How Did JFK Jr. Really Crash His Plane? | Mayday: Air Disaster The Accident Files

nothing's working a confused John F Kennedy Jr is lost on his way to Martha's Vineyard this orientation can quickly lead to the airplane getting into an uncontrollable situation High over the Red Sea a pilot can't understand why his passenger jet is plummeting towards the water the dark ocean without a defined visual Horizon the pilot may not be able to perceive whether he was flying up down left or right and off the coast of Indonesia don't turn it a Boeing 737 flies off course we're going to get lost if it stays like this in all of these cases we see Pilots disoriented as to which way is right side up it's a terrifying cause of airplane accidents a pilot Lost in Space [Music] foreign it's a warm summer evening at Essex County Airport less than an hour from The Busy streets of Manhattan the small Airfield serves many of New York's wealthy citizens preparing to Pilot his own plane a man who in many ways is the elite of the elite John F Kennedy Jr she was breathtakingly handsome he was such a crowned Prince people kept waiting for the moment when he would run for office publicly Kennedy is waiting for Carolyn Bessette his wife of three years to arrive also hitching a ride on Kennedy's plane is his sister-in-law Lauren Bessette at 8 20 p.m Carolyn arrives two hours late all right ladies hop in I just have to do a walk around and then we can get going though John F Kennedy Jr has had his pilot's license for more than a year he hasn't flown solo since breaking his ankles six weeks ago still limping he makes a final pre-flight check of his new plane a Piper Saratoga Jon plans to drop Lauren off at Martha's Vineyard and continue on with his wife to the Kennedy family compound in Hyannis Port Massachusetts all right battery on fuel pump on and propeller is uh clear at 8 40 PM 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 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 Kennedy cruises at just 5 500 feet a typical altitude for small planes around 9 30 pm he leaves the mainland Coast behind just leaving Montauk over there I don't see a thing this 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 he expects to reach their first destination in about half an hour we'll have you on the ground by 10 for sure but by 10 o'clock right there's Vineyard Tower airport security here the air traffic controller at Martha's Vineyard Airport has had no contact with Kennedy's plane any word on that plate uh negative I haven't been notified of that arrival around Martha's Vineyard weather can change quickly and 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 Jr his wife and sister-in-law have vanished Without a Trace [Music] the Coast Guard launches a search for John F Kennedy Jr's Piper Saratoga at first light the U.S military and local law enforcement agencies joined the search effort scale of the effort to search for the aircraft it was massive this was JFK Jr and it captured the eyes of the country and the world news that one of America's favorite Sons is missing stuns the nation we watched this adorable little child playing in the Oval Office we watched him of course at that one terribly tragic and sad moment when the small child in a little short knee coat saluted his father's casket as it came by the public wants answers it seems like every News Major news organization was had a presence in our parking lot with no aircraft to examine Jeff gazetti hey Jeff cassetti from the national Transportation safety board compiles data from Coastal radar stations to build a picture of how the plane was flying okay ready when you are we always consider recorded radar data as a poor man's black box it's a way to get some information in regards to the flight path the airspeed the altitude and that was very helpful in this investigation but the radar information leaves investigators perplexed he suddenly starts heading away from Martha's Vineyard why is he flying in the wrong direction about 30 miles from Martha's Vineyard the plane makes a series of unusual maneuvers you know he's flying like someone who can't control the plane the pattern that was indicated by the radar was quite unusual for a normal type of descent approach to an airport we don't know at that point exactly why finally four days after Kennedy's plane goes missing the investigation catches a giant break it that we realize is very important U.S Navy divers locate the sunken wreckage and the bodies watch on mobile devices or the big screen all for free no subscription or fire download daily now 75 percent of Kennedy's Piper Saratoga is recovered from the ocean floor and sent to a hangar for detailed analysis because the small plane was not required to carry flight recorders each and every piece no matter how small we need to know where it was found investigators will have to uncover the story behind this crash by interpreting the clues imprinted on the crumpled debris I want to see every piece we start at the wing tips we work our way in [Music] first the team examines and tests the wreckage for any signs of a malfunction their efforts reveal that at the moment the plane hit the water the aileron cables also seem fine the engine the flight controls and the instruments were working normally we found no evidence of any kind of pre-impact mechanical malfunction the focus now shifts from the plane to the pilot investigators Wonder did John F Kennedy Jr lose control of his plane over 300 flight hours it wasn't a total rookie had a fair number of fight hours under his belt they check Kennedy's training records to learn all they can about his experience as a pilot so what did