Every Single Plane Crash - Air Disasters Seasons 8, 9, 10

fills the cockpit go around go for it it's the low altitude warning to the pilots it seems impossible i don't even have the runway in sight yet go around go around thrust the captain decides to abort the landing but it may be too late the crew of british midland flight 92 is completing final takeoff preparations for a short flight to belfast northern ireland captain kevin hunt flew the plane in from belfast first officer david mcclellan takes the controls for the return trip thrust set here we go as flight 92 clears the busy airspace around heathrow the controller permits the crew to climb to the cruising altitude thirty five thousand feet thirteen minutes into the flight oh you smell that is that smoke there's a problem with one of the 737's two engines captain hunt takes control leaving his first officer to work out what's wrong with the plane it's fire kevin which one is it it's the right one the crew tries to stabilize the problem engine by reducing power on that side okay throttle it back follow me back seems to be running all right now the crew seems to have solved the immediate crisis but we still got the smoke but want to get back on the ground as fast as possible uh this is middle 92 we've got an engine fire we need to divert to east midlands understood cleared for descent to 10 thousand feet flight 92 is just 15 minutes from east midlands airport it's closer than returning to heathrow landing lights on the pilots will have to make the landing with just one engine flaps one place to land safely at low speed the pilots need to set their flaps to increase lift power place and call for more power from their one remaining engine the pilots face a terrifying new danger we're losing another engine incredibly the left engine is now failing their plane could soon have no engine power at all flight 92 is less than a thousand feet from the ground the pilots need to think fast try reloading the other one they try to restart the engine they shut down it's not i can't seem to it won't start one engine is dead the other is in flames i have to stretch the glide captain hunt pulls up the nose of the plane hoping to stay in the air long enough to reach the airport but more and more alarms are filling the cockpit the stall warning shakes the captain's controls a deadly sign that they're about to lose their lift british midland flight 92 has slammed into an embankment beside the m1 highway just half a mile from the airport 87 of the 126 people on board are alive but many are injured including captain hunt who has a broken spine chris pollard scrutinizes engine debris recovered from farmland near kegworth every fragment is a potential clue about what happened to british midland flight 92 some bets were extremely small it is actually a tribute to the quality of the search that we got as much as we did one fragment stands out gotcha it shows clear signs of metal fatigue because of where it was found pollard believes it was almost certainly the first thing to break on the 737. if you assume that the fatigue failure was the first failure that would have lost about four inches off the end of one of the blades the finding could explain how the engine failure began even one broken fan blade can disturb the flow of air through an engine causing it to surge a process similar to a car backfiring what is it the engines the engine tries to find a new balance and to do that it rattles around it'll be all right man it would have been a lot of physical vibration the passengers reported that it was like the sound of um in a tumble dryer of rocks and stuff being thrown around it would have really been quite violent no two fan blades are ever exactly the same pollard hopes a metallurgical examination will tell him which engine the weakened blade came from although the blades were all nominally of exactly the same alloy there were if you started to look in the sort of parts per million analysis of these things there were slight differences between each plate pollard soon has an answer blade 17 left engine the blade that broke first and caused the vibration came from the left engine investigators now face a troubling question why did the pilot shut down the right engine if the vibrations were in the left a crew this experienced it's hard to believe they would shut down the wrong engine pilots have an array of instruments that tell them about the operation of their engines including one that measures vibration there's another possibility the vibration may have been so severe that it became impossible to read the shuttering gauges rex here are gauges the layout of the cockpit instruments may provide a partial explanation right engine right oh see i can see how you mess this up the gauges that measure vibration sit on the right side of the panel [Music] under stress the first officer may have thought they correspond to the right engine the problem is definitely in the right engine but the theory doesn't hold up if the crew shut down the good right engine why did the vibration suddenly stop in the faulty left engine they reduce the power on the right engine but somehow the left engine settles down an important piece is missing from this puzzle you need a little bit of water trim to the left huh what's that do you need a little bit of a trim to the left okay captain thomas welch and first officer joseph turner are flying a boeing 767 from bangkok thailand to vienna austria the flight is operated by louder air the brainchild of famed austrian formula one driver nikki lauda for me it was a logical step after retiring from racing to start in this kind of business and that's what i did with ladaya throughout the 70s lauda dominated formula one racing nikki was the best driver in his still in the days i think nikki is the best known austrian uh since mozart and that's how they finish nikki louder takes the flag he won the world championship three times then used his fame to launch a new career and a new airline one of the main reasons was to give the passengers a different way of flying better service better food the airplane had to look in a certain way the louder air 767 is less than 15 minutes into its 11-hour flight to vienna it's a route nikki lotto knows firsthand because he's not just the owner of the airline he's also one of its pilots when you run a company and you fly it's very simple because when you're with your passengers then you know what is going on you can look yourself what the problems are and i corrected things quicker in that way in the cockpit captain welch and first officer turner monitor their instruments while the autopilot controls the climb suddenly the plane begins dropping from the sky the pilots have lost control louder flight 4 is plummeting to earth the plane slams into a remote jungle 110 miles northwest of bangkok when rescuers arrive it's immediately obvious that there's no one to be rescued all 213 passengers and 10 crew members are dead the airplane took off at 1601 utc there was no fault or whatever reported from the pilots the airplane flew about 20 to 25 minutes and then suddenly disappeared off the radar screen so we have no indication whatsoever whatsoever happened to the airplane investigators in thailand have made a surprising find the thrust reverser on flight 4's left engine is fully deployed once we actually saw that the thrust reverser had deployed for me it was it was shocking it was not anything i really expected would happen thrust reversers help jetliners come to a stop on landing they work by redirecting engine thrust forward to slow the plane down left side deployed in mid-air no doubt planes have built-in safeguards to prevent reversers from deploying during flight but even if it does happen it shouldn't cause a crash in fact flight testing has already shown exactly that before the 767 first went into service boeing had to prove that pilots could keep flying safely after a mid-air deployment there was a lot of vibration a lot of noise but the airplane was controllable the pilots only experienced a small loss of lift as a result boeing certified the 767 as capable of continued safe flight and landing under any possible position of the thrust reverser but the discovery of an engine with a deployed reverser is so unusual investigators must conclude that it's somehow related to the crash how does a thrust reverser bring down a 767 we're missing something if it turns out that a faulty thrust reverser can bring down a plane it has ominous implications for the entire airline industry the lives of hundreds of thousands of passengers around the world could be in jeopardy we recognized that we had something that was uh very unusual and would would require a lot of analysis [Music] the deployed thrust reverser is the strongest lead investigators have but no one can figure out how it could have caused the crash investigators will have to solve the mystery without their most valuable tool the flag data recorder is so badly burned the technicians at the ntsb can't recover any data but there's better news about the cockpit voice recorder it has survived the fire ready to [Music] the go recorder shows a normal takeoff and climb [Music] all this kind of normal communication which and i knew all the people so for me it was honestly hard this was the hardest part of all my life we are clear to level 310 and maintaining louder four flight four climbs to seven thousand feet without a problem a little more than five and a half minutes into the flight the first hint of trouble chase it that keeps uh let's come on what's come up some kind of warning the pilots have noticed an alert that's coming on in the cockpit could this be the clue that unlocks the mystery of lava flight 4. brazil in the late 1980s is a country in transition today millions of soccer man brazilians tune in as their beloved team takes on archrival chile the critical match in rio is all anyone is talking about even a thousand miles away at maraba airport where the crew of varric flight 254 is getting ready for takeoff bearing flight 254 is scheduled to fly north from the mining town of maraba to balang near the mouth of the amazon river captain cesar garces is flying the plane tonight well first officer nielsen zile monitors the instruments v1 rotate at 5 35 pm the boeing 737 gets airborne after 23 minutes the flight computer tells the captain that they're getting close to berlin the pilots try to contact controllers on the ground balantar vari 254 requesting descent strangely they get no response from the tower malam tower varie254 do you read that's funny what we're not picking up the beacon either airports are equipped with very high frequency omnidirectional range beacons or vor beacons they send out signals that planes follow to the runway why don't we see if we can pick up a local radio station from berlin [Music] the captain tries to home in on a local radio signal hoping it will help guide them toward the city the do or die soccer game is being broadcast by radio stations all across the country the pilots have managed to pick up a local station broadcasting the match the captain is confident he's now on course he spotted a landmark on his radar there we go we're over the amazon now the lamb is near the mouth of the amazon following the river should lead the pilots to the city but moments later there's serious trouble at 8 45 pm flight 254 runs out of fuel the left engine is the first to die we just lost an engine hang on i'm going to put her down there goes the other one the inevitable impact is just seconds away [Music] just needs to bring us down nice and slow of the 54 passengers and crew 48 have survived we have to get you out of here okay can you hear me surviving the crash landing feels like a miracle to many of the passengers but they now face a new threat to their survival they're stranded in the vast amazon rainforest with no food no water and no guarantee that they'll ever be found [Music] investigators look into the possibility that the navigation system on varric flight 254 malfunctioned and led the crew off course they suspect the plane's cargo may hold the key the 737 has a magnetic sensor in the tail that acts as the plane's compass it tracks which direction the plane is flying and feeds that information to the cockpit instruments [Music] if something in flight 254's cargo was giving off a strong magnetic field it might have confused the sensor they also test every component of the navigation system and check for any sign of failure but they find nothing in the cargo that could affect the compass and the instruments are working perfectly investigators catch a break flight 254's flight plan has been recovered from the cockpit airlines provide flight plans to every crew it contains critical details about the route they should fly including the heading they're meant to take oh thanks let's see what this will tell us but what if the airlines gave the pilots a faulty flight plan one that sent them in the wrong direction this could be the lead they've been waiting for i think i know what they did wrong a close look at varying 254's flight plan provides a revelation in this particular case with the virg flight very unusually their computer flight plan system has four digits this is very very unusual as they almost always have only three the number zero two seven zero was intended to mean 27.0 degrees he was supposed to fly north heading zero to seven the captain read it as 270 degrees or due west so instead of flying north east they went west instead going 2-7-0 he entered the wrong heading he set the airplane up to depart west 270 degrees or due west on the compass is more than 240 degrees past the northerly heading of 27 degrees they were given the moment of truth arrives when they call captain garces back in to give his side of the story at first the captain is reluctant to admit he made a mistake under intense questioning garces finally admits he misread the flight plan look it was an honest mistake investigators learned the airline began printing their flight plans this new way while the captain was on vacation it's easy to see how you get confused but there's another question the first officer must also enter the heading from the flight plan so here's some you think julia has a chance tonight why did he make exactly the same mistake as the captain he could have caught this mistake before they took off varig 254 takes off due west instead of north straight into the setting sun get up it's an incomprehensible error did they not realize they were flying into the sun [Music] that should