade number 13, investigators are able to date
the beginnings of the crack. - Oh, this crack could have
started more than six years ago. - [Narrator] It's an
important development. The fatigue crack on fan
blade 13 likely began before the engine overhaul in 2012, when the blades were
under close inspection. The pressure on investigators mounts. There are more than 4,000
Boeing 737 in service using the same type of fan blades. The same inspection regime
that missed the growing crack is also used throughout
the aviation industry. The catastrophe that struck
flight 1380 could happen again. US-Bangla Flight 211
cruses above the Himalayas. Their destination is
Kathmandu Airport in Nepal. It's a 90 minute flight
from Dhaka to Kathmandu. The crew is flying a
Bombardier Dash 8 Q400. - BS 211 tower. Wind, eight knots. Runway 0-2. Continue approach. - [Narrator] BS 211 is on
final approach to Runway 02. Tribhuvan International airport has one 10,000 foot airstrip. Planes approaching the
airport from the south land on Runway 0-2, and from the north, on Runway 2-0. But BS 211 isn't ready to land. - Have you seen the runway? - [Narrator] BS 211 has
overflown the entire runway and is now headed north
toward the mountains. - I think we're going to Runaway 0-2. - [Narrator] Concerned
by what he's seeing, the supervising controller
steps in to assist flight 211. - Okay. Bangla Star 211,
Runway 2-0 clear to land. - [Narrator] Kathmandu air traffic control redirects BS 211 to turn
left and land on Runway 2-0. But the plane isn't
lining up with the runway. - Bangla Star 211, turn right. You have the runway to land. Confirm you have the runway in sight. - Negative. Where is the runway? - Sir. Runway! Runway, three o'clock. - Affirmative. We have runway in site. Request clear to land, sir. - BS 211, clear to land. He's lining up for the taxi way. - BS 211, that is not the runway. Over. That's not the runway. BS 211, that is not the
runway, I say again. - [Narrator] The pilots make
a last minute adjustment to try to line up their
plane with the runway. But the airplane is headed directly for the control tower instead. The pilots of US-Bangla
211 struggle desperately to get their plane safely on the ground. (loud bang) US-Bangla 211 bursts into flames, 440 meters from the runway. 49 people are dead. A multinational commission is formed to investigate the tragedy. It consists of delegates from
Nepal, Bangladesh and Canada, representing the Canadian manufacturer of the Dash 8 Bombardier. (upbeat music) (explosion) BS 211's flight flight data
recorder is ready for analysis. Will it reveal if the
pilots were in control of their aircraft? - These are the inputs the captain made to the control column. And these are the actual
movements of the flight controls. - [Narrator] Investigators
compare the captain's inputs to the actual movements of
the plane's flight controls. They make an important discovery. - They're identical. The plane was doing everything the captain commanded it to do. Let's see later on the flight. Take a look at these inputs. They're so extreme. (beeping) - [Machine Voice] Bank angle. Bank angle. - [Narrator] The data shows, Captain Sultan was
making some severe inputs to his control column near
the end of the flight. (airplane engine rattling) - [Machine Voice] Bank angle! Bank angle! - [Narrator] If there wasn't
a flight control problem, why was the captain flying
the plane so erratically? - This is the flight path the
plane was supposed to take. - [Narrator] To better understand exactly what the plane was doing as it approached the airport, investigators compile the heading data and chart the exact course of the plane. - And this is the flight
path they actually took. - [Narrator] What the
data shows is astonishing. - It looks like they
drifted way off course. - And flew loops very
close to the mountains. - It looks like the
trouble started right here. 17 miles out when they
arrived at Guras waypoint. - [Narrator] Pilots navigate by following a series of
waypoints or GPS locations along their flight path. Guras is the last waypoint
into Kathmandu Airport. Investigators dig deeper into the FDR data to understand why BS 211
drifted off course at Guras. - They programmed the
flight management system for a holding pattern over Guras. Here. - [Narrator] The FDR data reveals that the crew pre-programmed
a holding pattern about 34 miles before reaching Guras. - And when they reach Guras, it looks like they start
the holding pattern. - Right here. - [Narrator] But the heading data shows the crew didn't complete
their holding pattern. The question is, why? It's late afternoon at
King Abdulaziz Airport in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Dozens of US Air Force KC-135 aircraft prepare for late night
