Flight 111 Plummets Into The Open Ocean | Mayday Compilation | Wonder

[Music] [Music] we are in an emergency [Music] [Music] in 1998 off Canada's East Coast a modern passenger jet run by one of the world's best Airlines catches fire at 33 000 feet [Music] now and we must win in its final six minutes Communications from the cockpit cease then the plane planets into the ocean 229 people are dead what caused the fire is a mystery many of the vessels are reported to the Canadian Navy vessel standing by on team that they were finding bodies and making repeated requests for more body bags now after one of the largest investigations in aviation history the complete story behind the loss of Swiss Air flight 111 can finally be told it's a wake-up call for the entire airline industry to ensure that what happened aboard Swiss Air 111 would never happen again this accent investigation was a unique opportunity to assess the materials in airplanes the problem is not only just the stuff that can burn but the fact can't see it when you really have fire on board the clock is running against you [Music] [Music] September the 2nd 1998 Swiss Air flight 111 prepared to depart New York's JFK International Airport on route to Geneva Switzer the aircraft was a McDonald Douglas 11 or nd-11 a model first developed in 1986 as a highly automated modern replacement for the Antiquated DC-10 it was considered one of the most reliable passenger jets in the skies and Swiss Air Pilots were among the world's best trained okay after start checklist um engine and the ice not required Roger not required Auto brakes take off Swiss Air 111's Pilots were Captain Earth Zimmerman and first officer Stefan love Swiss Air 111 hold short 3-1 left Zimmerman encouraged an easy going atmosphere in the cockpit but he was also known for his by the book Precision when not flying he was an instructor of new pilots for Switzerland's national Airlines checklist flaps and slats flaps set 15 degrees so the 15 foreign [Music] were 215 passengers 12 crew and two pilots most were French American or swiss 23 year old Stephanie Shaw was on her way home to her parents in Geneva Stephanie was blessed in many ways she was a physically very attractive she was an intelligent girl she the reason she went to New York was that she had been invited to become a member of the world economic Forum which is based in Geneva and she wanted to have this trip before she joined she was a darling she an absolute darling [Music] 8 18 p.m Roger Swiss Air 111. for safety the Swiss Air Pilots pushed the throttles forward together ensuring no single pilot can botch a takeoff yard knee two Swiss Air flight 111 lifted off and made her Way Northeast toward the open Atlantic for the first 15 minutes after takeoff there was no communication from Swiss Air 111. it was an unusual small detail that would later baffle investigators well it does happen occasionally they had not yet reached what we call the North Atlantic track system where then you're not really usually in radio contacts so I thought it was a little abnormal but it appears it was just nothing more than a mistaken radio frequency when the guy dialed it in and swapped over the radio he had put in the incorrect frequency and evidently uh it just you know they didn't make another attempt at contacting someone it was strange and I agree with you it was kind of it's kind of like whoa that's that's interesting [Music] Atlantic Air Traffic is handled by a remote Center in Moncton New Brunswick Canada almost half an hour after takeoff Captain Zimmerman made his first communication with Moncton Senator Swiss Air 111 heavy good uh evening level three three zero this was their 111 heavy Mountain Center good evening reports of uh occasional light turbulence at all levels Moncton Swiss Air it was a perfectly normal transatlantic Crossing [Music] In First Class Swiss Air passengers were among the first in the world to have a personalized in-flight Entertainment Network though now common the system was an innovation in 1998 passengers could choose their own movie browse the internet and Gamble they evaluated the market and they thought that introducing a modern in-flight Entertainment System combined with a gambling system so that passenger actually can use their credit card and gamble during long range flights um would make them more attractive this luxury would be the source of controversy to come [Music] [Music] do you spell something yeah what is that go have a look I'll take the controls Roger you have control all episodes of ice Pilots watch on mobile devices or the big screen all for free no subscription of Fire download really now [Music] first officer loved investigated the area near the air condition event harmless smoke traces from air conditioning systems are common on Commercial Jets see anything else there's nothing up there now you heal for me Captain Stefan and I were sure we smell smoke a few seconds ago can you smell anything I smell it too yeah could you smell in the cabin before you came in no definitely not they agreed that the air conditioner was the likely culprit you don't see it or smell it anymore air conditioning is it yeah please close it thanks behind the sealed panel the pilots could not see that the problem was getting worse less than 45 seconds after smoke disappeared in the cockpit of Swiss Air 111 it returned [Music] Zimmerman followed Swiss Air procedure he made plans to divert to the nearest place to land find the closest place to land Stefan we'll leave the nerve Church from the library also weather data for the area Boston's close it's not doing well at all up there Zimmerman radioed Air Traffic Control in Moncton New Brunswick Moncton Center Swiss Air 111 heavy good evening the United 920 heavy Mountain Center good evening the controller dealt with another aircraft before responding to Swiss Air other aircraft calling Sagan Swiss Air 111 heaviest declaring pan pan pan we have smoke in the cockpit uh request immediate return to a convenient place I guess Boston pan-pan Pam is an international term used to notify air traffic control of an urgent situation one step below declaring May Day you see the Boston you want to go I guess Boston uh we need for some weather there we are starting right turn here Swiss Air 111 heavy so sent to flight level 310.310-310 Swiss Air one one one heavy this is the first interview with Bonner the air traffic controllers in Moncton my name is Bill Pickerel and on September 1998 September 2nd 1998 I was one of two Halifax terminal controllers working the evening shift the pan uh and any kind of a special condition is usually dealt with as an emergency and this in fact was dealt with that way the aircraft was immediately given priority and the high-level supervisor initiated a call to the rescue coordination Center hey cruel's colleague determined that Swiss Air 111 was just 66 nautical miles from Halifax and 300 from Boston but Captain Zimmerman had chosen an airport he knew a lot of times when you're having a problem you would rather be dealing with an issue where you're much more familiar with the airport because that relieves a little stress on you this is initial problem he said there he's looking up there he's trying to think well I got smoke here now what does it mean let's see where are we where's the closest place I can go to that I can talk to a Swiss Air mechanic Boston [Music] Center was there 111 heavy go ahead would you prefer to go into Halifax or just we better put the mess up uh standby [Music] realizing their location Zimmerman decided Halifax was now the best option affirmative associate 111 heavy we prefer Halifax for my position Swiss Air 111 Roger proceed direct to Halifax to send now to flight level two Niners Arrow level 290 to Halifax Swiss Air 111 heavy British Airways pilot in the area offered the crew what little help he could Swiss Air 111 heavy heavy bird 214. I can give you the Halifax weather if you like [Music] you have the oxygen mask exam uh go ahead with the weather it's the 300 Lulu weather Swiss Air 111 commenced its descent to below 30 000 feet the pilots calm and in control take about 20 minutes to reach Halifax heavyweight copy two niner eight zero to ten thousand feet and the Halifax altimeter is two nine or eight zero seven heavy two nine or eight zero at ten thousand feet and Swiss Air 111. can you tell me what your fuel on board is uh stand by for this [Music] Roger the controller signed off with another aircraft his jurisdiction was high altitude flights our Swiss Air was on descent to Halifax he hands over responsibility