have been a big cube they must have been very confident that they had done the right thing [Music] international airport in panama city v1 cooper airlines flight 201 takes off for a short flight to cali colombia rotate gear up captain rafael chial is coppa's most senior pilot today he's monitoring the instruments it's a thrust to climb first officer cesario tejada is flying the plane 40 passengers are on board mostly business travelers heading home to colombia the flight usually takes about an hour [Music] but tonight there's a hitch that could add some time we've got some heavy weather moving in from the gulf flight 201 is heading straight for a storm [Music] it looks clear to the east the pilots need to find a way to fly around the bad weather agreed i will let them know what we are doing panama center coppa 201 we'd like to get around this weather requesting a new heading for zero nine zero copa 201 copy that you're cleared on a heading zero zero cleared heading zero nine zero ladies and gentlemen we're going to take a short detour to avoid some bumpy weather it may delay our arrival in kali i will keep you posted [Music] the new flight path will take the 737 east around the storm before heading south again to cali [Music] panama center coppa 201 it's been 12 minutes since takeoff level at 250. the captain tells controllers he's reached cruising altitude at 25 000 feet minutes later the plane disappears from radar the controller tries the radio but gets no response raciella o'connor is one of the controllers on duty the flight was live in panama airspace entering columbia airspace hopefully it's just interference from the storm the plane's last known location was over panama's remote durian gap their last greater return was here [Music] the plane has vanished over an almost impenetrable jungle if copa 201 crashed here just getting to the crash site will be a huge struggle o'connor reports the missing flight to aviation authorities hey have you had any radio contact with koppa 201 then comes the news she's been dreading early in the morning i received a call from a radio station in dadien any survivors witnesses on the ground have reported a terrifying sight during the night they saw a big ball of fire falling from the sky [Music] we had to find out where the aircraft was and if there was anyone alive they could save [Music] the next day searchers make their way to the crash site but all 47 of the people on board are dead investigators need to know if a faulty cockpit instrument was giving the crew of flight 201 misleading data about the position of their plane [Music] they test the displays and the gyros that feed them well this one seems to work fine they find nothing wrong with the first officer's instrument and they're on the same test on the captain's attitude indicator at first the captain's instrument seems fine too then they notice something odd hang on it seems to be stuck occasionally the display momentarily freezes in place the attitude indicator stops moving even though the gyro feeding it is still in motion [Music] investigators need to know what's causing the failure they test every wire connecting the display to the gyro [Music] no wonder finally they find the culprit [Music] this wire is hanging by a thread the discovery gives new meaning to the bizarre rolling motion captured by the flight data recorder the captain's instrument and the flight recorder are both fed by the same gyro since the captain's gyro was broken it was sending faulty roll data to the recorder copper 201 didn't really make any quick rolling maneuvers at all okay let's see what the plan was really doing by carefully analyzing other parameters in the flight data recorder they managed to calculate its actual movements and reveal the plane's true motion the red image shows the bad data the pilots were seeing while the solid image shows how copper 201 was actually flying the plane rolls so far to the right it becomes unrecoverable though the pilots don't know it they're now falling from the sky once i got to this point they didn't have a chance but a puzzling question remains it was the captain's gyro that failed in flight and started sending bad data so why did the pilots select it okay let's start investigators go into the type of flight simulator the copper crew used for their 737 training climb to 25 000 and turn right they recreate the flight of coppa 201 now trigger the failure [Music] including the malfunction of the captain's attitude indicator now how did you make the switch wait a minute let me see that that is not the same switch that was on copa201 two different configurations for one small control switch has overwhelming implications for the investigation in the simulator flipping the toggle to the left switches the captain's instrument to an auxiliary gyro independent of the other two on flight 201 flipping the switch to the left puts both instruments on the captain's malfunctioning gyro panama center copper 201 uh level at two five zero roger that cool one with no voice recording from the cockpit of coppa 201 investigators will never know for certain who flipped the switch the wrong way [Music] but they finally collected enough evidence to build a compelling theory of how the flight went so horribly wrong if on cargo 37 runway 34 left clear to land the md-11 is still a popular workhorse for flying cargo fedex relies on the plane to haul millions of tons of freight in and out of crucial hubs like tokyo's narita airport one of the busiest airports in the world narita tower fedex 80 13 miles for 34 left 54 year old kevin mosley is the captain on fedex flight 80. his first officer is 49 year old anthony pino [Music] the two veteran pilots are second in line to land at narita fedex 1892 tower on runway 34 left continue approach fedex 80 roger seven minutes from landing the controller gives the crew an update about the wind conditions on the runway okay copy that the pilots are in the midst of their approach a crucial time in any flight the crew must perform dozens of steps to lose altitude and drop about 400 miles an hour of airspeed before they touch down it's a very busy time in the cockpit on this flight the pilots have an additional challenge to contend with powerful winds any thoughts on landing speed let's add 10 knots make it 164 knots they need to come in faster than usual to combat the gusty conditions landing gear you're down four green clear 500 land 34 left [Music] stable [Music] the plane is dropping 13 feet per second [Music] it will be on the ground in less than five seconds without warning the md-11 is upside down in flames there's a crash of 34 left in this fire fire crews raced to the runway where a massive blaze has engulfed the cockpit of fedex flight 80. it's the biggest air disaster the tokyo airport has ever seen air traffic controllers must now redirect incoming flights away from the burning debris [Music] it takes almost half an hour for firefighters to douse the flames surrounding the cockpit by the time rescuers get inside it's too late for the pilots two people are dead and another md-11 lies burning at the side of a runway this is the first fatal accident in narita airport's 31 year history the aviation world needs to know why this md-11 landing went so wrong [Music] flight 80's cockpit recording is now in the hands of investigators but will it tell them why the pilots couldn't get their plane safely on the ground fedex for 34 left fedex runway 34 left continue approach fedex 80 roger all right let's begin the before landing checklist got it so far so good the approach to narita is textbook landing gear gear down windsor 320 maximum at 34 knots okay stop for a second winds 320 maximum 34. it's right in their face the recording reveals the crew was flying into a strong headwind but it wasn't dangerous enough to explain the crash okay let's go on item cowboy don't let the airplane fly you you fly the airplane and on a gusty blustery day that's in fact what you have to do despite the bumpy ride the pilots don't seem very concerned clear to land 34 left stable stable approach is one of the call outs that more and more carriers have put into their operation specifications that you call out because generally that's a pretty well understood thing if you're stable you can land one minute from the runway and they're joking seems like there is nothing wrong from the recording we can tell that they were really relaxed and teasing each other i think what happened was that the air currents were so rough that it felt like they were in a rodeo riding an untamed horse like cowboys then an automated voice from the altimeter gives investigators an important clue that last part again please 20 10. [Music] it should slow down 50 40 30 20 10. the recording tells investigators the plane's descent didn't slow down when it should have but instead continued dropping at a rapid rate it explains the hard landing but not the crash another critical question remains why didn't the pilots slow their descent till they can answer that question investigators won't know the full story behind the crash of fedex flight 80. kennedy makes a final pre-flight check of his new plane a piper saratoga it's a top-of-the-line single-engine six-seater it was well equipped with a gps a global positioning system the selling point for the saratoga is it has four club seats facing each other in the rear of the aircraft ah seat belts on please there's some headsets back there if you want to listen in [Music] all right battery on fuel pump on and propeller is uh clear the flight to martha's vineyard should take about 90 minutes after that it's just a short hop to hyannis port the route from essex county airport to martin's vineyard he was uh quite familiar he'd done it several times at 8 40 p.m more than two hours behind schedule the flight gets underway 75 knots oh yeah like many private pilots kennedy is flying under visual flight rules or vfr you stay clear of clouds you have to have good visibility you're always looking outside able to see the horizon and orient the airplane using your visual cues and that's the best view in new york you're ever going to get once you turn towards the east you had a nice view of manhattan the hudson river on a good day you could see oh 30 miles or so at altitude kennedy cruises at just 5 500 feet a typical altitude for small planes around 9 30 pm he leaves the mainland coast behind just leave him on talk over there i don't see a thing his flight path was following the coast so he would want to go south over the long island sound to line up and set up for a long straight end for the runway [Music] he expects to reach their first destination in about half an hour we'll have you on the ground by 10 for sure [Music] but by 10 o'clock [Music] martha's in your tower airport security here the air traffic controller at martha's vineyard airport has had no contact with the kennedy plane word on that flight uh negative i haven't been notified of that arrival overdue flights are not uncommon but as the hours pass with no sign of the piper saratoga a chilling reality sets in john f kennedy his wife and sister-in-law are missing without a trace investigators zero in on a theory that may explain the fatal accident that killed john f kennedy jr his wife carolyn and her sister lauren [Music] at the center of it all a pilot in over his head battling a mounting list of pressures no you shouldn't worry no we've got it i'm having problems at work i need to get to this wedding my ankle hurts getting the airplane that's why i bought this airplane i need to get from point a to point b that's the whole point of having this airplane and learning to fly so we're gonna go i think i know why things started to go wrong [Music] one two seven point two five a badly tuned radio and a hazy night allow investigators to imagine a scenario that may explain the flight's tragic end it started after he cleared new york in hazy conditions kennedy would have no visual reference to tell him which way is up as it was getting dark in marginal conditions he was in a very precarious area for visual flight rule vfr flying as he headed out over the water and all those lights were behind him all that visual reference was gone he looks away from his instruments for like a second [Music] 127.25 [Music] remember his frequency was off maybe he was trying to tune the radio he might look to see if the frequency had changed or if he had got it wrong in his mind still nothing just something weird with the radio no big deal while that's going on it's quite easy for the airplane to slip into a little bit of a bank one direction or another if you're in a turn for an extended period of time your inner ear can feel a reverse of the turn and you can become spatially disoriented very easily [Music] what the what it can't be he looks back his instruments are telling him one thing his sense is another what the you have to be well trained to disregard what your brain is saying and look at your instruments work on your scan and fly by your instruments [Music] once he becomes disoriented kennedy is too inexperienced to force himself to believe his instruments no matter what his senses are telling him nothing's working so it's the only thing that fits spatial disorientation everybody ready yes concord's takeoff speed is 228 miles per hour 46 miles faster than a 747 far green the planes for afterburners ignite giving the engines the boost they need to achieve that incredible speed as it passes you you feel it and you hear it because it is loud and strong and it it's just a beautiful sight to the spectator and the aviator b1 the first officer tells the captain they've reached v1 or decision speed they're now going too quickly to abort the takeoff you cannot stop anymore you have to go on you have to continue take off whatever happens suddenly the plane begins veering left stop the flight engineer urges the captain to abort to take off but it's too late to stop captain martin lifts the supersonic jet into the air gillian realizes he's now watching a disaster this was a very unexpected situation to see frames on an aircraft that is departing on the runway you don't have time to lose so immediately i've pushed the red button which is a button for alert 4590 you have flames behind you roger the plane is engulfed in flames failure engine 2 engine fire procedure captain marti struggles for control as the engineer shuts down the burning engine and activates a fire extinguisher the plane's air speed is now dangerously low yes pcsp something is happening something that is not covered by training