missions during the Gulf war. Major Kevin Sweeney and the crew of US Air Force flight whale 05 review the final details of their mission. - Dark switches. - [Narrator] He's the commander. - Flight start. - [Narrator] Sweeney has over 20 years of air force flying experience. It's his job to know the
mission and his plane. - But the aircraft commander
is just like the captain. You have to made any tough decisions, it's your responsibility. Although it's very important to take input from the rest of your crew
members and listen to them. - [Narrator] At 5:25 PM, whale
05 lifts off from Jeddah. Tonight's mission takes them
along a tanker corridor. An aerial highway for tanker crews heading north from Jeddah. When they reach waypoint Rita, they'll turn east before
making their final turn to the rendezvous point less than 180 miles from combat zones near the Kuwaiti border. Whale 05 reaches cruising altitude. As they get closer to enemy territory, the pilots reduce radio
contact to avoid detection. Moments later. - What the- - [Narrator] Things go very wrong. (beeping) - I got it. - [Narrator] It takes just a second for the plane to roll
110 degrees to the left. The crew can't tell if there's
some kind of malfunction or if they're under a attack. - We're gonna lose her. - We gotta get her level. - [Narrator] Just as it seems the plane is in an
unrecoverable left bank, it snaps hard to the right. Just when all seems lost,
Major Sweeney plays a hunch. - Speed breaks. - [Narrator] Speed breaks
are devices on airplane wings designed to increase drag
during descent and landing. Sweeney deploys the speed
brakes on both wings hoping it will level the airplane. It's a procedure Sweeney
remembers from his training. It works. Incredibly, the pilots have
managed to level the plane, but they're not out of trouble yet. - All right, I have lateral control, but we're losing altitude. - We've got fire lights
on engines, one and two. - [Narrator] The pilots discover a problem with the two left engine. - Steve? How bad are the fires
on engines one and two? - Checking. - [Narrator] If there's
a fire on the engines, it could lead to disaster. (breathing heavily) - Oh my God! The only thing I could see was
torn sheet metal on the wing, where the engines were, and fuel being vented over
at the top of the wing. They're not fire, they're gone. - No fire? - Affirmative. No fire. The engines are gone. - Roger. - [Narrator] US Air Force
investigator, Ike Stokes, tries to understand how wake turbulence nearly destroyed a
gigantic tanker aircraft. - Separation between the
two planes by the book. That's it. Wind was 85 knots from the west. The wind was blowing enough at altitude to push the wink of vortices
from the preceding airplane, into the flight path
of the mishap aircraft. - I mean, they accounted for everything. There were falling at the
direction of the wind. Perfect storm. - [Narrator] But Stokes still doesn't know how this perfect storm
ever got a chance to form. - When you're taking off
between 90 to 100 airplanes on a daily basis, the arrival and departure from
the base is very critical. And in this particular case, the mishap aircraft was
parked in such a way that it had to go first and be followed by the second airplane, the one that had further to go. - The solution that they came up with was a perfectly responsible solution. And that was, we're gonna
take off individually, and then you're going to pass me. - Had the number two plane
been parked to the left of the mishap airplane, the mishap never would have occurred. - [Narrator] Investigators
finally understand what happened to whale 05. - 05's level. - [Narrator] On a wartime mission over the Saudi Arabian desert, two KC-135 switch position mid flight. - Altitude hold. - On. Altitude hold check. - [Narrator] The wake turbulence generated by the passing plane is blown into the path of whale 05. It creates a tremendous force that flips the plane so violently. G-forces rip both engines
off the left wing. - I've often heard flying
described as hours and hours of sheer boredom followed by moments of
stark raving terror. In this case, the crew experienced
that stark raving terror. - And now that's too much stress! - [Narrator] The oscillations almost pushed the right
engines and the aircraft beyond the point of recovery. - Speed break! - [Narrator] But with the quick thinking of a seasoned wartime
commander, the plane levels off. - Coming back to level flight was the true fit of airmanship. - Greg, are your nav instruments working? - Yes. INS is functional,
radar is still up. - Well, give me a heading back to Jetta. - [Narrator] The coordination
of a well-trained crew. - No one's got down and locked. - Runway in sight. - [Narrator] Brings whales
05 back home safely. - Aircraft commander
was an excellent airman, but the fact is he had