he learn in 300 hours I'd like to try a few eyeless approaches again today they discover that Kennedy had been taking lessons on and off for 17 years but he had relatively little experience flying on his own he's only qualified for visual flying he hadn't finished his training for instrument-only flights [Music] investigators also discover that Kennedy was still working towards his instrument rating a crucial qualification for flying at night or in bad weather using only the flight instruments as a guide Ishmael float is one of the hardest ratings to get when you're moving up through your licenses and ratings and it involves flying without looking outside the aircraft so that when you're in clouds you can maintain control of the aircraft so he wasn't ready to fly if he couldn't see so could he see or not investigators look at Kennedy's activities in the hours before the flight computer records reveal that he checked the weather online at 6 34 pm at that time it was a clear day with good visibility any word from your sister no traffic I guess it's Friday I told her it was going to be jammed but they took off two hours later than planned by that time weather conditions over the ocean were deteriorating with fog making it hard to see the horizon public clears up for the weekend suddenly Kennedy found himself flying at night in bad weather both conditions he wasn't trained for was Kennedy lost in a cloudy Haze before his plane went down what I'm doing [Music] foreign ERS now need to know what was happening in the cockpit as John F Kennedy Jr flew his plane into worsening conditions had a great night for this guy to be flying weather plays an immense role in all Aviation accidents even the ones that you might not think it would if Kennedy was concerned about weather he could have been getting updates during the flight 127.25 to get accurate information investigators know he would have tuned His Radio to the weather transmission from Martha's Vineyard the radio from Kennedy's plane is among the many parts salvaged from the ocean and it's tuned to 127.25 the wrong frequency 126.25 he was off by one digit investigators now know for certain that Kennedy wasn't receiving the weather updates he needed it's a revealing discovery [Music] together a la scenario to explain Kennedy's tragic end started after he cleared New York as he heads up the coast towards Long Island night falls and visibility decreases visibility was bad and it's getting worse he starts his descent but Kennedy isn't properly trained to fly solo in these dangerous conditions as he headed out over the water and all those lights were behind him all that visual reference was gone it's possible that Kennedy decides to check the weather station in preparation for landing he looks away from his instruments for like a second 127.25 remember his frequency was off maybe he was trying to tune the radio he might look to see if the frequency had changed still nothing while all of that's going on it's quite easy for the airplane to slip into a little bit of a bank One Direction or another investigators now believe that the disorientating effects of the dark hazy night begin to affect Kennedy's sense of space [Music] 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 quarter it can't be when he looks back his instruments are telling him one thing his sense is another be well trained to disregard what your brain is saying and look at your instruments work on your scan and fly by your instruments what are you doing climb once he becomes disoriented Kennedy is too inexperienced to believe his instruments no matter what his senses are telling him nothing's working he may not have even have known what type of unusual attitude he was in and that he was about to hit the water so it's the only thing that fits spatial disorientation you're really left with the the gaping possibility that was always there which was the classic case of spatial disorientation which unfortunately has killed so many Pilots lost in the skies Kennedy fights to keep his plane airborne but he can't investigators conclude that Kennedy's tragic crash was caused by his inexperience flying in confusing conditions one sorry flight path textbook disorientation I don't think the public wanted to accept sort of pilot error as the cause losing him was one thing but losing him essentially to his own mistake made it much worse research shows that spatial disorientation is a factor in 15 of all accidents and as one of the most significant hazards to air safety even the most experienced Pilots are susceptible to this deadly confusion five years later another crew experiences spatial disorientation when their passenger jet from Egypt I was at a loss to understand how a flight crew with this level of experience would end up here mysteriously crashes into the Red Sea charmel Sheikh Egypt it's a city perched on the Red Sea former Egyptian Air Force pilot kader Abdullah is now a highly respected Captain with flash Airlines morning good morning sir his first officer today is Amir al-shafi Shroff Abdel Hamid is the third member of the crew training as a first officer visibility six kilometers clouds and sky clear they're piloting an early morning flight to Paris in all 148 passengers and Crews settle into their seats aboard flash Airlines flight 604 good morning ladies and gentlemen on behalf of Captain qadir and his entire crew we welcome you on board flash Airlines Boeing 737-300. [Music] it's still hours before Dawn when the plane lifts off The Flash Airlines flight will head out over the Red Sea before turning towards Cairo to climbs through a moonless pitch black night the ascent after takeoff is going well