to build petrol Point uh everything was normal I gave the pilot an initial descent and he requested to level off at an intermediate altitude to get the cabin in order for the landing which I took to mean that they needed to pack away dinner trays and things like that it was an indication to me that while his situation was unusual that they weren't considering it as an emergency at that time don't to sound too fast Roger [Music] yes prepare for landing we'll be setting down in Halifax in about 20 minutes I'm about to start the checklist here yes Zimmerman had two checklists for smoke in the cockpit to complete both would take 20 minutes this was Swiss Air company policy in the meantime love continued The Descent into Halifax [Music] I'll need you to handle the radio about life for this checklist all right 119 or 0.2 for the Swiss Air 111 heavy suicide 111 was now at about 25 000 feet pickerel advises them to descend to three thousand but first officer love said he'd rather fly at eight thousand until the passenger cabin was cleared their attitude underscored the sense of control in the cockpit nine seven nine uh from my point of view it gave all initial appearances that it should be a fairly straightforward operation that assuming that everything happened normally the aircraft would require a minimum of handling to lead them into Halifax [Music] cruel was concerned the plane was not coming down fast enough it appeared that the aircraft might have been a little bit high and I wanted to ensure that the pilots were aware of how far they were from the airport how many miles they had to fly so that they could judge their own descent and make their decision about what they wanted to do Roger at the top three thousand feet I keep your advised okay can I Vector you uh to set up for Runway zero six at Halifax uh Roger Vector for six will be fine Swiss Air 111 heavy Isaiah 111 Roger turn left-handing of zero three zero left heading zero three zero for the Swiss Air 111 heavy [Music] foreign needed information for the unfamiliar Airfield that his flight bag was Out Of Reach he summoned the flight attendant to help you held me Captain for two minutes now I need that flight back there it's got the approach charge for Halifax [Music] [Music] okay get back to your crew yes Captain this is your major to cabin speaking the chief flight attendant notified passengers that the flight was being diverted there was no Panic the plane was flying normally and there was no sign of smoke in the cabin Swiss Air about 11. the localizer frequency is 109 or decimal Niner you've got 30 miles to fly to the threshold uh we're gonna need more than 30 miles that's still at more than 20 000 feet Swiss Air 111 was too high to make a landing in just 30 miles Niner for the localizer okay Roger one zero Niner Point Niner and we are turning left heading uh North Swiss Air 111 heavy we've got enough fuel agreed so far Communications from Swiss Air have been calm still Mountain Center initiated emergency efforts at Halifax Airport Crews for an emergency pickerel sought information from the pilots [Music] on board and your fuel on board please for emergency services Roger at this time fuel on board is two three zero tons we have to dump some fuel may we do that in this area during descent pickerel was surprised to learn so late that Swiss Air 111 needed to dump fuel at that point it became more of a complicated situation in fact with every transmission after that it became more and more complicated cruel considered his options for a safe place that wouldn't take the aircraft too far from Halifax he decided to direct the plane over Saint Margaret's Bay about 30 miles from the airport the other choice if he had said he needed to stay close was to start the aircraft in a a right-hand turn to set him up for any of the other runways I had to keep him flying in a in a circle or a constant track so that he wouldn't fly back into his own fuel which would have been not good dumping fuel is standard procedure a fully fueled passenger jet is too heavy and could break up on Landing but co-pilot love wondered if given their situation they might forgo the regulations they want us to turn to the South should we just forget about dumping and just land no dump it okay we are able for a left or right turn to the south in order to go I initiated the vector back toward Saint Margaret's Bay to start him in that direction it indicated to me that again it wasn't a critical situation on board then in fact he did have time to be able to go back and dump his fuel over the water Swiss Air 111 or Roger turn left heading of uh two zero zero degrees and advise me when you're ready to dump it will be about 10 miles before you're off the coast we will still be within about 25 miles of the airport Roger we are turning left two zero zero in that case we are going to descend to only 10 000 feet in order to dump the fuel Roger maintain one zero thousand I'll advise you when you're over the water it will be very shortly Roger while Zimmerman continued with his checklist love accidentally transmitted to Bill Pickrell in Moncton are you in the emergency checklist for air conditioning smoke uh Swiss Air 111 say again please uh sorry that was not for you Swiss Air 111 was asking internally okay AirSpeed is decreasing below 306 a little off speed here let's fly the plate as easy for stuff out Swiss Air 111 continue left heading one eight zero you'll be off the coast in about 15 miles Roger Swiss Air 111 and maintaining at ten thousand feet off Roger the cabin bus switch knocked out all the lighting in the cabin it was an indication for the passengers that something was wrong but hardly alarming ladies and gentlemen we have temporarily lost the lights in the cabin please remain calm and cruelly coming around with flashlights to assist in landing despite a cockpit filled with smoke there was still no Trace in the passenger cabin ET you will be staying within about 35-40 miles of the airport if you have to get back to the airport in hurry okay that's fine with us please tell us when we can start to dump the fuel suddenly the aircraft sent out a warning that the smoke was a sign of a more serious problem the autopilot disconnected because the plane's computer sensed erratic readings in the next 90 seconds those readings went haywire [Music] Swiss Air 111 you can block between five thousand and twelve thousand if you wish one by one the instruments failed the calm and the cockpit dissolved we are declaring emergency now Swiss Air 111 at time zero one two four then the two pilots spoke simultaneously combined with other distractions in the control room pickerel was unable to hear a critical transmission Love's declaration that they must land immediately we are ducking fuel now we must land immediately this air 111 just a couple more miles I'll be right with you Roger that and we're declaring emergency now Swiss Air 111. missing this transmission is a moment Bill Pickrell relives today not sure that it's a feeling that you can adequately describe I recall reviewing the events of that night a thousand times to determine if there was something additionally that I could have done or if there was some mistake that I might have made or was there any way that I contributed to this and eventually I was able to come to the point of realization that there wasn't anything that I could have done you know that everything that could have was done now there was nothing to do but wait 30 seconds after declaring an emergency the pilots of Swiss Air 111 faced an inferno oh my screens are down I'm flying on standby by Edmonds maintaining 300. let's share 111 you are clear to commence your fuel dump on that track and advise me when your dump is complete soon after I gave him authorization to commence the fuel dump there was no acknowledgment initially I wasn't concerned by that because I considered that he was probably doing the fuel dump he was reviewing a checklist he was busy doing things and as per our training we're told not to bother the pilots in those kinds of situations foreign 111 check you are cleared to start the fuel done [Music] [Music] there was no further communication from the aircraft [Music] six minutes later residents of Peggy's Cove had a devastating explosion [Music] no one knew what had happened to 229 people after six minutes of silence [Music] it was probably one of the most helpless feelings that any individual can have not being able to do anything but just sit and watch the Target and hope that it would turn back toward the airport and of course it didn't [Music] the following morning would-be Rescuers glimpsed the terrible remains of Swiss Air 111 only one body was discovered intact [Music] [Music] in Geneva Ian Shaw had a premonition about his 23 year old daughter Stephanie [Music] that night the night on which she was due to return for reasons I can't explain even now I was restless and I was Disturbed and I slept early and woke while my wife was still awake and asked her if she had had news of Stephanie no she had not but she didn't expect to have news with Stephanie we knew she was coming on that flight and that she would certainly expect me to be at the airport to fetch her in the morning I awoke around six Geneva time and on television there was a report of the crash of Swiss here 111. and I knew instantaneously that we had lost our daughter air traffic controller Bill Pickrell was in shock strange experience I'm not sure that I can adequately Express the feelings but it's um you work to to provide a service and you you read about aircraft flying into a mountain or ending up in a swamp in some distant country but you never expect that it's going to happen in your backyard and when it does it's a kind of a lonely experience I guess in one sense [Music] Transportation safety board of Canada launched what would become the largest disaster investigation in the nation's history only new Swiss Air 111 experienced a cockpit fire but what caused it remained a mystery [Music] well this accent was a challenging one to investigate and that initially of course we had to recover the aircraft from about 55 meters of water around 185 feet of course it was also in many pieces as it turns out it was in a couple of million pieces so that was the initial Challenge and then after that of course when you have so many pieces you need to determine which are the relevant ones and what are these pieces telling you about what happened and why [Music] the TSB embarked on a five-stage plan first divers were deployed to survey the wreckage they discovered that the plane was smashed into millions of pieces but as the Autumn weather worsened the risks the divers increased at this rate the Salvage would take years to complete [Music] stage two with help from the United States Navy remote operated Vehicles began a more detailed search the rovs helped investigators survey the site but the question remained how to recover tiny pieces of Twisted Metal From the Bottom of the Sea we have to go through little bits of airplanes little pieces in Swiss Air we've had about two million pieces of airplane and we pretty much almost had to look at them all because we had to discredit certain things terrorists bombs various other types of faults tsb's investigators finally got the Breakthrough they've been seeking the black boxes recordings of cockpit and computer data told investigators that everything on the plane was working perfectly until the last few minutes when the crew declared the pan pan panda they had smoke in the cockpit after going through all of these parameters we found no anomalies or no problems in any of that flight data that suggested there was a problem with the aircraft so this led us to believe that the crew had a relatively operational aircraft aside from the the smoke in the cockpit that they noted everything else appeared to be working fine and as they were making their plan to send the aircraft they've experienced a series of systems failures that were in Rapid succession and exponential autopilot disconnect Swiss Air 111 we must fly manually now Mike Poole CVR team then faced a serious setback the last six minutes on both flight recorders were missing you're losing systems rapidly on the airplane in that 90 second period that things are happening very fast and the last thing we one of the last things we know about was the two recorders went offline so the fire has presumably breached the lines breached the uh breach the sources to these recorders and has stopped them with the failure of the black boxes investigators were no closer to learning how or where the fire started on Swiss Air 111 [Music] were deployed to skull the seabed for evidence [Music] one by one sad remnants of the airplane reached the surface [Music] her engines were recovered [Music] then the landing gear these were among the largest pieces of Swiss Air 111 to be recovered [Music] dredged up in a painfully slow process [Music] stage four a nearby military Hangar provided a makeshift lab for the growing team of forensic investigators representatives from the American NTSB Boeing Swiss Air and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police joined in the search for answers pieces of Swiss Air 111 arrive by the truckload organized into various categories for analysis soon the hangar was stacked to capacity with the biggest jigsaw puzzle in aviation history all the investigators knew for sure was that an initially small cockpit fire suddenly turned to catastrophe [Music] the team sorted through nearly 155 miles of wiring retrieved from the wreckage of Swiss Air 111 here the first real clue evidence of electrical arcing [Music] what's on metal to reveal that the source of the fire was in the back of the cockpit directly behind the first officer by examining the aircraft's wiring plans investigators found a likely suspect the entertainment system in first class the system had some major deficiencies it was getting very hot it drew a lot of power and thereby for example raising the cabin temperature considerably because it was always running they did not install a simple off switch in order to install appropriate Cooling systems to cool the system down the tsb's investigators finally thought they had the Breakthrough they'd been seeking our report indicates that there was a design flaw in the way the in-flight Entertainment Network installed in the first class in business class sections of the aircraft were installed integrated into the electrical system of the airplane when Captain Zimmerman threw the cabin bus switch all power to the cabin should have been switched off that the entertainment system remained on overheating if you'd asked most Pilots they would say well if I push the Cabin boat switch it's going to turn off the things behind the cockpit it's going to isolate that electrically for me so I don't have to worry about that and then I can just concentrate on those things that might affect me flying the airplane well as it turns out that this switch was kind of bypassed in in this case for this hyphen or Entertainment System Swiss Air immediately disabled the entertainment systems on the rest of its Fleet and the U.S national Transportation safety board ordered an inspection of cockpit wiring on all nd11s unfortunately this simple solution proved insufficient by the time that cabin switch was turned off the fire was well underway and so that had no real bearing on the the initiation or propagation of the fire in the Swiss Air 111 aircraft but investigators determined that the problem with the entertainment system alone could not have brought down Swiss Air 111 the search for answers continued Stage 5 undaunted the TSB reconstructed the nd11 from the wreckage a wireframe mock-up they called The Jig provided a spine for placing tiny pieces back where they once belonged the Reconstruction revealed that the fire spread with alarming speed from the cockpit back into the first class galleys some metal showed heat damage from temperatures as high as 600 degrees Centigrade as the investigation continued some argued that the actions of the pilots may have contributed to the disaster [Music] some experts charge that Zimmerman are loves by the book approach may have cost them their lives some operators emphasized in a very early stage lent as soon as possible and then if you have time going to the checklist others uh said here's the checklist and in the end of the checklist if that doesn't help then land as soon as possible pretty contradictory to basic flying instructions where student Pilots learn the very early stage that whenever you have smoke you have a fire and fire means land as soon as possible we switch on unfortunately in this case the way the checklist was written it didn't identify that now start towards a divert it started more on let's try to see if we can solve the problem and uh so now all of a sudden you're taking on a problem it just kind of crept up on you you weren't expecting it we're going to need more than 30 miles of the TSB consider the timeline investigators determined that Swiss Air 111 would not have made Halifax Airport under any circumstances there