every brain in that airplane working in tandem with him side by side to make sure they didn't miss anything. - Brakes! I'm very fortunate to
fly one of the best crews in the air force, in my humble opinion. They did their job in
a critical situation. And it wasn't just me
getting back the airplane, it was the team got back the airplane. We did it. - [Narrator] Whether it's a
refueling plane in war time or a routine domestic flight in a 747, the importance of teamwork
can never be overstated. It's nine in the morning as
Ansett New Zealand Flight 703 cruises toward the city of
Palmerston, north of New Zealand. William McGrory is flying
to his company's head office for an early morning meeting. - I was working for a plumbing company. I was based in Aukland and they were based on Palmerston North. As we were on the approach... - I don't think the landing
gears down on the right side. Can you check your window? - No. Can't see the landing gear at all. - [Narrator] In the cockpit, Captain Sotheran and his First Officer are already troubleshooting the problem. As flight 703 nears Palmerston North, the pilots follow the procedure for lowering landing gear manually. - Air speed blow 140 knots. - It's 140. - Karen was sitting right
there in front of me and the next minute... - And then I'll have a few days off. So I'll probably head down to- (loud bang) - Now the crash, and then
we seem to be sliding. Eventually, we came to a stop. I guess I just flicked into survival mode and didn't really matter
what was wrong with me. Just, I was alive. Get out of this plane, that was probably the only single thing that was on my mind at the time. Saw a hole in front of
me on the right-hand side and saw that as an opportunity to get out. - [Narrator] In the airport's tower, controller, Tony Chapman, tries to contact Ansett Flight 703. - I don't know where they are. There's no signals at all
and they're off radar. - We're out in front of the nose now, which was facing back the way we came. I saw my little briefcase. So I grabbed that and opened it up, knowing full well that
my phone was in there. I rang 111, and they said, "What emergency do you need? Ambulance, fire or police?" And I said, "Send the whole bloody lot." We got to plane crash, send everything. And she immediately
changed her tone and said, "Just hang up and we'll get back to you." - Did he say where they were? Okay, did you get a number? - [Narrator] The operator has notified Palmerston North's
tower of McGrory's call. - Perfect. Thank you. (phone rings) - Hello. - William, whatever happens,
do not hang up the phone. You have to stay on the phone with me. - Can you see if we can
find some kind of landmark. Anything that can help
them find where we are. The passenger who had
come to help me said, "I'll have a look around." So he went off up the hill, and he had gone quite a distance
in quite a while really. And he came back sometime
later and then he said, "There's a big holding pen for
sheep, up the hill further." We're next to a very
large sheep holding pen. - Looks like they're near
the Buckley stockyard up a whole block road. - [Narrator] With the
location of the crash roughly pinpointed, rescuers
make their way to the scene. (helicopter rattling) Flight 703 has crashed into a hill, 10 miles from the airport
at Palmerston North. 15 passengers and both
pilots have survived. Tragically, three passengers
and flight attendant, Karen Gallagher, are killed. - We were very very lucky
that 17 of us survived. I think so sadly for those
that did lose their lives, the hostess and the others
that died on that day, was so unnecessary. - [Narrator] Investigators
need to examine the wreckage of Ansett 703 to determine why the pilots were unable to get
their landing gear down. But the muddy terrain is
presenting a challenge. - It was virtually
impossible to get equipment onto that site. It would just slip and
they would get stuck and slide down hills and so on. - [Narrator] Vance comes
up with a solution. - They had a huge helicopter
owned by Russians. What we suggested to them that they do, is get a big long cable and put the cables through the fuselage. The ribs were in good enough condition that they would basically hold
the weight of that fuselage. - [Narrator] With all
the wreckage in a hangar, investigators are able to
examine the right landing gear, to understand why it didn't come down. Vance is joined by Jim Donnelly, a maintenance engineer from De Havilland, the Dash 8's manufacturer. When the landing gear is up, a latch holds a roller on the gears leg in the retracted position. When pilots lower the gear, an actuator moves the up lock
latch to release the roller, allowing the landing gear to extend. - This is probably where the problem was. Latch is definitely showing signs of wear. - [Narrator] Over time, the