something that in pilot career you don't want to face mojoless scrambles to clear other planes from concord's path i wanted to clear the traffic to let him any option possible first officer marco wants to head for a nearby airport but the crew can't outfly the fire that is rapidly consuming their plane shocking images of the unfolding disaster are captured by amateur video in the cabin panic and terror [Music] the supersonic marvel of modern aviation slams into an airport hotel i could see a kind of big uh like a big mushroom of smoke i think into the very last moments where i was thinking that something will save the situation i remember that i just sat down on the on the carpet floor of the control tower up there and i cried [Music] how much fuel have we used flight engineer jill jardineau keeps a vigilant eye on fuel consumption we've got 800 kilos concord burns through it at an astonishing rate in the short taxi to the runway the plane's four engines have already used as much fuel as the average car uses in six months [Music] booking a seat on the famed jet requires deep pockets the return fair to new york costs more than nine thousand dollars it was not something unaffordable for those people we had on board some of them will tell you that they didn't even know how much they were paying air france four five nine zero runway two six right clear for takeoff four five nine zero cleared for takeoff two six right the tower controller today is gillard i was stationed in the southern control tower which has a very good view over the two runways that we use this day was the same as usual i gave him the takeoff clearance the first officer tells the captain they've reached v1 or decision speed they're now going too quickly to abort the takeoff you cannot stop anymore you have to go on you have to continue take off whatever happens watch out suddenly the plane begins veering left stop the flight engineer urges the captain to abort to take off but it's too late to stop captain martin lifts the supersonic jet into the air gillian realizes he's now watching a disaster this was a very unexpected situation to see frames on an aircraft that is departing on the runway you don't have time to lose so immediately i've pushed the red button which is a button for aled for 590 you have flames behind you roger the plane is engulfed in flames failure engine 2 engine fire procedure captain marti struggles for control as the engineer shuts down the burning engine and activates a fire extinguisher what's the plane's air speed is now dangerously low something is happening something that is not covered by training something that in pilot career you don't want to face first officer marco wants to head for a nearby airport but the crew can't outfly the fire that is rapidly consuming their plane [Music] the supersonic marvel of modern aviation slams into an airport hotel i could see a kind of big uh like a big mushroom of smoke i think into the very last moments where i was thinking that something will save the situation november 4th 2008 alleged 45 is cruising over central mexico victor mike charlie radar contact descend to two zero zero two zero zero metroli sanchez and martino liva are at the controls both pilots are captains but tonight captain oliva is flying the plane i'll start setting 250 over them okay sounds right to me the flight is a special government charter we must be getting close the country's interior minister and his entourage are flying to mexico city the politicians are on their way back to the capitol after a day of talks aimed at combating the nation's skyrocketing rate of violent crime the mexican government has chartered a learjet 45 for the flight it's a high-performance aircraft that's also economical to fly victor mike charlie descend to 105 000 feet altimeter 3024 one five thousand with thirty twenty four my charlie a thousand feet until we level up thanks alvaro as the leader jet nears the outskirts of mexico city the pilots prepare to land london lights check victor mike charlie reduce your speed to 180 knots radiation speed 280 my charlie [Music] the air traffic controller asks the learjet crew to slow down to maintain their position in the lineup of planes [Music] should i pull the nose up no leave it leave it for now tonight alvaro sanchez is serving as something of a mentor but we're about to level up right yes he's more experienced in the learjet than captain oliva there speed stabilized okay this is one of the busiest and most critical stages of any flight sanchez extends the flap so he can further reduce their speed give me 800 please 800. below them mexico city is a sprawling metropolis of 20 million people with some of the worst traffic in the world a sea of cars fills the downtown district oh my god [Music] warning the learjet goes into a steep dive and plummets toward the ground what do we do give it to me give it to me the first officer calls for control of the plane he holds his control column back trying to pull the plane out of the dive eureka bjorkstam is in the street below waiting for a cab all of a sudden i saw this plane flying like really low i had the time to turn around and i started running away from it but of course the plane was a little bit faster than what i was i remember thinking that well this is it this is it for me [Music] we have a few minutes show me that report despite some damage from fire and impact forces technicians have been able to recover the recorded data we knew we didn't have fdr we were glad to hear though that the cvr did work and that the accident flight had been captured all right i think we waited long enough let's hear it victor mike charlie reduce your speed to 180 knots reducing speed 280 my charlie because it's a small aircraft we could hear not just all the sounds that were in the in the cockpit but we could also hear the the sounds in the cabin we must be getting close as they listened to the moments just before the crash they hear nothing out of the ordinary no leave it leave it for now one of the things that it did reassure us is that there was not an intentional act that brought down the aircraft there was no sound similar to a struggle there was no sounds of a explosive device and so that helped close the book on on that aspect of the investigation the mystery of what did cause the crash persists investigators listen as the pilots descend toward the runway they'll end up in front of us all seems well until one of the interesting things that we did here was that the flight crew did mention uh turbulence all right sounds like that's where the trouble starts where we at 14 seconds before hitting the ground it seems the learjet hit a patch of violently unstable air oh my god all of a sudden boom they're upside down plummeting towards the ground [Music] without the flight data the voice recording leaves investigators with only a partial picture we don't know exactly what each of these pilots was thinking at the time we don't know what control inputs were being made but it shows that there was that confusion factor in the cockpit of what to do how to recover the aircraft from the upset they don't seem to know what hit them give it to me you know hearing that sound and you know putting myself in them their place and knowing what that outcome is going to be it's gotta be horrible they tried to pull out it wasn't enough they had so little time it's so little altitude [Music] [Music] we had a normal flight coming in and then we had a loss of control relatively quick uh there was no evidence of any mechanical failure so what do you think wake turbulence so we had to really look at the possibility of a wake turbulence event wake turbulence forms when the low pressure air above the wing draws high pressure air upward creating a swirling vortex that trails behind the aircraft as it flies as a plane flies along each of its wing tips is generating a tiny horizontal tornado called a wingtip vortex the powerful vortices can linger in the air for minutes at a time creating an invisible hazard for other aircraft when a smaller plane flies into these rotating columns of air at low altitude they can spin out of control and crash into the ground within seconds the commuter flight from belfast northern ireland was supposed to land in cork at 9am maybe teddy thirty minutes later it's still circling the airport cork faces out to the atlantic so fog is is very common and fog will roll in and it will roll out sometimes at no notice in our part of the world we have a saying it was like pea soup because it was very very thick hopefully land soon got work to do there are 10 passengers waiting to land this morning including lawrence wilson traveling to cork for the day on business i was going to cork to do forklift truck trailing i had been in that same location doing the same course several times before so it was sort of a really old heart to gun down i've done it before today's flight is aboard a fair child metro 3. flying the plane today is first officer andrew kendall of england while he concentrates on circling over cork spanish captain jordi sola lopez is checking the weather at nearby airports the surface wind is calm visibility is 900 meters in fog oh copy thanks very much and the weather is it improving in cork at 9 35 the controller tells the captain the fog is lifted slightly visibility and touchdown zone is 500 meters [Music] okay in that case any chance to perform one approach there you are clear to land one way one seven greater land runway one seven after 30 minutes circling the airport the crew must now shift focus to the complex task of getting their plane on the ground [Music] we're good i've landed and worse glide slope is coming in the pilot confirms the plane is lining up with the runway okay guys and they're descending at the correct speed speed's okay [Music] i took control of their power okay the captain tells the first officer he'll adjust the engine power during the landing that's fine yeah all day lights are on landing gear is down [Music] yes the weather is much better here [Music] i was on the left hand side of the plane looking out just behind the wing i remember i couldn't see anything no runway nothing at all the captain pulls the thrust levers back to reduce power unexpectedly the plane rolls hard to the left [Music] go around i remember looking out the window and seeing grass about 10 foot below me well i knew that wasn't good thought i was gone i did for a minute or two i thought i was gone i thought this is that i'm i made it here that's all's about it black box data from flight 7100 is finally in the hands of investigators but will it give them the breakthrough they're hoping for oh copy thanks very much the voice recorder has captured the pilot's conversation in the crucial moments before the crash speed's okay liddy listens as the pilots discuss their landing preparations at this stage everything seems normal i took control of their power okay then he hears something unexpected yeah that's that's fine yeah the captain's gonna handle the power what kind of plan is that they're starting to deviate from standard procedures by doing things like splitting command of the aircraft or controlling the aircraft which is not a good idea normally the pilot flying the plane would be the one adjusting the engine throttles if someone else is making those changes there's going to be a delay in the response from the pilot flying an unnecessary and undesired response but it's not only that decision that seems off there's also something odd about the sound of the engines the carpet voice recorder can also give you a lot of information about the acceleration of the engines the engine has been powered up the engine has been powered down so you can actually glean quite an amount of information about that going out go around can you try and just bring up the engine sounds sounds like those two engines were operating at different power levels the difficulty in this situation is that it's a twin-engine aircraft so the cockpit voice recorder will tell you something is going on but it doesn't tell you which engine it actually is searching for something that could explain the mysterious sounds coming from the engines liddy studies engine performance data from the flight recorder it confirms his suspicion the left engine was producing more power than the right engine something not uncommon on prop planes like the metro 3 uneven engine thrust does make it slightly more difficult to keep the plane flying level especially at low air speeds it's one more thing for pilots to think about during a complicated landing wait a minute lady notices something even more troubling it looks like engine number one went into reverse turboprop engines use the angle or pitch of the blades to change the direction of airflow the propeller has an angle and through rotation takes a bite out of air like a a screw when selecting reverse what's happening to the propeller pitch is it's flattening out and going into a negative blade angle causing air to be pushed forward instead of aft that is one thing you don't want to happen in flight because it can actually reduce the airplane to below stalling speed so the airplane will actually stall the data suggests the captain brought the power levers back too far putting the more powerful left engine into reverse if one were to do that in flight you're gonna have a forward moment on the right wing you're going to have an aft moment on the left wing in this case it caused a severe roll to the left go around the captain immediately tried to correct his mistake by pushing the throttles forward but again the uneven engine thrust caught him off guard left engine powered up faster push them over to the right that role was and he always quite vicious and actually caused the airplane to go right over on the side i took control of their power after two aborted landings perhaps the captain was trying to help the first officer deal with the power imbalance by taking control of the throttles okay minimum but it only made matters worse if the first officer who was the pilot flying it had control of the power levers and the yoke the flight controls he would have felt and known where the power levers were at thanks to the whole task of steering the aircraft much more difficult because you don't have control over the power the canadian arctic is one of the toughest environments on the planet winters here are brutal eight months long with temperatures plunging to minus 40 degrees fahrenheit even now during the long days of the arctic summer the average temperature is barely above freezing