just wasn't enough time in our calculation we showed that starting at the ideal descent point from 33 000 feet which was at about 10 14 p.m that night it would take some 13 minutes to get the airplane onto the ground which would take us to 10 27 p.m by 10 24 the systems in the aircraft were starting to deteriorate so we believe that under these circumstances the crew would not have been able to successfully land the airplane under those conditions with the amount of time that they had whatever caused the fire on Swiss Air it happened at a lethal speed the mystery remained [Applause] [Music] a year passed then another ambitious operation began [Music] the TSB hired a sophisticated Dutch Salvage ship queen of the Netherlands The Vessel has a gigantic vacuum system capable of dredging even the tiniest pieces of Swiss Air 111 from the ocean floor a mixture of seawater silt and aircraft were pumped into the ship's hold [Music] this cargo was then pumped into a specially constructed Reservoir onshore when the water drained away investigators found another million pieces of the aircraft any one of them may have held the clue to what caused the catastrophic fire the painstaking sorting once again resumed [Music] finally after 15 months they found what they've been seeking a single faulty wire we looked at all of the possible sources of heat that might start a fire in that area and in this instance we did discover a wire that arced in that way and right next to it was some very flammable material called Metalized polyethylene pterethalate covering material that covers the insulation blankets this polyethylene insulate which lined the md-11 is common on commercial airlines worldwide it has passed the industry's flammability tests that require materials to self-extinguish after a reasonable period of time investigation now took an Abrupt turn instead of seeking the cause of the fire the TSB now focused on the flammable materials that fueled it this thermal acoustical material that was in this aircraft was very flammable even though it passed a test it does sustain and it does propagate flame so this investigation did focus on the flammability of materials and the requirement to reassess the criteria that is used to certify materials not just thermal acoustical insulation blanket material but also other materials that goes into aircraft much of it in Hidden areas investigators now had their answer a wire arced in a closed space behind the cockpit the ark ignited the insulation which in turn lit other materials such as Foams and Plastics the pilots could not sense how quickly the fire intensified but 14 minutes after they declared pan pan Pam the fire disabled All Electronics in the cockpit the black boxes went dead a forensic examination also shed light on the desperate final minutes in the cockpit love was in his seat Captain Zimmerman was not likely fighting the fire and probably dead before impact the first officer was probably trying to find a place where he could put this big airplane he just didn't have a lot going for him he didn't have a lot of instrumentation left and I'm sure he was looking for something some indication that would give him an idea of where he could put the airplane down maybe even ditch the airplane what is known is that the first officer was in his seat whether he was unconscious conscious maybe had severe degree burns on his skin it's not known we know the captain was not in his seat so very likely he was trying to fight the fire that the checklists were found um molten together the pages indicates that they were used to fight a fire at 10 30 Halifax time love shut down engine 2. investigators determined that he probably received a warning the engine was on fire chillingly it proved that love was alive a minute before impact they could not determine whether the passengers were aware of the fire at least until the very final moments there were traces found of suit and smoke extending as much far to the business class overhead area whether the passengers have smelled the smoke it's not known uh DNA analysis showed that they had no residue in the body the aircraft hit the water with a force of 350 G's [Music] [Music] the TSB spent four and a half years and 40 million US Dollars analyzing the wreckage of Swiss Air 111. the largest air disaster investigation in Canada's history their conclusion flammable materials do not belong on Commercial aircraft the rate of progression in this airplane I think surprised us and surprised others and that's why we emphasize again the importance of [Music] raising the bar on the flammability standards for materials used in airplanes Ian Shaw waited four years for the report to reveal the Fatal flaw that took the life of his daughter the truth has not diminished his anger at Swiss Air there has to be accountability if you are involved in wrongdoing you must be held accountable and you must declare your sense of response responsibility otherwise you are hiding and you are hiding in this case behind the flag of Switzerland I think it's unbelievable in the aftermath Swiss Air decided to remove the flammable insulate from its entire fleet they also made changes to checklist procedure reducing response time in a cockpit smoke emergency Swiss Air did something very interesting they modified their entire and the 11th Fleet according to all these findings they built in cameras and smoke detectors even in into hidden areas where Pilots have a little TV monitor and they can see whenever there is a smoke warning which makes them all help gain time and that's the most important when you have the case of when you have a fire but plagued with financial problems a mighty Swiss Air shocked the industry when it declared bankruptcy in October 2001. [Music] thank you the flammable insulation that sets Swiss Air Ablaze remains in two-thirds of commercial airplanes today but not for very much longer the Metalized polyethylene terrathalate material has been essentially banned from aircraft and the criteria to certify that kind of material for use in airplanes has been worked on it has not been put into law as yet but we look forward to that being done so the criteria is more stringent the U.S Federal Aviation Administration has given a deadline of 2005 to remove the material from all commercial aircraft this major overhaul is designed to ensure that what took place on Swiss Air 111 will never happen again the industry is trying to remove it but it's I don't think they're removing it as quickly necessary as they could there's always that battle how expensive is it to something that's replacement or are you going to replace it in an airplane you're going to throw away in another couple years we have to live within certain economic realities for reinsure losing his daughter so suddenly and violently has left a permanent emotional scar he left his wife and his wealth behind in Geneva and now runs a modest restaurant in Nova Scotia in view of the sea where his daughter died why would I come here to this particular point nuskush a lot of people said oh yes we fully understand you want to be close to your daughter and and the point where the plane crashed that is no part of my being here Swiss Air um ripped out of me any possibility of proximity to my daughter I found a comfort in the awareness of the presence of the Eternal ocean the ocean which has been going backwards and forwards for many many many thousands millions of years I came here because I had to [Music] um I I can't give a fully rational declaration to you of why I came here I can only say to you I am in the right place for the wrong reasons [Music] three thousand right here we're not getting any options we have this terrain alarm 603 we are in an emergency [Music] thank you you're observing and crossing the 260 of Lima at 31 miles west level is 10 700 philosophy October 1996. I state of the art passenger jet careen's out of control for 30 horrific minutes then crashes into the Pacific Ocean foreign [Music] what could have brought down Aero Peru flight 603 [Music] the answer to the mystery may be found in the aircraft's Black Box flight recorder a puzzle which investigators must solve the story they uncover is how a simple human error set off a chain of events that ended in tragedy two cents of American money brought down a 75 million dollar aircraft and killed 70 people this kind of a problem that they faced that night was um probably one of 10 over the last 20 or 30 years never lose hope immediately you know it takes time for you to get to that point that you you will accept the fact that there's no