roller wore a small groove into the right side latch. It was enough to prevent it from sliding into the down position. - Here's another. Landing gear (indistinct). - Yeah, it definitely was an issue. - [Narrator] Investigators dig
through the Dash 8's history. - The Ansett fleet sure
had its share of problems. - And both their Dash
8s by the looks of it. - [Narrator] Ansett New Zealand's Dash 8s had been experiencing landing
gear failures for years. - Just the left side. Gotcha. Thanks for that. - They replaced the
mechanism on the left side, but were waiting on parts for the right. Ansett only replaced the
left up lock actuator, because that is where they experienced the majority of their issues. - [Narrator] But all
of these gear problems were easily dealt with. - In every case, the pilots
use the alternate method to lower the gear. - And they all landed safely. - [Narrator] If the gear
didn't lower normally, pilots could pull a handle in the cockpit that manually disengaged the latch, so that the gear could drop into position. - The alternate system is 100% reliable. There has never been an issue with the alternate landing
gear extension system failing to lower a landing gear. - [Narrator] But evidence
from the cockpit wreckage reveals the First Officer didn't
pull the handle hard enough to release the landing gear. - We saw that the handle
that is normally pulled was partially pulled. - [Narrator] Failing to lower
the landing gear is unusual, but it doesn't explain why the
pilots of Ansett Flight 703 slammed into a hill, just a
few miles from the airport. (crash) It's the first flight of the day for the crew of Propair Flight 420. Today's flight is a 90
minute hop from Dorval to Peterborough Ontario. The plane has been in
the air for 12 minutes. (beeping) - What? - What is it? - It looks like we lost hydraulics. Dorval approach, this is Propair 420. We've had dual hydraulic failure. Request clearance and return to Dorval. - [Narrator] The Metroliner
has two hydraulic systems. One controls the flaps, the other, the landing gear. - Looks like we're landing without flaps. - [Narrator] With no flaps, the pilots can't reduce
their speed without stalling. Then just 30 seconds
after losing hydraulics, before they've started
back to the airport... - Wants going on? It want's to roll left. - Really? - I'm holding it right. - [Narrator] Something's
wrong with the controls. - Need to trim half turn to the right. - [Narrator] If the plane
is rolling in one direction, applying trim avoids the need
for continuous pilot inputs. Trimming it right brings the left wing up and levels the plane. As flight 420 gets
halfway back to Dorval... - Fire! The left engine's on fire. - [Narrator] An even
bigger problem emerges. - Left engine shut down procedure. - [Narrator] The pilots
attempt to extinguish the fire in the left engine. - Left power lever. - Confirmed left. - [Narrator] The captain executes the engine shutdown procedure. - Back to idle. Confirm left shut off lever. - Confirmed. - Pulling left engine stop lever. - Dorval approach. Propair 420. Left engine is on fire. We've shut it down. - [Voice On Radio] Propair 420, I see you are returning to Dorval, I can give you direct to Mirabel. - Affirmative. Direct to Mirabel. - [Narrator] While flight
420 is only 11 minutes from Dorval, they reroute to Montreal's
other airport Mirabel, which is closer. - I see flames now. Flames from the engine nozzle. - [Narrator] The situation
goes from bad to dire. Fire crews park alongside
the runway at Maribel Airport for emergency landing of flight 420. Captain Provencher is
struggling to maintain control. Now, he has to lower the
landing gear manually with no guarantee it will work. - Gear down now. - Gear down. - [Narrator] The nose and
right wheels have dropped, but one light stays off. Propair 420 is 20 seconds from touchdown. - Rolling left. Not now! - [Narrator] They're just five seconds from being able to touch down, when disaster strikes. (bang and crash) The plane crashes into a watery
ditch next to the runway. Despite the best efforts of rescue crews, no one makes it onto the plane alive. - [Voice On Recorder] What! What is it? Looks like we lost hydraulics. - [Narrator] Investigators now turn to the cockpit voice
recorder of Propair 420, to determine why
firefighters and the pilots, both reported an engine fire. - [Voice On Recorder] I've
got the column halfway to the right. I can't believe it's taken this strength to hold it straight. - Hang on. Control problems, just 30
seconds after hydraulic failure? Dorval is here. They're barely out of the gate before the hydraulics fail here. They haven't even begun their turn, and the controls started acting up here. - [Voice On Recorder] Fire!