there are no roads to this part of the world virtually the only way to get here is by air resolute bay airport is the only one in the region equipped with navigational aids for automated landing approaches first air flight 6560 is a charter flying passengers and cargo to the small community zero degrees at eight pounds first officer david hare started business before setting his sights on aviation he joined first air four years ago first air 6560 copy thank you [Music] there we go captain blair rutherford has been with the airline for more than 15 years might as well do yours too heading zero to nine degrees got it this close to the magnetic north pole pilots need to calibrate their compasses frequently using their gps okay let's go over the approach okay altitude alert set to 2200. because of the heavy fog the crew will be relying on their autopilot during the approach checklist complete autopilot this way they don't have to worry about lining up with a runway visually the computer will do all the work until they're ready to touch down [Music] 6560 or landing on runway 35 true it's a little wet first air 6560 copy 35 true we were 10 miles from runway [Music] at 11 40 am flight 6560 begins its final approach to the runway [Music] descending through thousand feet first air 6560 we're three miles out on final uh we're over the shoreline now all right [Music] the sound of an urgent alarm fills the cockpit go around go for it it's the low altitude warning to the pilots it seems impossible they don't even have the runway in sight yet go around go around thrust the captain decides to abort the landing but it may be too late flight 6560 slams into the ground at 180 miles an hour the plane skids across the crest of a hill and bursts into flames the priority now get help to any survivors think to yourself wow i really hope someone survived this but you know this is going to be bad [Music] at the crash site gabrielle pelkey sits alone in a nightmare she found herself with a broken leg cut some bruises and concern for her little sister cheyenne [Music] geologist nicole williamson has also survived gabrielle gabriel oh my god when nicole got to gabrielle you're okay you're okay she made sure that gabrielle was kept warm and that was something that probably helped her with her own survival this is my first plane crash yeah meet you sweetie me too for nicole to hear that from from a child it sort of brought home you know the the innocence of it all right trying to survive at that moment it was a way of focusing on each other [Music] as they stumble through the wreckage they find only one other survivor robin wiley they managed to get to a location where they felt okay this is probably a safe location and wait and hope for the best the three survivors are suffering from shock and shivering in near freezing temperatures if help doesn't arrive soon they may die from exposure news of the disaster reaches air crash investigators still in flight including the tsp's brian mcdonald we kind of looked at each other in disbelief as if you know somebody changing the start of the exercise to create more realism or is this really happening we need to hit the ground running [Music] now you're quickly changing gears into thinking about all the things you have to do now to get ready and start reacting to this actual accident as the investigators touch down they grapple with the realization that the mock exercise they were expecting is now a very real catastrophe but there is some good news because of operation then no rescuers are able to reach the survivors just 20 minutes after the accident there are survivors i repeat there are survivors having been to several aircraft crashes throughout my my 20 20-year career um shock would be an understatement that these people had survived they didn't appear to have any life-threatening injuries so we elected to fairly rapidly stabilize some immediate fractures get them on some stretchers and get them down to a facility that could properly evaluate and treat them in an environment that was more stable rescuers combed through the wreckage [Music] [Applause] but they quickly realized no one else has survived the crash 12 people are dead [Music] passing the airport the pilots descend below the minimum safe altitude of 5000 feet as they turn back towards the runway they suddenly lose sight of the runway lights [Music] you go into the dark and then you completely miss your references the pilots don't realize that a hill is blocking their view because the hill isn't on their chart losing the visual sight of the airport would cause the pilots to look even further and lose more altitude before they even know they're in danger it's too late as they begin their descent with no tower to guide them captain gatki's radio communications are critical delta's taxiing out a takeoff on runway four they're using four king air a 90 a much smaller twin turbo prop is taxiing on to runway four king air one one two seven delta holding short of runway four be uh to take in the runway for departure the commuter plane is now 90 seconds to touchdown 500 the king air is in position and holding on short final for runway 1 3 400. the aircraft's going to hold in position on runway 4. or are you guys going to take off holding for departure okay we'll get through your intersection in just a second sir we appreciate that finals are complete at the same moment flight instructor paul walker is in a hangar at quincy airport max reverse oh christ we heard this explosion that that walls and windows shook and as i came outside what i saw looked like a mushroom cloud from when you see the films of the atomic bombs going off at quincy airport paul walker rushes toward burning wreckage on the runway i would say i was at the crash site in less than a minute and a half as he draws closer to the fire walker makes a bone-chilling discovery it's not only the king air engulfed in flames two planes are on fire open the door please someone help open the door open the door another pilot comes to help walker on the runway the main exit an air stair door is directly behind the cockpit i grabbed the handle and attempted to open the door tried everything i could do in the world and i could not get that door to unlatched i can't do this i'm gonna get help leaving the airplane was one of the more difficult things i've ever done in my life when i looked at the captain there was part of me that knows that she knew that by the time i got back it would be it would be too late that that i was literally their last hope [Applause] moments later all hope for the crash survivors is lost [Music] it was easily less than two minutes from the time i was standing by the left wing till it exploded i felt like i failed [Music] despite paul walker's heroic efforts four pilots and ten passengers are dead it's one of the worst runway accidents in north american history 14 people are dead after a fiery crash ntsb investigators are under the gun nora marshall is an expert in crash survival factors why no one escaped flight 5925 is a puzzle she wants to solve the thing that stands out in my mind is that these people had a chance if the exits had opened to survive the air stair door now becomes the focus of marshall's investigation yeah i'm 100 sure that's it as the first person to reach the door paul walker's testimony is key he's certain he found the handle in the six o'clock or open position finding the handle in the six o'clock positions suggested to me that the first officer had moved the handle to the open position it's the first officer's responsibility to open the exit doors emergency procedures call for the captain to shut down the airplane while the evacuation is underway i can't get it open [Music] had the airsteer door opened right away it may have allowed everybody off the airplane 12 lives might have been saved if only the door had opened to know that they survived an accident and weren't able to get out is hard it's very hard [Music] so with the handle like this the door should open the focus now shifts to the mechanics of the door itself fire in the cabin severely damaged the door frame but the main components have all been recovered okay let's see what this can tell us the locking mechanism is simple with three cam locks on each side a single cable connects the door handle to the cams when the handle turns the cable rotates all the cams to lock or unlock the door the cams have to rotate about 150 degrees from the locked position for the door to be open we found that the cams were all either locked or partially locked what could have prevented them from unlocking what have we here marshall discovers the locking cable is fractured this could be the smoking gun she's been looking for with the cable having been snapped you would want to understand that because if it was not intact it wasn't going to rotate the cams but confirming the theory requires more analysis if she can prove that the cable snapped on impact marshall will have solved the mystery of the jammed door that cost 12 people their lives [Music] lab tests on the cable that locks and unlocks the main door are a disappointment the critical component did not break on impact the cable had broken and the metal urges determined that that was a result of heat and stress from the post-crash fire [Music] in other words the critical cable didn't break until after the fire killed everyone on board what jammed the door is still a mystery asiana flight 214 is nearing the end of an overnight flight from seoul korea to san francisco ben levy is a frequent flyer returning home i fly pretty often for business or visiting my family i'm originally from france and so you know i fly long distance a lot i fly in and out of sfo a lot so i know the airport very well [Music] many of the other 291 passengers are chinese including a group of teenagers on their way to summer camp in the united states [Music] asiana 214 heavy runway 2 8 left cleared to land landing checklist complete clear to land on glide path the pilots check a set of lights beside the runway that can help guide them to a safe landing check the plane is less than a minute from the runway when ben levy realizes something is wrong i remember noticing that there's a small pier that extend out of the runway and i'm like wow we're very low and i dismiss the thought thinking well what can go wrong there's all the technology on board to make sure that those guys don't don't mess up in the cockpit speed a crisis hits [Music] the captain pulls up the nose and tries to climb hang on the brutal impact has torn the tail off the body of the plane an engine is burning if fire spreads to the fuel tanks the plane could explode let's see if we can open this door but getting down to the ground will not be easy i'm expecting at that point to see a slide open right the hole like hey you open the door the slide is going to open and there's no slide whoa okay help each other come on luckily some crumpled pieces of the fuselage have formed a makeshift set of stairs ben levy stays by the door to help the other passengers climb down come on at san francisco international airport runway 28 l is a disaster zone fire crews battled to keep flames from consuming the fuselage of asiana flight 214 with rescuers now on board to help the injured ben levy finally heads to safety investigators search for a lead in the crash of asiana 214 air traffic controllers provide some answers visibility was 10 miles a few clouds not an issue controllers tell investigators that it was a normal day except for the fact that some runway equipment was not in operation and that runway's glide slope was was out of service electronic equipment installed on runways can send signals to a plane's autopilot the signals can help guide the plane down at a precise angle [Music] but the main runway at the airport is under construction and the equipment is switched off it's a revealing discovery a combination of high traffic and compact runways have earned san francisco airport a reputation for difficult landings to manage the high traffic controllers often ask pilots to come in fast and steep leaving lower altitudes open for departing planes to climb out very often we are given what we call the slam dunk approach where we're high and we have to get down quickly and it does create a little bit of a challenge [Applause] all right so there's san francisco airport palo alto is down here you know roger cox knows firsthand how challenging landing at san francisco airport can be i could say from my own personal experience planning there many many times it's very easy to get high and hot and you have to really stay on top of the airplane asiana 214 heavy runway 2-8 left cleared to land it all leads to some troubling questions were the asiana pilots flying into danger did they face an extraordinary risk at an airport notorious for difficult landings so he'd be coming in from this direction straight across the bay roger cox studies airport radar records he wants to know if controllers assigned asiana flight 214 an approach that was too fast and steep to fly safely there were some complaints initially from the operator that this crew was being asked to do something was unreasonable so we wanted to spend quite a bit of time looking at whether that was true same instructions same approach no one else had a problem airport records reveal controllers gave two other planes the same instructions just before asiana touched down both landed safely he can't fault the controller they managed to land triple sevens safely without any difficulty so although it is a somewhat challenging environment we found that nothing that atc did really caused the accident it's another dead end for now what brought down asiana 214 remains a mystery it's a quiet sunday evening at amsterdam skipper airport everybody ready for takeoff really it's all looking good an ml cargo jet is fueled and ready to depart for tel aviv the freighter's four massive pratt and whitney engines pump out two hundred thousand pounds of thrust ll-1862 climb flight level two one zero flight level two one zero roger the controller clears them for a climb to twenty one thousand feet everything seems normal for the first seven minutes of flight what the hell [Music] the 747 is rolling violently to the right both engines on the right wing have suddenly died speed bird 943 climb flight level two eight zero at skip hole air traffic control the evening routine is about to be shattered hello1862 [Music] mayday mayday we have an emergency ll1862 do you wish to return to schiphol affirmative mayday mayday mayday