people that got out of their life [Music] Lima Peru Jorge Shadows International Airport Aero Peru flight 603 prepared for takeoff to Santiago Chile the plane was a four-year-old Boeing 757 a state-of-the-art passenger jet known for its reliability and safety thank you [Music] Aero Peru 603 was flown by two of the National Airlines best Pilots Captain Eric Schreiber 58 and first officer David Fernandez 42. [Music] 61 passengers and nine crew members were aboard most were Chileans on their way home others were Peruvian British Italian Spanish one New Zealander and other Latin Americans among them the brother-in-law and close friend of Mexico businessman monus Albert [Music] we our companies do business in South America we export and every so often we will go see our clients and and on this trip Kenny and and Abraham want to see some clients in Peru and in Chile I had a very good relationship with both of them with my brother-in-law of course we were like brothers I love the guy he married my only sister so it was we had a great relationship [Music] checklists complete first officer Fernandez hailed the tower Lima Tower Arrow Peru 603 Runway one five ready for takeoff aeroproof 603 use noise abatement win calm ready for takeoff on Runway one five one five one five transponder clubs one five take off briefing complete the captain makes a joke about their Precision so accurate we are not even Swiss [Music] rolling the Aero Peru 757 was among a new generation of computer-controlled aircraft in which Pilots are trained to rely on the central data system designed to reduce errors both mechanical and human [Music] on takeoff the 757 performed perfectly 80 knots check [Music] V1 rotate V2 Gear Up all right within moments the pilots received a highly unusual reading the altimeters are stuck the altimeter indicates the height of the aircraft off the ground it read zero obviously flying the altimeters have stuck yeah all of them really new keep feed two plus tab the 757 is equipped with three altimeters one for pilot one for co-pilot one backup all three were dead then they lost another crucial instrument the airspeed indicator the speed the speed what's going on we're not climbing I am climbing with the speed hold its maintain speed Aero peruse 603 left the lights of Lima out towards the Pacific Ocean [Music] with no AirSpeed or altitude instruments the pilots were now Flying Blind [Music] the air traffic controller in Lima maintained contact with the plane noting its altitude and course he did not hear when the pilots got a new minor warning that they must adjust the rudder which steers the aircraft left and right we are descending [Music] Alan MacLeod is a veteran Air Canada pilot they got a Rudder ratio warning which consists of an amber light that would come flashing on there with a little beeping horn and a message on this engine crew alerting system saying Rudder ratio that's just a system that reduces the amount of Rudder the airplane has that can be used as the airplane accelerates and goes faster and faster because it was sensing wrong or improper information it sends default so it gave a warning to the crew the erratic warnings were being generated by the plane's Central computer but the pilots could not understand why [Music] then the dead altimeters sprung to life climb climb climb climb up at the speed yeah but it's stuck a mock trim Rudder ratio climb climb climb climb climb set heading 100. now you're it's okay on this head to climb thrust Center autopiloting command just as suddenly the altitude readings return to normal the moment of calm would be brief [Music] just one minute after takeoff Captain Schreiber attempted to engage the autopilot to give them time to think there is no command the autopilot requires identical data from two of the aircraft's three flight control computers but schreiber's instrument readings were so different from those of Fernandez the autopilot disengaged then another alert Mark trim Mark trim Mac trim indicates that the plane is not flying in a level position yet the 757 seemed to be flying normally it's got a basic instruments everything's gone ahead Mark speed trim is a system that trims the airplane it changes the angle of the horizontal stabilizer in the back end of the airplane and that has to be changed as the airplane accelerates to a higher speed it was getting false indications so they got a warning that they had an overspeed which of course they didn't that warning would consist of again the master caution and a master warning which is a red light associated with a um an oral warning as well despite confusing warnings and no autopilot the aircraft was controllable if necessary Shriver could have kept the plane Aloft for hours but he decided to land he instructed his first officer to declare an emergency we are in an emergency aeroproof 603 Lima we have no basic instruments no altimeter no airspeed indicator declaring emergency received altitude we don't have uh we're up to 1000 feet approximately 1700.603 confirm if possible if you can change your frequency to 119.7 to make sure you can receive Radar instructions just 40 miles from Nemo the pilots of Aero Peru 603 now made their first attempt at an emergency landing [Music] puzzled by their problems they began to suspect that the Aero Peru Grand crew had tampered with the aircraft [Music] foreign [Music] nine point seven Auto throttle Disconnected by itself is that it's a maintenance move everything what have they done I'll take the controls now okay you have control the pilots did not know that their suspicions were close to the truth [Music] but there was no time to speculate further Lima 603 603 Lima we request vectors for ILS they sought the runway with the help of a guidance transmitter called the instrument Landing system or ILS the ILS provides information on their course while altitude information comes from the aircraft's transponder primitive maintain present altitude level do we have we have four thousand feet can you confirm for us correct maintain four thousand Schreiber and Fernandez had never experienced nor been trained for this emergency Auto throttle disconnect really we don't have any control we'll have any control not even the basics [Music] the airplane was controllable you first have to diagnose what's wrong and it's very easy for 2020 hindsights if you're in a chair on a nice sunny day to say this is what he should have done but in the cold Dark Night with bells and whistles going off it's very difficult to analyze conflicting information that you're getting this kind of a problem that they face that night was um probably one of 10 over the last 20 or 30 years that has been similar to this thank you over the dark Pacific Ocean the pilots could not determine altitude nor speed by sight they requested that the tower help guide them in responding AirSpeed is zero all speeds right can you give us the airspeed please if you have us on the radar yes as of 10 seconds it seems that you're climbing at level 6000 at 2-2 miles south on heading 195. the air traffic controller's computers calculated a correct air speed by measuring the plane's movement over the ground okay we have that we are on heading 190 and we have seven thousand feet on the altimeter yes correct you're now reaching seven thousand but neither the pilots nor the air traffic controller knew that the altitude indicated on the scope was incorrect it was coming from the plane's erratic computer the traffic controller would try to help the pilot but he was receiving the wrong information on altitude he was receiving a wrong indication from the captain's altimeter the reason the air traffic control system was transmitting improper altitude readout information to the airplane was because the airplanes altimeter through the air data computer would send the indicated altitude that the airplane was experiencing down to the radar unit and of course it was incorrect and they would read it off their readout down in the Air Traffic Control Center and transmit it back to the pilots and of course it was incorrect because they were getting incorrect information to begin with investigators would later discover that Aero Peru 603 was drifting downward while the altimeters showed them at a near constant 10 000 feet the passengers was yet unaware of the drama unfolding in the cockpit [Music] avoid large or abrupt radar inputs if normal left hydraulic system pressure available now Captain Schreiber ordered Fernandez to scan the flight manual for some explanation of the warnings yes do not attempt and Auto Land in Lima the air traffic