then out of nowhere the simple turn over the Red Sea see what the aircraft just did takes a bizarre twist Captain kader doesn't like the way his plane is behaving aircraft is turning right now turning right the plane is supposed to be turning left on its way to Cairo instead it's turning in the opposite direction Captain tries to get his plane back on course but his situation just gets worse but the autopilot doesn't work just minutes after takeoff the plane is out of control [Music] 737 is now flying almost completely on its side and gain speed as it spirals towards the Red Sea enormous g-forces make it difficult for Captain Abdullah to fly three minutes after flash Airlines flight 604 takes off [Music] the plane disappears into the Red Sea by the time the sun rises the crash site is found but there's little Rescuers can do 148 people are dead there are no survivors [Music] Egyptian French and American teams join forces to investigate the crash the light debris scattered on the surface of the Red Sea gives them their first clue there was very very few pieces at all located at a very small area so this indicated that the plane was intact and led it to the water intact the debris pattern rules out an onboard explosion or breakup mid-flight to learn more investigators must recover the wreckage and black boxes currently thousands of feet underwater whenever an airplane crashes into the water there's always a fear by investigators that the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder may not be recovered without them could make the investigation process very very difficult [Music] finally after an exhaustive search a breakthrough the black boxes are recovered by a remotely operated sub investigators now have some hard evidence Cairo the multinational investigation team examines the critical devices they mine the data from both boxes to recreate the final minutes of the doomed plane to depict the path of the aircraft we created an animation based on the data we got and from radar the simulation paints a devastating picture shortly after takeoff the plane begins heading left just as it was supposed to but then it quickly starts banking in the other direction the cockpit voice recorder shows that the turn catches the captain off guard turning right sir out turning right the pilots were experiencing definitely some kind of abnormality a problem that they could not understand digging deeper into the flight data recorder investigators discover something peculiar We Believe from the data we we're looking at the flat data recorder that there is a very high possibility that the plane was tending to turn to the right by itself data also reveals that before the plane's bizarre turn to the right three things seem to happen at the same time the plane ends its left turn early its nose Rises and the airspeed drops but shockingly the captain says nothing in fact he seems completely unaware of the dramatic changes to his flight path at night time and in the same type of aircraft and in no way should the pilot allow the airspeed to drop by as much as 30 knots or the bank angle to change Beyond five degrees without clearly stating the reasons for the change in the flight path investigators are stumped the Egyptian team suspects the aircraft failed somehow but there's nothing in the flight data that proves a mechanical failure was capable of bringing the plane down [Music] American investigators want to explore the possibility that the highly regarded Pilots may have been at fault Pilots are very respected and in particular Air Force pilots are very highly regarded in an environment like this the pilot is somewhat immune to suspicion when something goes wrong a natural tendency is to blame the equipment nevertheless some investigators begin to consider a provocative theory that might explain the flight's erratic Behavior turning right sir aircraft is turning right perhaps Captain kader had lost his bearings the planes flight path into a dark moonless night is ideal for creating a sense of vertigo vertigo is a physiological condition that would exist with any person not just pilots and it's based on the inner ear over a dark ocean without a defined visual Horizon no ground lights the pilot may not be able to perceive visually whether he was flying up down left or right that may cause the pilot to believe the airplane is flying straight and level when it's actually turning soon after takeoff Captain kader was flying manually and starts turning left as planned heading out over dark water with no visible Horizon it would be very difficult using just his senses for the pilot to know exactly where he was after Roger went ready inshallah left him to establish 306 Sean view r investigators need to know how could a veteran combat pilot become so mixed up that he crashes his jet into the ocean investigators pour through the cockpit voice recordings and flight data of flash Airways flight 604 they're searching for an explanation as to how Captain cada may have become oblivious to his plane's sudden Bank to the right when you study the movement of the aircraft control surfaces it appears as something was guiding cabin cutter to the right now that could have been a fast horizon or something he's seen outside of his window see what the aircraft just did he thinks he's gained his flight path again and all of a sudden at this moment he receives contradictory information turning right sir in this particular instance not only are you trying to fly the airplane and understand situationally what's happening but you're going through the mental gymnastics because your expectations are one way meanwhile you have the first officer who's telling