turn right heading 260. the crew now has a heading back to the airport but with hydraulics failing the captain is having more and more difficulty controlling the plane [Music] flight 1862 is less than three minutes from landing the plane is once again rolling to the right and this time it's worse ll further right heading 3-1-0 heading 3-1-0 controllers urge the pilots to correct their course to the runway i can't hold it i can hold it uh we have a controlling problem oh no no come on going down going down 1862 going down going down ll 1862 has slammed into an 11 11-story apartment block the bail murmur apartment complex home to thousands of people is engulfed in flames [Music] the next morning daylight reveals the overwhelming scale of the disaster the plummeting jet has cut the apartment block completely in two there's almost nothing left of the plane no one aboard has survived dig in guys we need those black boxes robert benson is a veteran investigator with the u.s national transportation safety board he knows the team and knows just how crucial the voice and data recorders can be we use those extensively along with examination of wreckage to nail down almost to an nth degree what happened sometimes investigators face a difficult search through a tangled mess of pulverized aircraft parts and building debris hang on that's an engine part goes over there while investigators sort through the mountains of debris witness reports provide a stunning lead the earliest information that i think the investigators had which gave them clues that there was more to this crash than just the pilots losing power on two engines was that witnesses saw things happening to the airplane and they reported this just minutes before the crash they saw what looked like two jet engines falling into lake hoymer east of the airport [Music] two engines in this lake let's find them please two engines were missing and that became the focus of the investigation divers immediately take to the water in search of the fallen debris what they find could solve this mystery within hours the search of lake hoymer pays off investigators recover one of flight 1862's right side engines a look at the serial number reveals its engine number four [Music] the 747's engines are numbered from left to right number four is the outermost engine on the right wing searchers also recover debris from the forward edge of the right wing control surfaces that are crucial for controlling the plane um we've got the loss of leading edge components flaps and slats led us to believe that the aircraft was extremely difficult to fly safely the mystery now is what caused the engines to fall off was it terrorism a mechanical failure or something else investigators rushed the recovered wreckage to a forensic lab and tested for explosive residue you have to look at every single part to either rule it in or out but there's no evidence of any explosion we looked at every single part ruled out a missile one thing is now certain the ll disaster has nothing to do with terrorism but with engine 3 still missing the case is far from being solved it's early morning on the indonesian island of java [Music] a boeing 737 flies high overhead the crew of garuda flight 200 is getting ready to land there are 133 passengers in the cabin they're nearing the end of a short flight from the indonesian capital of jakarta 265 miles southeast of the city of jakarta kyle quinlan is also headed to joe jakarta he's an air force security officer i was working for 34 vrp squadrons they're the guys who look after the security for prime minister heads of government and stuff like that we had to travel internally on civilian aircraft the plane is less than 15 miles from the airport whoa strong wind they hit some slight turbulence cabrito two zero zero you're clear to approach runaway zero niner let me know when you have the runway inside copy that the bumpy ride doesn't alarm the experienced captain flaps one he continues with a landing approach flaps one and calls for the flaps to be extended flaps increase the wing surface area adding the crucial extra lift needed at slower speeds [Music] as the plane descends quinlan begins to feel uneasy his air force training tells him something's not right when you travel on aircraft so frequent you become aware of your surroundings and for me it was when we were standing and looking out the window and thinking we're not supposed to be at this height for how fast we were going something's off huh feel the lat two miles out quinlan can't shake the feeling the plane's dropping too fast what can you do you're stuck here you know like there's nothing that you can do except for tighten up the seat belt and just hang on and just ride this out and hopefully we make it you know go around captain go around we landed and we bounced it's chaos as the plane bounces a second time and i just remember thinking just hang on hang on boy hang on then a third impact in the plane isn't stopping we're scraping on the belly i can hear the wings the engines everything wow many passengers are badly injured and the fire is spreading fast kyle kunman realizes there's no time to wait for rescue once we pulled up we still operate and to see so many people who have busted up and couldn't do anything i needed to do something and and help these people out investigators search for clues to explain why garuda flight 200 crashed was the plane configured properly perhaps there was something wrong with the wing flaps pilots rely on for landing the flap system on a modern jet liner like a 737 create greater lift and and that means that we can approach an airport we can take off from an airport with a much lower and safer airspeed the team scrutinizes the mechanical rods or screw jacks that move the flaps we needed to look at the flap setting what flap setting can we establish from the wreckage we measured the screw jack extension to establish what the flap setting was what they find is astonishing doesn't look like the flaps are all the way out the screw jacks show a flat setting of just five degrees not nearly enough for a safe landing we just could not believe that the aircraft would have landed with only five degrees to provide enough lift on landing the flaps of a 737 are usually extended step by step from zero all the way to 40 degrees as the plane slows and descends towards the runway it's hard to overstate the value of the flap systems on a modern jetliner investigators aren't sure how the flaps ended up at only 5 degrees the flap mechanism was damaged in the crash and may have moved on impact to be certain of how the flaps were set they need to know what's on the flight recorders we need that data from the black boxes some of that data is proving elusive australian technicians have been unable to download the cockpit voice recording it's a huge blow desperate to hear what's on the device investigators send it to the u.s manufacturer hoping experts there can recover the recording so steps were taken to hand carry the recorder to the factory so that the data could be downloaded [Music] crash investigators are having better luck with the second black box the flight data recorder they've managed to download all of its stored information we were able to get information about the flap settings the speed on the approach the thrust reverser deployment the dynamics of the approach and landing itself the data reveals the 737 was coming in for its landing blazingly fast flight 200 hit the ground at over 250 miles an hour more than 100 miles an hour faster than normal we're not stopping this is a ridiculous amount of speed to approach an airport with uh with the intent of landing the plane speed impact is so fast it bounces twice before skidding into the rice field the speed of the aircraft on short final and on touchdown so excessive there was no way it was going to stop but why did the pilots touch down on the runway at such a catastrophically high speed pull up the data for the flaps would you please there the flaps were set for five degrees never more than five degrees the data confirms what the screw jack suggested to investigators the flaps on flight 200's wings were in a bizarre position one that is never used during landing ups six has crashed into a military base 10 miles from dubai international airport neither pilot has survived [Music] it's one of dubai's worst ever aviation disasters beyond the outer edge of the wreckage field investigators make an unexpected find we looked outside the burned area and saw this little shrub maybe three feet high just sitting out by itself in the dirt burned far away from the main area inside that bush was one small lithium battery that had burned blown itself up and shot out of the wreckage into the little bush the small piece of evidence suggests a terrifying new theory the cargo manifest reveals ups 6 had dozens of shipments of lithium batteries or consumer electronics that contain them 81 000 batteries that's a lot of hazardous cargo once we've got the cargo manifest and seen the total volume of of these batteries that were on board we're heading in the right direction lithium batteries are extremely flammable they can provide up to 10 times the energy of regular alkaline batteries which is why they last longer in electronics but their volatile chemical composition means they can burst into flames if they're damaged is that what happened in the cargo hold of ups flight six joseph panahiatu is a fire and explosive expert for the ntsb there's been instances where they're trying to load a pallet of cargo which contains a lot of batteries and the catches on fire at the airport before getting onto the airplane so we're aware that that is a possibility you can't automatically conclude that that's what it is but it's one of the prime suspects demand for lithium batteries has never been higher several billion are manufactured and shipped around the world every year lithium batteries are on everything that we do they're in our cars they're in our homes they're in every airplane we get on they are everywhere at a testing facility in the united states straker runs lab tests to explore just how flammable lithium batteries can be the results are astonishing when they heat a single box containing 100 batteries it quickly ignites sending up flames that reach temperatures of 2 000 degrees fahrenheit we were completely surprised at how a small double a size lithium battery would uh overheat and then vent and practically just explode into a problem which you couldn't contain the black box flight data of ups six has been downloaded investigators study each parameter trying to reconstruct how the plane broke down over time the next step is to map the failures and use them to trace the path of the fire the data paints a vivid picture of an intense fire that burn through the cargo hold at a critical location all the failures are right here behind the cockpit so what was in the containers beneath those systems bingo lithium batteries in the crowded cargo deck the flames soon spread to other containers many of which also contained batteries fire main deck forward by the time the crew gets a warning the fire is already burning too intensely for the suppression system to put it out the manual flight control system is in the direct path of the fire locally the autopilot system is not it can still send electrical signals directly to the servos that operate the plane's controls [Music] but when the pilot switches off the autopilot the plane becomes nearly impossible to fly i have no pitch control of the airplane fire quickly destroys more systems including the captain's oxygen supply and the landing gear controls i have no idea but striker believes the tragedy would have been even worse if not for the final actions of the first officer 300 feet any runway is available at the last moment in a plane he could barely control it's able to climb immediately climb immediately he manages to narrowly avoid a suburb of dubai investigators have one final question the 747's cargo area is equipped with a flame resistant liner it wraps the entire cargo hold in a protective shield it should have protected the critical systems investigators need to know why the cargo liner failed it's now certain that an intense fire fueled by a large cargo of batteries crippled ups flight six to find out how fire could have burned through the plane's protective cargo liner investigators conduct another dramatic test the cargo liner failed the flames spread quickly eating through vital control systems the final report highlights the need for better smoke detectors and fire extinguishers and cargo holds it also calls for new fire resistant cargo containers at ups the entire company mourned the loss of their colleagues [Music] even before the report came out they took steps to keep their pilots safer the company is testing a new cargo container that can withstand a 1200 degree fire for up to four hours ups has also improved safety in the cockpit the new system creates a sealed air bubble for the pilots that allows them to see both their instruments and the view ahead if the cockpit ever fills with smoke sao paulo brazil is the largest city in south america with 16 million residents morning rush hour is always a crawl the traffic overhead is busy too residential neighborhoods are packed tight around congonias airport one of brazil's busiest hubs every day more than 500 flights come and go from this airport today 89 passengers are getting ready for a short hop from sao paulo to rio de janeiro they're flying on tam airlines the brazilian company has just won an award for best regional carrier and wants everyone to know it good morning how are you doing great one of tam's most experienced pilots is in command jose antonio moreno has almost 6 500 flight hours before star checklist yes captain already done good go ahead and call the tower so we can get these engines started you got it first officer ricardo luis gomez is less experienced the 27 year old has only been qualified to fly the [ __ ] 100 for one week sao paulo tam 402 we're ready to go and requesting engine start pam you're clear to start fire them up starting number one [Music] engine two the short haul jet is powered by twin rolls-royce engines [Music] flight 402 is underway [Music] v1 rotate it seems like a routine takeoff no no no no then less than 50 feet in the air the plane rolls dangerously right the captain needs to level the plane fast the captain's efforts start to pay off the wings move back towards level [Music] what was that it's a brief reprieve the airspeed is dropping