controller continued to guide Aero Peru 603 back to the ground [Music] through 603 we are observing you now at level 9200 what is your heading now we're heading level 205 affirmative and we're turning slowly to the right correct no we are maintaining course to stay away from the coast with incorrect altitude information being transmitted from the aircraft to the Tower they did not realize that the plane was descending [Music] your distance is 30 miles do you want a heading to proceed to the localizer correct correct we're going to suggest Course North three six zero three six zero we have problems here reading the instruments you're going to have to help me with altitudes and air speeds if it is possible okay received let's go the approach is set the 757's computer sent critical warnings information that the pilots were trained to obey but could not trust [Music] let's try to make a descent on this heavy it's climbing the airspeed plummeted to below stall speed and then raised up again [Music] let's go down to ten thousand feet how does the speed go away so fast to be the real speed that's what worries me no I don't think so you verify our speed please three two zero is indicated we have three five zero but the engines are on idle but we keep accelerating and accelerating okay received we're now stretched tight you can imagine the pilots they're flying there they don't have a true indication of the speed they're obviously trying to fly the airplane and changing the attitude up and down that in itself will change an indication of air speed although it was incorrect both Pilots were really confused they didn't know what to do they didn't know how to act and they did a human efforts to save the aircraft but I mean they were really [Music] tired and of all the work and all the confusion and all the alarms Fernandez suggested that they try the speed brakes used to rapidly slow the aircraft extend the speed brakes for a moment it appeared to be working then another warning all three indicators are fine on speed Finance over speed over speed means the plane is flying too fast the pilots didn't believe it but if it was right 757 could be torn apart they were forced to make a decision to speed up or slow down if they got it wrong 70 people would die [Music] 15 minutes had passed since takeoff then the computerized brain of Aero Peru 603 sent another burst of contradictory warnings but a ratio can't be nothing's disconnecting all engine instruments are okay what can a real speed be comes Lima Tower provided their only chance of survival we are observing you crossing the 260 of Lima at 31 miles west level is 10 700 velocity is approximately two eight zero over the ground perfect the controller's altitude reading was incorrect junk information being generated by the 757s computers and radioed to the Tower [Music] brakes were on but now another over speed warning warning then the storm warning sounded [Music] they get a store warning that the airplane is falling out of the sky at the same time they got over speed warning impossible to have two contradictory alarms either you're stalling or either you're having an over speed so that created more confusion really this uh problem is never happened before it was a new emergency in aviation you always figure what's going to kill me what is the critical thing let's take care of that first and then we'll take care of the other lesser issues later on when you get stall warning or when you get an overspeed indication you need to pay attention those immediately in this case they were getting both a stall warning and an overspeed well which is right first officer David Fernandez finally realized that the odds were against a safe landing we request is there any plane that can take off and rescue us acknowledged rescue has been alerted plane and Arrow Peru that may be in the area anybody oh don't say anything like that yes because right now we are in a storm stick Shaker vibrated violently indicating that the 757 was going too slow and could fall from the sky arrow through 603 we have a 707 that is leaving for budwell we will advise him we are not in a stall it's a false alarm schreiber's airspeed indicator read 350 knots well above stall speed why aren't we getting the same reading when the airplane is slowed up to to a point in the air that it can no longer sustain itself in Flight it stalls the wings stalls or stops flying there's a warning system built into the airplane that tells the pilots when that's happening it's known as a stick Shaker along with a voice warning which we just heard when the stick Shaker goes off because the airplane has slowed down too much you get a warning like this where the control column is shaking and vibrating along with the voice warning saying that the airplane is stalling and of course the pilots would go into the aircraft stall recovery procedure at that point in the battle between man and machine the deranged 757 was winning the pilots now had no sense of where they were or how high had gradually been descending and were now just one thousand feet over the sea [Music] it's Guided by aeropruz 603's incorrect transponder reassured the pilots that they were at ten thousand feet Arrow crew 603 you are now flying on course one two zero we observe you to be at level ten thousand your speed is approximately two two zero and a distance from Lima of 33 miles to the Northwest the 707 will be ready in 15 minutes to fly West to healthy the pilots had to abandon their attempt at Landing the best hope now is that another aircraft could get airborne and guide the 757 back to the airport have another aircraft come alongside and formate or you formate on it would have one would have been one way of recovering from this abnormal situation however you just remember that the flight was at night and darkness the Pilot's may or may not have hit any formation flying training but that would have been one way to resolve the problem quite quite well actually [Music] now the pilots receive the most terrifying warning of all it is called the Grand proximity alarm meaning a collision with the Earth is imminent still the tower told them they were at ten thousand feet there is no checklist for if you have these seven or eight warnings going off which they did and they couldn't shut them off it's it's a very it's a very rattling experience I could play that tape for you and you hear those things pull up terrain terrain and and all of these things going off in the stick figure the it's a very unnerving environment all the computers are going crazy here Schreiber turned the aircraft toward the sea away from a possible collision with a mountain or skyscraper [Music] despite the erroneous warnings the terrain alarm was correct there's a system on board the aircraft crowned the ground proximity warning system and it senses a rate of descent in the airplane the irony of the situation was they were getting warnings from that saying too low terrain terrain too low that probably in all probability was a true one but because they've been subjected to so many warnings and ongoing false warnings horns bells and whistles but they didn't really I don't think react to that too seriously the air traffic controller noted Aero Peru's new course away from Lima Peru 603 I don't understand you we observe you turning to the left circling to the left affirmative we are heading to 5-0 but we are going out towards C because of the low terrain alarm the tower confirmed that the 757 had turned away from the airport out toward the open Pacific yes flying to the west of course 250. we are over water aren't we affirmative over the water you are 42 miles to the West now in darkness and heavy Haze the pilots had another problem with their speed are we going down now we have 370 knots are we descending now we're showing the same speed you have 200 knots speed approximately speed 200 knots [Music] 200 knots was precariously close to a stall speed yeah we've got a stall right now struggle with the deadly situation a computer that warns them are flying too fast too slow and too low all at once [Music] Schreiber now decided to risk a second attempt at Landing seeking the signal known as the ILS to guide the aircraft to the runway I want to try to intercept the ILS I'm trying to descend [Music] Lima Aero Peru 603 we will try to intercept the ILS let us know if we are in [Music] show now level 9700 the instrument seemed to be working for a moment there was a glimmer of hope this one's right this one's okay too the air traffic controller attempted to raise the pilot Spirits with good news