him something that's totally different but investigators know that with proper training Pilots should trust the help of a co-pilot when disorientation sets in vestigators are curious why didn't the co-pilot take control of the plane the team turns to the flash Airlines pilot training they make a disturbing find Crews had not been provided with CRM or crew Resource Management training despite it being a requirement of the company had the pilots of flashair 604 received a formal CRM training program the outcome of this flight may have been substantially different investigators now believe this explains why the first officer made no attempt to take control of the plane formal CRM training would have empowered the first officer who had the best situational awareness and the most information about the position of the airplane to take command of the airplane when he saw that the captain wasn't taking the appropriate corrective action the final report recognizes that the Pitch Black Knight may have fooled the captain's brain into thinking he was flying straight when he wasn't but Egyptian investigators do not entirely rule out a possible mechanical issue turning right it also suggests that with more of an emphasis on CRM training the co-pilot may have been able to recover the plane and pull back from the brink of disaster Pilots are responding based on skills abilities knowledge and what they got out of training if the training was deficient that's a company responsibility proper training can be the difference between life and death and were there very few outside visual cues it can be very easy to get in position where you're disoriented and when you're disoriented you might make decisions as a pilot that'll put that aircraft in danger and without the use of navigation instruments a pilot can be flying totally blind [Music] Surabaya Indonesia Captain referee Widodo is in command of Adam Air flight 574. he's been flying with Adam air for six months [Music] his first officer yoga susanto has been with the airline for almost a year and a half there are 96 passengers and six crew members on today's flight [Music] check anyone rotate it's a routine two-hour hop from Surabaya on the island of java to manado on the island of sulawesi almost 1700 kilometers Northeast minutes after takeoff the crew turns on the autopilot the flight computer will fly the plane and navigate it along a pre-planned route to manado now passing flight level 220 climbing to flight level three zero Roger adam574 track direct to deola confirmed fracking director deola adam574 22 000 feet below air traffic controllers track the flight's progress but they're mystified by what they see of course Adam Direct 2. my God he's flying North less than 30 minutes after takeoff Flight 574 has flown off course directly towards a violent storm [Music] s air traffic controllers work with the flight crew yes to try and understand how far they have drifted off course the pilots realized the coordinates in the flight navigation system aren't matching their current position the IRS 28 is a difference the weather is making it hard to see and without a navigation system they can trust they risk veering even more wildly of course getting lost over the ocean is everyone's worry because when you lose trust of your navigation instruments what do you do the pilots of Adam Air Flight 574 are way off course headed into a bad thunderstorm my favorite position my position please Roger 574 position is one two five miles Mike kilo Sierra Crossing radial 307. Mike kilo Sierra the storm is growing worse in Widodo wants to take over navigation of the plane from the flight computer to put the IRS in Attitude suddenly a warning the autopilot has disengaged completely then many of susanto's computerized instruments go blank to make matters worse Flight 574 is now banking right on a dangerous angle did you enter this Captain Widodo wants to re-engage the autopilot okay put it back an alarm tells the pilots they are entering a steep descent Flight 574 vanishes from radar 574 you jump control item 574 u-junk control news of The Disappearance spreads quickly search and rescue teams are mobilized Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee or ntsc is notified Franz wenis is the investigator of Adam air 574 the first steps that we take when there was an accident we will find all the resources that we have and get a team together before we dispatch to the area [Music] to have any hope of conducting a successful investigation he needs to locate the wreckage and the black boxes as soon as he can when the plane was last detected by radar it was crossing the Mikasa Strait search area is the size of Ireland pinpointing the wreckage is nearly impossible when the aircraft went missing it was a bit of a shot for everybody because in this day and age nobody expects an aircraft to go missing within a few weeks of the crash investigators pinpoint the wreckage some 6500 feet below the surface but the airline and Indonesian government can't agree on who should pay for the Salvage after a grueling seven-month long battle the Salvage operation finally begins pull up quadrant three because the plane is American made Clint Crookshanks from the national Transportation safety board joins the investigation it was quite deep water deeper than uh than were normally used to recovering airplanes from the only items they can recover that's it that's that's it are the aircraft's black boxes the black boxes as the only source for the incidents that we have because we don't have any brackets we don't have the witnesses the discovery is a massive breakthrough the boxes will provide investigators with the