dangerously low worse the captain can't keep the plane level [Music] it has to be an absolutely sick feeling for that flight crew at that point [Music] it's been three days since tam flight 402 crashed on takeoff now with the help of black box data investigators may soon know why [Music] the flight recorder has captured dozens of parameters about the focker 100 short flight [Music] but will it be enough to tell them why the plane rolled so suddenly out of control as they study the data investigators immediately noticed something unusual look at engine number two the power's all over the place can you bring up all the data on the thruster versus there's another parameter investigators are eager to see okay so so you saw something moving at the back of the engine a witness told investigators he saw one of the plane's thrust reversers operating just before the crash thrust reversers are buckets deployed on landing to redirect the flow of engine exhaust pushing it forward to help the plane slow down pilots never use them in the air if a thrust reverser did somehow deploy in flight it could easily cause the type of steep right rule that doomed flight 402 for investigators witness accounts aren't enough they need hard evidence they soon find it in the flight data there just after takeoff the right thrust reverser moves back and forth twice and then stays in the dangerous deployed position this shouldn't even be possible investigators test the actuators that move the reversers looking for a failure that might explain why one of them opened during flight but there's no sign of any malfunction they also test the electronics that detect when the plane's wheels are safely on the ground they need to check every circuit [Music] the exhaustive effort pays off with the discovery of a faulty sensor it was failing intermittently signaling the reverser to open and close [Music] the result was chaos in the cockpit the sensor failure was intermittent so the buckets the buckets open and closed and opened again but there's one big problem with what investigators have uncovered the [ __ ] 100 has an additional safety net that should have kept the plane safe even after the sensor failed if a faulty thrust reverser deploys on takeoff power to the affected engine is supposed to drop to idle automatically to prevent the reverser from acting as a brake no alarm sounds in the cockpit but the safety system kicks in immediately the pilots don't have to do a thing the [ __ ] 100 is more than enough power to climb safely on just one engine so the question remains why didn't flight 402 make it safely away from congones after being delayed for more than an hour span air flight 502.2 is finally getting back underway [Music] there are 166 passengers on board many of them looking to escape the stifling heat of madrid in august everyone was full of anticipation has come to spain from sweden she is on her way to the canary islands to meet some friends most of europe has holidays different summer holidays in august i was going to grand canaria to meet my girlfriend we were going to have one week's holidays spanier 5022 nexon line on runway three six left okay here we go [Music] at 223 the md-82 aircraft start speeding down the runway 100 the captain watches their speed they can't lift off until they reach 157 knots take off speed v1 rotate [Music] an alarm warns the pilots something is going wrong [Music] first officer increases power but he's losing control of the pipe how the hell do you turn off that warning the plane is less than 40 feet from the ground oh god just seconds after takeoff flight 5022 slams into a riverbank beside the runway the plane with 172 people on board is now shattered wreckage spread over half a mile [Music] investigators into the crash of span air flight 502.2 immediately focused their efforts on recovering the plane's two black boxes or flight recorders once they download the data it could provide vital clues about what went wrong at the crash site marks on the ground paint a vivid picture here's our first impact revealing just how quickly flight 5022 turned to disaster the first impact marks are just 200 feet from the runway the plane then passed over a road and slid another 1800 feet before crashing on the far side of a river the timing immediately suggests a theory that might explain the crash let's take a look at this engine engine power is especially crucial during the first few moments of flight if the plane doesn't have enough power it won't achieve the speed it needs to overcome drag and get airborne [Music] investigators study the engines searching for any sign of malfunction both are filled with debris mud and grass ingested during the crash the finding means the engines were spinning at high speed when they hit the ground it was an engine failure that doomed the plane right the engines were fine but something stopped that plane from climbing investigators need a new theory to explain why the md 82 couldn't climb what was it i want maintenance records weather reports pilot records the works let's get to work people okay let's see what the numbers tell us investigators know that for any takeoff the plane's weight and balance must be carefully calculated they review the passenger manifest cargo and fuel load they need to check the total weight as well as where the loads were carried to see if the plane center of gravity shifted dangerously forward or back but it's soon clear this isn't the smoking gum they're looking for well there's nothing wrong with their takeoff weight [Music] controllers in the tower provide a more promising lead they tell investigators that the span air crew called off an earlier takeoff they had some kind of maintenance issue right before takeoff the plane was at the threshold of the runway when the pilots noticed a temperature gauge was giving them faulty readings madrid spanner five zero two two we have a slight problem we have to exit the runway five zero two two taxi to apron tango two estan romeo 11 controllers cleared the md 82 to return to the terminal could the last minute repair be the key to explaining the crash of flight 502.2 investigators need to know [Music] atlantic southeast airlines flight 2311 cruises at 15 000 feet it's the braves year i feel it sorry i don't want to get my hopes up last year still hurts at the controls is captain mark freedline the 34 year old is an experienced pilot with almost 12 000 flight hours the flight attendant prepares the cabin for landing runways inside the crew is just five minutes from touching down 2311 cleared direct to jeff one lincol report the airport in sight expect the visual we do have it in sight 2311. slowing for approach speed the aircraft was normal there was nothing unexpected gear down gear down three green then the captain notices an unusual sound it's weird number one seems to be spinning faster the left just lets us pull in a bit more bringing power down to the left captain friedline tries to compensate for the plane's unexplained pull to the left flight 2311 is less than a thousand feet from the ground and the plane is getting more and more difficult to control [Music] what's going on can you see anything there's nothing what's going on with this thing i can't hold it get out of it [ __ ] come on the plane is rolling to the left and the crew doesn't know why come on god i can't captain friedline fights desperately to save his plane come on no no that's it oh god it's no use [Music] investigators begin the painstaking task of sorting through the wreckage of flight 2311 they're searching for any evidence that might hint at why the embraer 120 rolled sharply to the left and crashed killing everyone on board deep inside the propeller unit investigators uncover an important clue there you are we have a witness mark take a look there's a small mark where two parts of the propeller mechanism slammed together on impact [Music] the witness mark might be enough to tell investigators how the propellers were operating the marks tell ritter the exact angle of the blades when the plane slammed into the ground these guys had a big problem with their left propeller the blades were almost flat the left side propeller blades are at a dangerously low angle one that is never used during flight at three degrees the blades are so flat they would act like a wall blocking the flow of air the plane needs to maintain lift [Music] investigators studied the mechanism used to control the left propeller will you look at this they make a disturbing discovery it's completely worn down the teeth on a key piece of the gear mechanism known as the quill are almost entirely worn away investigators may finally have the lead they've been looking for this is what it's supposed to look like with its teeth worn away the quill can't lock onto the gear system that controls the angle of the propeller blades the discovery might explain why the propeller blade slipped to such a dangerously low angle once we noticed that the quill teeth were severely worn we started theorizing what would happen in that type of situation and it was pretty clear that control of the propeller blade angles could be lost ritter is certain he's found the critical clue worn down teeth on the quill that could have allowed the propeller blades to slip to a dangerous angle but he soon learns there's a big problem with his theory the manufacturer says it's impossible engineers at hamilton standard included a fail-safe feature when they designed the propeller it should be impossible for the blades to go flat during flight if there's ever a problem with the mechanism controlling the angle the blades are designed to move on their own to what's called the feathered position a feathered propeller can't endanger the safety of the flight this has got to be it this has to be connected somehow but ritter isn't convinced by the manufacturer's assurances his gut tells him the worn quill did allow the propeller blades to move to a dangerous angle but without flight data his investigation has hit a wall he has no way to prove the quill brought down flight 2311. what's going on do you see anything there's nothing it's 7 20 a.m high above the jagged coast of norway the crew of atlantic airways 670 reaches the peak altitude for a short 15-minute flight next up is a quick stop on the island of stord to pick up a few more before flying onto their final destination at moulder on the mainland coast steward airport is perched on the edge of a rugged island with rocky cliffs bordering the runway on three sides there's very little margin for error overshoot the runway and you could end up in the sea below shortly before touchdown the crew makes a last-minute change they want to approach stored single runway from the southern end known as runway three three rather than circling around to land from the north end known as runway one five control atlantic six seven zero we'd like to do a visual into runway 3-3 affirmative 6-7-0 the runway is free you are cleared for a visual approach runway 3-3 the straight-in approach will put the airplane on the ground in less than five minutes what's our landing speed 112 knots the crew now enters the busiest time in any flight set speed for final they must simultaneously shed altitude and speed speed set flaps 20 and prepare the plane for touchdown flaps 20 gear down here is down flaps to full collapsible flight 670 is just one minute from the runway reducing thrust [Music] the plane touches down at 7 32 a.m and spoilers no spoilers we're not stopping speed flight 670 is running out of runway desperate to stop his plane captain yerhus takes drastic measures hang on he throws the plane into a sharp turn first right then left hoping to skid to a stop we're going over a local resident records the terrifying scene as aviation fuel burns out of control it takes fire crews nearly two hours to quench the flames four people are dead both pilots have survived but it could have been much worse air traffic controllers at stuart airport can't explain why atlantic airways flight 670 careened over a cliff the other flight had no problem an identical plane landed safely on the same runway just 25 minutes before the crash sven eric strandberg was piloting that plane it was not that wet it was just a little bit damp so we didn't notice uh very much on landing at all so it was uneventful the idea that a wet runway was to blame just doesn't seem to add up you uh describe how the landing looked to you but investigators get a new lead when they talk to some of the firefighters who saw flight 670 land several reports seeing a trail of mist streaming from the plane's wings after it touched down the witnesses stated that the solving vortexes from from the aircraft for us this is one evidence that the lift spoilers were not working as intended when an airplane is in flight the wings create trails of turbulent air known as wingtip vortices but only while the wings are generating lift in there you can actually see this like corkscrews following up from the wings the 146 has six spoilers that should have deployed on touchdown to disrupt that lift and help the plane stick to the runway and stop as soon as you select the spoilers you will feel the airplane sink down towards the runway and you can apply the brakes did the spoilers on flight 670 somehow fail to deploy it may be a difficult question for the team to answer all six of the plane spoilers were destroyed by fire a united nations transport plane the albertina is on a vital mission in central africa estimate of b mandola at two three four seven arrival time zero zero twenty the destination is in doula airport in the british colony of northern rhodesia roger and all however wind one two zero at seven knots visibility five to ten miles with a slight smoke haze controllers and local dignitaries anxiously await the arrival of one of the most important people in the world on board the dc-6 is un secretary general dag hammershaw at least they're willing to talk what else do we know about their latest demands he's flying in from the congo to hold high-level peace talks with the rebel leader the flight left the congolese capital leopoldville a little more than six hours ago for security reasons it's flown an indirect route to andola to prevent an ambush no flight plan has been filed and the pilots have maintained radio silence for most of the flight the mission is a closely guarded secret [Music] are you proceeding to salisbury afternoon negative even at this late stage the crew needs to be secretive about the mission are you staying in andola they don't know who might be listening