stand by to verify speed the 707 is about to take off it is on Taxi I do not have any speed indications on board understood you're starting to turn ground speed at 270. stay there Eric 270 is okay they now knew their speed but altitude remained fatally wrong it's ground speed on the monitor speed if we're descending with engines on idle give me the altitude please yes you are maintaining 9 700 according to the sculpt sir 9700 yes correct what is your indicated altitude do you have any visual reference 9 three seven zero we have 370 what do we lower here Aero Peru 603 Lima what do we do with the gear suddenly they realize the Awful Truth [Music] we're heading water pull it off climb climb Arrow crew 603 if you need to pull up for 20 seconds the pilots struggle for altitude [Music] I've got it I've got it we're gonna turn over [Music] Lima Aero Peru 603 Lima [Music] the next morning Mexico businessman monus Albert learned that an aero Peru flight had crashed five minutes after take off the gluten from the tower that they were having an emergency and they requested periods to return to Lima during the process contact with the aircraft was lost at 0-110 with the latest position on the aircraft being 50 miles north of the city of Lima but six o'clock in the morning I got up and turn on the news channel and I heard there was a crash an airplane crash Affair of Peru but the news mentioned in New York to to Lima rescue operations are underway by authorities the Erica was carrying 61 passengers and nine crew members his brother-in-law and his business partner were on Aero Peru 603 so I went to the shower and didn't pay a lot of attention but when I came out they corrected the news and they said from Lima to Santiago and I knew in that playing Kenny and Abraham were flying the news was very vague so they mentioned there might be some survivors and they mentioned that the plane crashed on Pacific Ocean and and they didn't have a lot of news in the crashes at night so in my mind I thought the the plane sort of landed on water and and most people got out Guido Fernandez had just been appointed Peru's accident investigator Aero Peru was his first case a co-pilot David Fernandez was his nephew I was in bed it was about 4 30 in the morning um they call me you were a nephew is lost in an airplane they asked me I mean how do you feel that your nephew was a copilot my gosh I feel very bad but I'm a professional I have to do a job I have to comply and complete my my duty so that's what I did Fernandez rushed to the crash site in a Navy helicopter it was clear there were no survivors nine bodies were floating in the debris the rest sank with the 757. [Music] Fernandez met with the air traffic controller at Lima Tower his account was baffling well the controller really didn't know he was just trying to help so he did all he could to help him but wrong unfortunately for him it was a new emergency too [Music] his job was to retrieve the aircraft's flight data and voice recorders to determine what happened he needed help Fernandez contacted the national Transportation safety board in Washington D.C the world's leading Agency for air accident investigation they had found the aircraft it was pretty well documented by radar the Navy the Peruvian Navy had gotten a fix on the floatsome and the wreckage in the ocean and the only thing left to do was find it on the bottom of the ocean which they did not have the facilities for [Music] Rodriguez flew to Lima to join Guido Fernandez's effort to find answers [Music] found out that his nephew was the first officer I suggested that perhaps they should consider removing Captain Fernandez from the investigation because of emotional involvement and what have you the American investigators concern soon vanished he was very objective I would say an excellent investigator considering that it was and not a distant nephew I mean it was his very close relative uh he did an outstanding job the black box in the Boeing 757 can emit a Locator Beacon for 30 days before batteries run dead [Music] the U.S Navy provided underwater remote operated vehicles to survey the debris field seeking the blank boxes [Music] the wreckage confirmed that the plane went down in one piece [Music] breakups that were spread over 15 16 miles and maybe a mile and a half wide which tells you instantly that just what you know of the looking at the wreckage that this thing didn't hit in one piece it clearly was disintegrating as it was crashing but in this case it was a fairly tight debris field and so obviously it hit at high speed and was fairly closely knit wreckage pattern the data recorders were retrieved from the 757 brought to the surface the boxes were placed in coolers full of fresh water to keep them from oxidizing they were taken back to Washington for analysis at the NTSB [Music] investigator sort every word spoken by Pilot Schreiber and Fernandez and every unnerving alarm was recorded on audio tape the recorded voices were faint sometimes hard to make out but the chaos in the cockpit rang through with chilling clarity [Music] the tape was digitized into a computer filtered and enhanced [Music] now investigators have the clue they'd been looking for [Music] you know [Music] Terrain terrain too long it was clear to us that there were they were really experiencing a problem with AirSpeed and altitude and um the airspeed and altitude indications in the aircraft are strictly a function of the what we call a pedostatic system the pistol static system is found on all aircraft large or small external ports measure outside air pressure to provide data on altitude and speed if these ports are blocked the plane's computers receive false data and generate false warnings [Music] but why these ports will be blocked was a mystery robotic Vehicles searched for the missing piece of the puzzle what they found stand investigators Captain schreiber's static Port was completely blocked with the tape investigators now learned what happened just before Aero Peru 603 lifted off from Lima maintenance workers cleaned the aircraft a worker covered the static ports with tape to protect them this is standard procedure but he forgot to remove the tape it was a small oversight with catastrophic results taping was never removed and when the airplane departed and started to fly and nothing but trapped static sea level air pressure was sensed by those instruments and in a matter of fact the airplane was climbing up in a thinner air and the the information presented on the instruments into the air data computer was false generated and just totally non-normal readings the inspector who was supposed to Quality check his work did not do it and the supervisor out on the line that night was not there he was sick and there was a a regular mechanic who was filling that role he did not see it and the captain or the pilot in this case the captain did the pre-flight they do a walk around looking for just that kind of thing the captain did the pre-flight that night and he did not detect a year a little piece of paper with glue caused an accident but the paper and the glue are not to blame humans are to blame because humans use that tape in their own place for the wrong purpose [Music] another accident shockingly similar to Aero Peru 603 had happened just eight months earlier to another 757. in February 1996 189 people died when a German Charter called Bergen air crashed five miles after takeoff from Puerto Plata Dominican Republic [Music] the NTSB assisted in the investigation the wreckage revealed that one Pito tube the other critical part of the pitostatic system was blocked [Music] as with Aero Peru 603 Knight was the Pilot's worst enemy the Bergen air pilot flipped the plane upside down before crashing into the sea the Bergen accident clearly pointed out already that a crew will get confused by these cryptic advisories rather ratio Market SP trim and not getting a clear indication what the underlying problem is which is a problem with the air data computer or anything which comes behind it the pedotube or the static port these were effects which were well known to the manufacturer and so it happened again three months after the Bergen air crash bulletins were issued to all Airline carriers about the pitostatic problems but Aero Peru had not yet implemented the changes the bulletins and the let's call it the fruits of the Dominican Republic investigation of Bergen air had not yet reached Aero Peru at the time this accident occurred the Peruvian government very correctly made a point of that in their report on the accident saying that they