first solid clues about why Flight 574 fell from the sky confirmed tracking director deola adam574 the conversation on the cockpit voice recorder tells investigators that the crew discovered that the plane's navigation system was sending them off course the IRS 28 is the difference a drifting they seem preoccupied with fixing the problem this is messed up investigators need to understand why the plane flew so far off the flight path set by the Jets navigation system maintain the plane's flight path the flight computer always has to know the plane's exact location that information comes from a component called the IRS or inertial reference system it tracks every adjustment to the plane's course to calculate its exact position it then feeds that information to the autopilot the autopilot needs to know where the aircraft is and where it needs to go takes those data from the IRS in terms of height heading speed investigators need to know if the IRS was faulty and leading the plane in the wrong direction they check the IRS information from the flight data recorder the numbers are fine when they're on the ground yes the data confirms the IRS was properly calibrated before Adam Air Flight 574 took off this is where it begins but for some reason the IRS began to send the plane off course almost as soon as the flight got into the air investigators now face a disturbing new question did a faulty IRS contribute to the Jets catastrophic nosedive into the sea Justice gets worse and worse Indonesian and American investigators dig through flight 574's maintenance history to better understand why it got lost in space [Music] now something else I'd like to show you they discover that the IRS unit that led the plane off course was plagued with problems as you can tell there's more than 100 write-ups here look at this same unit 10 problems right over the past three months numerous complaints had been written up again and again the case of the iris of this aircraft that unit should have been taken out and sent to maintenance for calibration or repairs it's a big break in the investigation but the failing IRS only explains why the plane steered off course investigators still don't know what caused the plane to actually crash to paint a vivid picture of the moments leading up to the mysterious accident the team creates a computer simulation of the flight by combining the flight data and cockpit voice recorder investigators can now see that once Captain Widodo realizes the flight computer is sending the plane off course okay put the IRS in Attitude co-pilot susanto overrides the flight computer by switching the navigation system to a mode that would keep the plane flying straight and level captain wadodo could now change his course this is where they switch from nav to attitude but when the navigation mode is Switched it forces some computerized navigation controls including the attitude indicator to go blank for about 30 seconds while they reset ADI goes off and stays off during this time the autopilot systems are totally disengaged and the pilots need to fly the plane straight and level using visual flight rules maintain straight and level constant AirSpeed flight until attitude displays recover approximately 30 seconds it's in the manual but with no natural Horizon and no navigation control panels the captain has absolutely no way of knowing if the plane is flying straight that's where the plane starts its right role the pilots are in the perfect conditions necessary to become totally disoriented the autopilot disengage when they consciously selected from the nav mode to the attitude mode and then the aircraft commenced and almost imperceptible role to the right of around about one degree per second the crew has no idea that their plane is dipping one degree per second it's a very common way for Pilots to become disoriented your body will start to fool you your senses will start sending you false information you might think that you are actually going straight in level where you're actually rolling slowly to the right or to the left completely disoriented Widodo tries to straighten the plane by pulling back on his control column before his wings are level forcing the plane into a tight spiral dive just kept rolling until it almost went inverted and just felt kind of fell out of this guy once it it got to a point where it wasn't flying like a normal airplane should investigators conclude that equipment designed to prevent pilots from getting lost in space tragically failed the crew of Adam Air Flight 574 and when the flight crew got confused and lost their bearings they couldn't save the plane time and again it's a human factor that can never be completely eliminated as a Flight Risk but a pilot can learn how to fight the effect of deceptive illusions with good training in all of these cases we see Pilots that are disoriented as to which way is right side up it means that you have to revert back to your primary instrument training of trust the instruments that's one of the lessons that we learned and it continues to evolve today [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Wonder

Views: 62,066

Keywords: Wonder, aeronautical engineering, aircraft design, aircraft maintenance, black box data, crash theories, crew communication, emergency landings, engines separating mid-flight, first responders, flight control, flight regulations, flight safety, flight technology, improvised landings, pilot disorientation, pilot pairings, pilot training, search and rescue operations, small private planes, spacial disorientation

Id: CbTCq4GTt9c

Length: 43min 22sec (2602 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 10 2023