in negative due to parking difficulties would like to know your intentions we will give them on the ground [Music] go ask the pilot so much longer till we land the secretary general and his delegation should be on the ground in about 10 minutes your light's in sight overhead and dole up descending uh roger report reaching six thousand feet roger okay they're ten minutes away because of the unusual flight path the plane now needs to fly past andola airport and circle back to touchdown on its only runway the crew begins the final swooping left-hand turn that will line them up with a runway below the mission to andola is about to begin a mission that could change the fate of nations the ground in andola controllers are growing concerned [Music] albertina and oles howard do you read the secretary general's plane is overdue the controller contacts other airports in the region salisbury and dole airport have you had any word from the unl patina nothing at all perhaps the albertina's secret mission has taken it to a different destination at the last minute lusaka in dollar airport have you had any contact with the u.n flight negative no contact here the plane carrying one of the most important men on the planet is missing it's a mystery that will haunt andola and the world for decades to come swedish air crash investigator sven hammerberg is entering a world of intrigue and deadly cold war conspiracies a special commission reporting to the un needs him to determine whether a 1961 air disaster was an accident or an assassination the commission knew that i had some experience in that field of old aircraft accidents so they called me in 2013 sven hammerberg joins a new search for the truth gathering evidence to be presented to the united nations my task was to look into the details and see if there were any new information available and i was asked to evaluate the investigations that had been performed before when i look into the basic facts around the crash i look at the trees and the crash site and the statements over radio and so on okay now let's see the elevations he studies the terrain around andola airport he notes the height of the hills he compares what he finds to what's shown on the chart used by the un pilots and he makes a shocking discovery there's a hill here a hill here a hill here but there's nothing marked here here where the crash site is the andola chart does not show any obstacle or higher ground uh west of the field the crew might have been unaware of the hype west of the field since there were no signs of it on the chart hammerberg also discovers that members of the crew flying the secretary general to high-level peace talks had been on duty for 17 of the past 24 hours fatigue is an important factor here the flight had last for six and a half hours and there are signs that some of the crew were quite exhausted even before flight for hammerberg the clues are beginning to add up he feels close to solving a 50 year old aviation mystery that has generated heated controversy the world over after carefully reviewing all the evidence surrounding the crash of the albertina in 1961 sven hammerberg believes he now knows what went wrong in the final three minutes of flight and it has nothing to do with murder reaching the airfield and see the lights when you have been flying for six and a half hours i think it's very easy for a pilot to get thinking that oh we are here we're just going to land passing the airport the pilots descend below the minimum safe altitude of 5000 feet as they turn back towards the runway they suddenly lose sight of the runway lights you go into the dark and then you completely miss your references the pilots don't realize that a hill is blocking their view because the hill isn't on their chart losing the visual sight of the airport would cause the pilots to look even further and lose more altitude before they even know they're in danger it's too late [Music] gear up gear up pulled away from us and started to rotate and in this case there was something immediately not right the climb is unusually steep what's going on with that aircraft it was almost stuttering in the air okay keep on that [Music] get the nose down i'm trying the plane is suddenly uncontrollable the nose won't drop my airplane in a matter of seconds the crew is in emergency mode if they can't get the nose down fast the plane will stall we have a developing story as you may have heard there is a civilian lear jet news of a rogue learjet flying hundreds of miles off course has captivated the nation the faa began tracking aircraft in distress uh the president um was made aware of this situation this morning in a meeting with his economic advisors ben's in here experts at the national transportation safety board are notified of the escalating emergency give me a map okay once the air traffic control system realized the aircraft had gone rogue so to speak the next step is to try to figure out why it's either being hijacked or it's malfunctioned the crew has been incapacitated somehow controllers scramble f-16 fighters to track down the wayward learjet jim tidball has come up with a rough calculation of where the plane will run out of fuel my best guess is south dakota possibly north i can't say more than that let's hope he's right with any luck they won't hit anything in the air the f-16 pilots have caught up with a rogue plane the windows of the aircraft provided ominous clue no movement and windows covered in frost the layer jet is now a ghost plane can we narrow down the crash site anymore with no hope for the passengers and crew the only focus now is on where the plane will come down according to calculations the jet is almost out of fuel at 10 minutes past 12 it happens the learjet carrying payne stewart and five of the people is falling from the sky they're going down they're going down where's it gonna hit the f-16 attempts to follow but the plane disappears into the clouds it drops below the radar senator i've got a crash site payne stewart's learjet has slammed into a hayfield in south dakota there are no survivors could the emergency oxygen system have somehow failed for crash investigators the oxygen masts should have given the crew enough air to breathe until they could land the plane benzene scours the learjet's maintenance records looks like everything was working fine he discovers that on several previous flights the learjets crew used the masks without any problems we did determine that the oxygen was on board and the crew could have used it so now the question became why didn't they use supplemental oxygen time to take a new approach set us to climb please investigators need to learn more about what happened on board the learjet after the crew's last radio call they hope a simulation of the flight will help there goes the cabin altitude warning start the clock you've got maybe 15 seconds to do something once you become in a environment that's almost eliminated with oxygen emergency checklist got it i think all of us sort of had in our heads that you're gonna put your oxygen mask on as the first immediate action item the simulated loss of cabin pressure leads benzene to an astounding discovery the first item on the emergency checklist is not put on oxygen masks at 10 000 plus or minus 500 feet cabin altitude control pressure to the outflow valve is trapped this deactivates the automatic mode and stops cabin altitude from rising higher if the failure is in the automatic control system i can't believe we still haven't put our oxygen masks on we were surprised because it implied pretty strongly that you need to troubleshoot a pressurization problem and if you can't fix it then you don your oxygen masks okay shut it down i think i know what happened investigators now have a theory about what went wrong on board the learjet everything is fine until about 24 000 feet then something causes the plane to lose pressure but before they can solve the problem the crew loses consciousness [Music] the lear checklist in a sense a very real sense could lead a crew astray without those masks on they wouldn't stand a chance the faa is quick to respond put on oxygen masks is now the first item on the checklist not just for learjets but for every similar plane in the sky it's 9 35 am and traffic into washington is getting congested [Music] i was on my way from my parish to the arlington national cemetery for a graveside service father stephen mcgraw is stuck on a freeway right beside the pentagon i took that exit actually because i i knew that the pentagon was near uh international cemetery and i couldn't know how to get to her onto nationals so i thought i can't be that far off i'll take this exit but in front of the building there ended up being stand still traffic and then without warning there was a rush feeling the vibrations or the sound i just know there was it was overwhelming sense so something coming over the tops of our cars the plane clipped a light pole as it went over the highway and i turned instinctively to my right and to see just in time that plane coming in and um just crashing into the building right right in front of my eyes there were these two huge billows of fire that came out of the two top windows of the pentagon and the fireballs just kind of billowed out the symbol of u.s military might is now in flames smoke pours from a gaping 90-foot wide hole in the pentagon's west wall one entire section of the building has collapsed [Music] i had not heard anything about the world trade center crashes didn't have my radio on hadn't heard anything and so i just assumed that this was an accident there's no chance that any of the 64 people aboard the plane have survived the impact and there are sure to be many more dead among pentagon staff father mcgraw rushes towards the devastation he wants to help anyone he can and we're coming to one man in particular he said what is your name i'm father mcgraw i'll stay with you and he said i'm catholic and so i actually gave him those moments the sacraments um and anointed him on his forehead with the blessed oil the oil of the sick and when i did that i remember saying to him jesus i tell you jesus is with you now 9 11 shook us to our core anybody that was of age during that time it's like the kennedy assassination where were you on 9 11 and everybody has their story it it has marked our generation it was a win for the bad guys we can't let that happen again the 9 11 attacks bring immediate and profound change to commercial aviation both in the u.s and around the world the situation for airport security airplane security was a lot different prior to 911 than it is today just two months after the attacks the u.s government creates the transportation security administration or tsa the federal government took direct responsibility for aviation security and the screeners are now federal employees the training certainly has improved the tsa brings in strict new rules on what travelers can carry on planes airports start screening passengers with full body scanning machines there are also major changes to onboard security the cockpit doors i mean it's not just the door the whole bulkhead on the aircraft has been made darn near impregnable it's a bulletproof you can't get through the locks but perhaps the most important change to security has come not from new rules or better technology but from the permanently altered attitudes of airline passengers everywhere today the assumption by passengers if they feel threatened with hijacking is not one of compliance you saw somebody in the back of the plane get up and say you know start screaming things running to the front of the plane you have a choice of sitting in your seat and minding your own business or you have the option of standing up saying i guarantee you you're going to stand up the paradigm has changed roti at 8 20 a.m american airlines flight 77 gets underway [Music] at 8 46 flight 77 reaches cruising altitude 35 000 feet [Music] american 77 turn right 10 degrees factors for traffic on the ground air traffic controllers guide the 757 [Music] 10 right american 77 [Music] 34 minutes into the flight controllers notice something odd what are you guys doing flight 77 is veering off course american 77 center american 7-7 radio check two minutes later their concern turns to alarm radio check flight 77 has vanished from their radar center calling american 77 american 7-7 their concern grows with each second of silence center then just after 9 a.m a call comes in from american airlines that's almost impossible for controllers to digest thousands of people are feared dead lower manhattan is in chaos the fate of the missing 757 is now much more worrying what if it hasn't crashed somewhere in the midwest we need to find that plane [Music] supervisor i've got a target tracking eastbound at a high rate of speed at 9 32 more than half an hour after losing contact with the plane spot a mysterious radar return if it is flight 77 it means the plane has turned around back towards washington we gotta warn dc america's capital could be the next target go for zero six do you have a commercial aircraft in sight controllers recruit another pilot to try to learn more they radio the only other plane in the immediate airspace a c-130 cargo plane from nearby andrews air force base looks like an american airlines 757 it's got to be our plane center calling american 77 american 77 but the 757 is ignoring all radio calls and it's heading straight for washington sunjet 282 proceed directly to runway backtrack and hold los rodeos airport on the spanish island of tenerife is busier than it's ever been ba 783 hold short of the runway and stand by for taxi clearance with so many planes parked in the taxiways the controllers instruct departing flights to taxi along the airport's only runway to get into position for takeoff one of the planes waiting to get to las palmas is pan am flight 1736 [Music] the pan am crew is ready to get back in the air but they can't taxi to the runway a klm-747 has stopped in front of them to refuel requesting clearance klm4805 start-up he said follow klm down the runway backtrack make a exit to get around back of calif so that's what we were doing first officer bragg is unfamiliar with the airport he checks a runway diagram to help find their turn okay that's this one right here goes ahead it's going to put us on the taxiway as they taxi they listen to the tower controller tell the klm crew ahead of them what to do after departure you are clear climb to and maintain flight level nine or zero right turn after takeoff roger clear to the papa