should have given more impetus to those recommendations to get them out to the industry quicker well it's very unfortunate but it it comes back to the fact that communication and Aviation is sometimes deficient there is not that a high level of exchange of information between different operators as they're all competitors they do not exchange certain information and specifically not the one which is safety related and that's definitely the case in the in the air Peru accident it may not have helped them survive given the high pressure of their situation it's easy to sit here in the 757 cockpit and play the Monday Morning Quarterback having heard that bells and the overspeed warnings the ground proximity warning the stall warning was very easy to do that and sit here and say what I would have done being an experienced pilot but to put yourself into the position of those two pilots at night they were in an extremely difficult situation to fly that airplane and and recover from that that experience two weeks after the crash monus Albert joined dozens of grieving families seeking the remains of his brother-in-law and friend he finally identified them in a Lima morgue I wanted to find him I really wanted to find him and and one part of me didn't wanted to find him because there was this fallacy that if I don't find him maybe they're in an island with a with a with a drink and looking at some girls dancing I can close the chapter I can I can go and take him in heaven buried and and there'll be a place for the family to go and and put some flowers once in a while and and say okay my my brother-in-law's here or my dad is here or my husband is here now that investigators had the answer to the mysterious loss of Aero Peru 603 the lawsuits began [Music] in November 1996 a Miami lawyer took on the case on behalf of 41 passengers and crew arguing that the manufacturer Boeing was liable for the accident [Music] Boeing has to foresee the misuse of their product in other words a manufacturer of a product is legally liable for the foreseeable misuse of their product if it can be corrected in other words Boeing builds the airplane with a potential hazard in it that Hazard is that in order to clean the airplane you have to cover the static port and if you don't take it off the airplane can crash I wanted them back and since I couldn't get him back at least I wanted the wives of the victims to get compensated how much is that worth I don't know I didn't know Abraham I had three daughters and now they don't have a father so what is the compensation the best compensation is if can be done is getting back give them life back again but because that is not possible then the other possibility is to get a monetary compensation and then you fight for the best compensation you can get Boeing argued that Aero Peru was at fault not it's 757 an aero Peru worker taped the static Port which is marked with clear warnings Boeing also blamed Captain Eric Schreiber it was his job to visually inspect the aircraft before taking off but investigator Richard Rodriguez can understand how Schreiber overlooked the tape on the static port one of the reasons is it's very high it's about maybe 15 17 feet up in the air and at night with a flashlight and this happened to be duct tape which you're not supposed to use they specify the tape and it was duct tape which is silver so it would not distinguish itself against the background of the fuselage of the aircraft so basically three or four people failed to detect the tape on the aircraft prior to departure as the search for blame continued the worker who taped the ports was jailed for his negligence lawyers the lawyers you know sometimes they confuse the matters and they send the guy and ask people questions and that quick questions and the one that stuck the tape was the painter was the the lowest culture and the the one that knew less about what could happen and the judge resolved that he was the one responsible and he was in jail so if you don't lose the airplane because her maintenance man making two dollars an hour down in Peru makes a mistake it's foreseeable that that kind of a person is going to make a mistake that's human nature they're going to make a mistake and you build your system so you don't lose your 50 million dollar airplane because a maintenance guy makes a simple mistake Schreiber and Fernandez were also scrutinized veteran pilot Alan MacLeod believes that in their situation he would not have attempted to land he would have continued to fly for as long as he could with the plain angled upwards slightly and the speed set just above Crews [Music] experience has shown that if you don't fly the airplane when you're experiencing an abnormal situation and they certainly were you must fly the airplane just concentrate on flying the airplane and get the airplane under control first and foremost are we going down now we have 370 knots if you don't do that airplane's going to bite you going to end up in more serious situations so I would fly the airplane make sure I was able to fly it safely if only by using the attitude Direction indicator and normal power settings that I was familiar with and then eventually work my way back and get it on the ground it's called it flying by numbers relying not on computers but on basic Aviation and human instinct it always becomes a problem when Pilots are reduced to be push button nests the man machine interface has to work and has to work as humans are to operate these airplanes they have to be to be designed appropriately for the use of a human being of course you can put in all digits and numbers and and and and computer gimmicks and you can but still it's man who has to operate and Survey it and I believe a human being should be in charge in 1999 Boeing and Aero Peru decided to settle the lawsuits out of court families and loved ones received an exceptional settlement averaging a million dollars U.S per victim the damages were high because of the terrible way the passengers and crew on Aero Peru died we were able to show that a lot of the people were alive in a crash like this a lot of the people would survive the crash and then died of drowning there was no question in our minds that the people suffered terrible terrible terror and pain when this happened to them they were horrified they were awake they knew what happened the disaster helped sink Aero Peru combined with increased competition and Rising debt the national airline went bankrupt in 1999. Boeing increased training on pitostatic problems and issued new regulations about unapproved static Port covers since 1996 there has not been another pitostatic failure like the one on Aero Peru 603 the designers of these products the manufacturers of the products I know that they have to take safety into account they have to of course they do that because they know it's the right thing to do but they also know that if they don't do it there's going to be somebody watching them that's going to investigate it is going to find out why it happened and that they're going to be accountable for what they do wrong and that if they don't take into consideration safety they're going to have to pay for it well it the accidents made deviation is to be aware that something simple like a pita tube or aesthetic Port can cause a major incident or even an accident and even airline pilots were reminded that this is a vital basic thing and it may happen and this is the way how to prevent it should turn into a catastrophe the case was settled the industry repented and moved on such is the world of commercial Aviation that it was little consolation for those whose lives were scarred Forever by an insignificant piece of tape that a guy doesn't exist anymore it's very hard to swallow it's very hard to to understand and it took me a long time [Music] to accept so the memory is still there and they will be there for a long time I'm not going to let go I don't want to let go [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Wonder

Views: 539,186

Keywords: Wonder, air accidents review, air incident analysis, air travel disasters, air travel tragedies, aircraft crashes recording, aircraft disasters, aviation accidents, aviation protocols study, aviation safety, aviation tragedies, catastrophes analysis, disaster documentaries, disaster management protocols, experts analysis, flight investigations, flight safety measures, mayday episodes, passenger safety, plane tragedy analysis, swissair flight 111

Id: XPZTyLkApic

Length: 103min 42sec (6222 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 19 2023