The left engine's on fire! - Is that a passenger? - [Voice On Recorder]
Fire to the left engine. - [Narrator] The passenger
report of an engine fire confuses the crew. - Engine over here, warning is off. - [Voice On Recorder] Left
engine shutdown procedure. - [Narrator] The captain
follows the checklist, but it doesn't solve the problem. - [Voice On Recorder] I see flames now. Flames from the engine nozzle. I don't have a fire light. - [Narrator] The cockpit voice recording provides investigators with
their biggest lead yet. - Maybe the fire started
in the wheel well. - That's so close to the engine, the crew could have made that mistake. - [Narrator] The team discovers that pieces of the left landing gear are burned almost beyond recognition. The team finds that several components to the left side break, show
significant heat damage. Piston housings are melted, cylinders are blackened. Investigators can finally
confirm that an in-flight fire aboard Propair 420, began
in the left wheel well. But they still don't know what started it. - This is the left brake disk, correct? - [Narrator] One component is key. - Thing got pretty hot somehow. - [Narrator] The grayish
blue color stands out. The landing gear would need
a fuel source to ignite, but the wheel well is nowhere near the heavily reinforced tanks. Investigators focus on the tubing inside the left wheel
well, called (indistinct). - The hydraulic lines there. - Dorval approach. This is Propair 420. We've had dual hydraulic failure. Request clearance to returned to Dorval. - [Narrator] The melted lines would cause the hydraulics to fail, the first problem reported by the crew. - So, the heat from the
brakes melts the line, hydraulic fluid pours out everywhere, there's your fire, right there. - [Narrator] It's a good theory but they need evidence to back it up. Investigators design a test to
determine if hydraulic fluid could ignite when exposed
to overheated brakes. They heat the disc to
1100 degrees Fahrenheit. The temperature that
would have been needed to give the left brake discs
their grayish-blue color. - Whoa! - [Narrator] It's an early summer morning when UPS Flight 1354 climbs over Kentucky. Tonight's flight from Louisville, Kentucky to Birmingham, Alabama
takes about an hour. The crew is flying the newest
version of the Airbus A300, equipped with advanced computers and flight management
systems to assist pilots. - [Voice On Radio] Notice to LM, Runway 24 closed. Localizer Runway 18 in use. Landing and departing, Runway 18. - [Narrator] The runway
they were expecting is closed for maintenance. They'll have to use an alternate. The alternate runway is shorter. With the plane nearly at maximum weight, they'll have to carefully
manage their speed and altitude on approach. Landing on Runway 18 also
involves a more demanding approach known as a non-precision approach. In a non-precision approach, the pilots preprogram the flight computer to follow a virtual glide
path or descent profile to the runway threshold. Five miles from the runway, the captain realizes
something's not right. - Unbelievable. Too high. - [Narrator] The autopilot hasn't initiated its final
descent to the airport. The captain tries to get the plane back on it's programmed glide path. If the plane remains too high
this close to the runway, the crew could overshoot it. (beeping) - Autopilot's off. - [Narrator] The captain prepares
to fly the plane manually to touchdown. As they get closer to the airport... - Did I hit something? - Oh no! - Oh God. (First Officer screams) - [Narrator] The pilots
can't control the plane as it cuts through a small grove. - No! - Oh my God! (flames flaring) - [Narrator] UPS Flight 1354 crushes, just one mile short of the runway. - [Voice On Radio]
Tower, did you see that? - Yes. Yes. Airport 12. There's been a crash. UPS 1354, heavy crash on the hill. Attention, aircraft crash, three miles, final runway 18. (emergency vehicles' sirens) - [Narrator] Rescue crews
rush to extinguish the flames of UPS Flight 1354. (flames flaring) Despite the plane coming
down in a populated area and crossing a highway
in Birmingham, Alabama, no one on the ground is injured. Tragically, both pilots are killed. Within hours, the National
Transportation Safety Board begins the investigation. (camera shutters) - Verify the glide path
agrees with the approach chart within one degree. - [Narrator] Did a malfunction
in the flight computer used to program the autopilot lead to the crash of UPS Flight 1354? - Verify approach, 0.1 degrees. - The flight management
system to an airline pilot in an airline operation
like this is very critical, because it is the automation, it is the typical way of
flying a large aircraft. If you have bad data in, that data will cause bad things to happen. - Okay. Something's up. - [Narrator] Investigators recover the flight computer's memory
card from the wreckage. They prepare to test it for
signs of errors or malfunctions. - The investigators went to great pains to figure out what exactly was loaded into the flight management computer. It was damaged. So they had to remove the motherboard and place it in a functioning unit, and actually read it out. - This should tell us if
the computer was working. - [Narrator] If the flight
computer was operational, investigators should be able
to download it's memory. - It's working. - Turned out that there was nothing wrong with the flight management computer. But had there been, that could have been a very important part of the accident sequence. - The computer was working. - Looks like they programmed it. Final approach is armed
for a gradual descent of three degrees. Wait a minute. They've got two separate
destinations programmed. They forgot to clear the conflict. - [Narrator] They discovered
the crew missed a step in planning their route
to Birmingham Airport. They failed to clear a previously
programmed destination. It's a troubling find. - You can load a flight plan into it, and then if you deviate from
that particular flight plan, the flight management computer doesn't really know what's going on and can put out false data. And that's called a discontinuity. - The crew programmed the plane to fly directly to Birmingham Airport. 20 miles out, they needed
to clear their flight path and program a specific
approach to Runway 18. But the crew didn't
clear the initial plan, which created the discontinuity, a confusion in the system. - There was a conflict between where the pilots told the airplane to start the approach, and we're the computer knew
the approach had to start. And that was a flight plan discontinuity. - That's why the autopilot wouldn't initiate the descent path. - The captain basically was
chasing the incorrect guidance that the display was telling him, by trying to descend
as quickly as he could, when there was no reason for it. - [Narrator] The team knows the crew didn't clear the conflict. The question is, why? (gentle music)