beacon flight level nine zero right turn out we are now at take off okay uh stand back for takeoff i will call you and we're still taxing down the runway clipper 1736 1736 report runway clear okay we'll report when we're clear thank you the pan am crew will be turning off the runway in just a few more yards but now something's wrong first officer bragg can see a plane to the fog i think he's moving look at him that idiot's coming it's all klm too get off get off captain grubbs tries to steer clear of the oncoming klm but it's bearing down on them at nearly 200 miles an hour he had lifted off the runway i could see his rotating beacon underneath get off get off get off get off get knocked off and then i ducked and said a real quick prayer trying to help he misses us china airlines flight 120 is on final approach for landing they're now less than a minute from the runway 2010. it's a textbook landing all that's left for the china airlines pilots is to park the plane engines start levers and do start levers cut off with the engines off they can finally relax hey what is this what's happening just when they thought they were safely parked cockpit ground number two engine fire a radio call alerts them to an urgent danger their plane is on fire attention crew on station attention crew on station dynasty one two zero we are calling a fire truck remain stand by uh we have wheel fire please slap lever the pilots know they need to get their passengers off the plane before flames reach the fuel tanks but they can't open the cabin doors yet engine fire warning switches override they must follow an evacuation checklist finally the pilots are ready to open the doors evacuation required now required no pushing no pushing please keep moving forward but it will take time for all 157 passengers to make it to the exit george ishizaki is watching the unfolding disaster from inside the airport terminal i just happened to have my camcorder with me i thought oh my god what is happening the plane has been burning for close to three minutes it could explode at any moment captain all passengers are evacuated you're the last one typically the captain will stay until everybody's off and he will verify that the airplane is empty the pilots have put their passengers safety first but now it may be too late for them i'm gonna have to climb up through the window you first all 737 cockpits are equipped with an emergency escape rope it's designed to help pilots exit through the side window but it's no easy maneuver then [Music] fire on an airplane can quickly become lethal incredibly on flight 120 all 165 people on board have escaped unharmed i've never heard of any evacuation where somebody wasn't hurt to get this many people off in such a dire circumstance in a very short period of time with no injuries is miraculous in one of the busiest weeks of summer proteus airlines flight 706 heads to the coast of brittany western france flight 706 left lyon airport a little more than an hour ago they're on schedule to land at l'oreal in approximately 20 minutes the twin engine beechcraft 1900d can carry 19 passengers today they're in for a treat the rare chance to see a treasured piece of french maritime history a luxury ocean liner formerly known as the ss franz they descend to 2000 feet and begin circling the ship without any warning a private cessna hit the beachcraft investigators believe they understand the unusual sequence of events that led to tragedy in the sky over keeper own bay okay i think we now know what happened the beachcraft is nearing the airport in l'oreal at the request of a passenger the captain asks to deviate from the flight path zero six and one little special request to fly slightly west over on bay sir they decide to take a look at the ocean liner la france proteus airlines flight 706 diverts over the bay and descends to 3 700 feet once near the ship they decide to descend to get a closer look but to go below 3 700 feet they cancel instrument flight rules and go visual 706 l'oreal confirmed now the beachcraft is in uncontrolled airspace below radar with no guidance from air traffic control it's up to the captain to visually scan for nearby planes there's a cessna and once at 2000 feet they decide to do a 360 degree turn around the ship with the 360 almost complete the pilots begin to prepare for landing at l'oreal at the same moment the cessna is approaching from the right the cessna does not have its transponder and is communicating on a different radio frequency from the beachcraft the bank angle of the beachcraft combined with the fact that the pilot responsible for scanning the skies was sitting in the left seat make the approaching cessna impossible to see they can see only sky out of the right hand side of the plane by terrible coincidence the cessna pilot can't see the beachcraft either at the last moment the beachcraft comes out of the blind spot [Music] and it's too late [Music] it's a cold winter's evening at stapleton airport in denver colorado captain stephen silver and first officer ralph harvey are just about ready for takeoff hey everybody seated yeah everybody's in no good outside walk around was all clear trans colorado flight 2286 is a short hop to durango la plata county airport in southern colorado listen when we get to durango i'd like to get in the air again as quickly as possible shouldn't be a problem we won't need to refuel it's the crew's fourth flight of the day and they're running late bad weather has put them 40 minutes behind schedule trans colorado 2286 you are cleared for takeoff 22.86 clear for takeoff thank you captain silver is in command first officer harvey will operate the controls for this flight leaving the captain free to handle radio calls take off power 100 the captain keeps an eye on the air speed as they accelerate for takeoff v1 and rotate the crew's day began in denver after two short hops to riverton and casper wyoming they circled back to denver now they're headed for durango a route that takes them over the southern rocky mountains [Music] about 20 minutes from the airport the captain and the first officer review the landing so we're still doing this straight into runway 2-0 okay runway 2-0 sounds good control we'll plan on a dme to run way 2-0 approved transcolorado 2286 cleared for runway 2-0 approach at durango airport like many small airports in america durango does not have its own air traffic control the controller is in denver more than 200 miles away speed set one quarter flaps one quarter flaps the pilots work quickly to prepare for landing gear down gear down three green [Music] do you have the runway something's wrong the pilots can't see the runway damn we're too low pull up no no no no hold on [Music] of the 17 people on board the crash has killed nine including both pilots it's a sunny morning at barcelona airport in spain after start checklist anti-ice empty ice off rather trim stream is zero the crew of german wings flight 9525 is preparing for departure flight attendants please take your seats for takeoff captain patrick sondenheimer is a former lufthansa first officer who recently transferred to german wings first officer andreas lubitz who's been with the airline for just over a year will handle the flying cleared for takeoff zero seven right german wings knight five two five [Music] take off thrust just after 10 am german wings flight 9525 gets airborne they're heading northeast over the gulf of lyon towards the french alps they should be in dusseldorf in just over two hours 27 minutes into the flight the plane reaches its cruising altitude of thirty eight thousand feet marseille german wings nine five two five flight level 380. air traffic control in marseille tracks the plane as it crosses france four minutes later the controller in marseille notices something odd german wings must say confirm what cruising altitude you're cleared for flight 9525 is descending without permission german wings this is about come in please we've got a problem here german wings unresponsive descending rapidly [Music] the plane is dropping steadily in just minutes it's lost 10 000 feet [Music] the control center is now on emergency mode now approaching 25 000 feet the airbus is hurtling downwards at maximum operating speed an astonishing 350 knots german wings come in lima echo x-ray relay from marseille i need you to try and contact german wings 9525 what is their situation the plane has dropped below 7 000 feet the towering muffins loom closer it's been 10 minutes with no radio contact an eternity for controllers [Music] we've lost contact the plane is now too low to be detected by radar a boeing 737 cruises high above the islands of indonesia the crew of garuda indonesia 421 is about halfway through a short domestic flight we were at 28 000 feet on the way to adisuchito airport in jakarta captain abdul rozak is a senior pilot with indonesia's national airline how does the weather look in yogikata his first officer is harry gunawan should be fine but there might be a bit of rain i had flown several times with harry gunawan so it was nothing new we knew each other quite well january is the rainy season when the weather is unpredictable let's avoid that cell say heading 300 control garuda 4-2-1 request heading 3-0-0 to avoid some weather up ahead through to 4-2-1 confirmed heading 3-0-0 by director bravo alpha ndb after clearing weather air traffic control authorizes a slight course correction to steer the plane around some looming clouds soon more large storm clouds appear in their path what do you think i could see the green yellow and red on the radar and i knew that the safest route would be towards the greens but moments later the weather is suddenly much worse where did this come from the captain spots a serious problem yes sir one into a dropping they're suddenly losing engine power captain rozak struggles to keep the plane steady as the altitude starts to drop with this plane falling fast and no other option in sight captain rozak decides to do something few pilots have ever tried okay the river then it's our best chance yes sir tell me what to do no gear no flaps watch my speed the solo river is narrow and twisting ditching a 737 on it won't be easy speed one stop is zero sir that'll do as they line up with the river first officer gunawan notices another problem there's another bridge altitudes 250. bridge can't be more than 80 feet we're good it turns out i had to land the plane between two bridges 150 one in the cabin race for landing bridge for landing brakes for landing everyone brakes for landing flight 421 hits the water at almost 200 miles an hour of the 60 passengers and crew on board all but one megadot alive [Music] air asia flight 8501 cruises high above the java c north of indonesia the pilot in command is 53 year old captain irianto he's highly experienced with more than 20 000 hours in the air his first officer is french national remy emmanuel pleasel he is 46 with about 2 000 flight hours much of it on the airbus 22 minutes into the flight the pilots noticed bad weather ahead on their radar the captain decides to increase altitude to go above the storm clouds in their path i'm gonna radio for a higher cruise get around that weather good idea but before the captain can contact air traffic control he gets a fault warning from the flight computer ecam actions the plane's sophisticated computers give the pilot step-by-step instructions on how to fix the issue the pilots now notice that the plane is rolling sharply left level okay level something is going terribly wrong with flight 8501 the first officer is struggling level but soon the plane is rolling again level i'm trying the pilots can't seem to regain control it's not responding [Music] pulled down it's not correcting the plane seems to have taken on a life of its own it climbs higher and higher as the pilots fight to level off then inexplicably the plane starts to drop altitude i see it flight 8501 is plummeting from the sky speeding toward the ocean below it seems the pilots can do nothing to save their plane paul it's not correcting what's going on max power slowly 43 minutes into what should have been a normal two-hour flight airasia flight 8501 disappears from radar paul i'm trying of the 162 passengers and crew there are no survivors bogram airfield in northeastern afghanistan it's a hive of activity [Music] alpha quebec ready to taxi the crew of national airlines flight 102 is on the last leg of a grueling shift the flight plan has taken it from shadow france to cambastian afghanistan where the crew loaded up to 207 000 pounds of cargo they were supposed to take it straight to dubai but were rerouted via bagram finally at 3 25 pm they're cleared for takeoff nine five alpha quebec runway three full length runway three is verified prepare for departure the first officer is at the controls for this final leg they're scheduled to arrive in dubai in two and a half hours at that same moment military journalist stephen hartoff is on the basis perimeter road returning from a day's work taking photographs for a magazine we decided we were going to go get something to eat and i saw off to the left of the truck a white and purple 747 and i remember thinking this is a beautiful airplane because it looked brand new v1 rotate gear up gear up he pulled away from us and started to rotate and in this case there was something immediately not right the climb is unusually steep what's going on with that aircraft it was almost stuttering in the air keep on that [Music] get the nose down i'm trying the plane is suddenly uncontrollable the nose won't drop my airplane in a matter of seconds the crew is in emergency mode if they can't get the nose down fast the plane will stall for a moment the plane hangs in the air suspended and then the aircraft seemed to sort of careen in our direction now you're looking at a big 747 coming at you stop the car and then it completely foundered and stalled and uh i remember thinking he's lost all his engines and in a very slow motion it just went straight down and pancaked into the ground the explosion was enormous [Music] you

Channel: Smithsonian Channel Aviation Nation

Views: 2,869,777

Keywords: aviation nation, smithsonian aviation, flying, pilot, plane crashes, engine, aviation, smithsonian aviation channel, smithsonian channel, air disasters, plane crash videos

Id: ca_HS9n40JU

Length: 188min 51sec (11331 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 17 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/MeWhenAAA]

Season 8? I've never seen that season because only has two episodes