How Pilots FIGHT Mid-Flight Engine Failure | Mayday: Air Disaster

three different planes experience the same devastating situation looks like we've lost number one they didn't even know the engine was actually gone each case has vastly different consequences we're losing hydraulics on system three no three and four feet we're losing altitude three separate Crews must use all their skills to get their passengers to the ground safely up everybody [Music] [Music] on a clear Friday afternoon the crew of American Airlines flight 191 Rudder set prepares for takeoff spoilers are from Chicago's O'Hare Airport any updates on the weather Captain Walter Lux is a seasoned pilot with 22 000 flying hours surface Wing 20 degrees at 22 knots nothing but Blue Skies he and first Officer James Dillard are piloting a DC-10 its three-engine configuration makes it one of the most recognizable Jets on the runway [Music] the 258 passengers settle in for the flight to Los Angeles he won rotate bam there's the turbulence not too rough did you see that I've lost power to my side Captain's instrument panel has gone dark looks like we've lost number one power in the left engine has gone [Music] I have to keep going you have to climb out and if there's something wrong with the airplane even if the problems are critical your best hope is to keep going to climb contact ATC and come around and land somehow somewhere [Music] look at this look at this right away the air traffic controller spots trouble equipment I need equipment blew an engine your bank correct correct the plane is just 325 feet from the ground but it's banking sharply to the left I can't hold it the pilots can't achieve the altitude they need and they Bank even further come on come on 350 for losing altitude Witnesses on the ground can clearly see flight 191 flying on its side [Music] we're still turning level baby level there he goes the DC-10 slams into a hangar at the edge of the airport [Applause] planes loaded fuel tanks spark a terrifying Inferno 31 seconds after takeoff almost nothing is left of flight 191. [Music] all 271 people on board are dead two workers inside the hangar are also killed it's the worst Aviation disaster in U.S history [Music] a lot of people saw this happen let's see what they can tell us NTSB America's national Transportation safety board is called in to investigate what went wrong they start with the controller who witnessed the shocking incident look at this look look at this the air traffic controller reveals that flight 191's left engine did more than fail the engine fell off the plane just after they left it off if you were sitting on the left hand side of the airplane what you would have seen was the number one engine on the left side rotated up and flipped back and disappeared behind you these engines are actually designed to go back up over the wing in case of failure so that they will miss the tail as they go by and not cause damage to the tail section investigators scour the wreckage for clues about when the engine separated well the first priorities would be to look at the actual separation where is it that this engine brought this is definitely part of the pilot I've never seen one break like that the pylons are mounted under the wings each one is strong enough to suspend an engine weighing 11 700 pounds the pylon is designed very well strengthwise you take a lot of load much more load than you normally see in the course of the airplane life the pylon gets its strength from two internal bulkheads one forward and one rear the bulkheads also provide secure points of attachment ensuring that the engines are firmly fixed to the wings it's almost inconceivable that one of the strongest parts of the aircraft with its Fail-Safe design could break apart you see the rest of the power while experts recover the rest of the broken pylon investigators cross-check the aircraft's maintenance records discover that the left engine was removed for servicing eight weeks prior to the crash any time that you have an airplane that's been into maintenance just before a crash that also raises all sorts of warning flags all sorts go down to Tulsa see what they did if you have an investigation that involves maintenance you don't go inside the hangar you don't follow that trail you're going to miss some issues the team splits one group follows the maintenance Trail for Clues the other stays behind to piece together the broken pylon crash just don't know why close examination reveals a crack in the metal it's a Telltale sign that the pylon bulkhead was already damaged before the crash you can see where it spread the crack runs along the top edge of the rear bulkhead the cracks were consistent with a fatigue phenomena from repeated loads each time that load occurs you then have an extension of the crack and there's another clue a dent on the pylon bulkhead right where the crack seems to start looks like something hit the pylon okay I'll see what I can find in Tulsa investigators observe another DC-10 undergoing the same maintenance that was performed on flight 191. can you take me up and show me how the engines mounted okay bring her up they discover that to save time the airline modified a key maintenance procedure servicing an engine usually involves removing it from the pylon and leaving the pylon attached to the wing it requires unfastening hundreds of connections procedures from the manufacturer were deemed to be too time consuming and they could do it faster better cheaper the quicker way involves taking out just three bolts the engine can then be removed from the wing while still attached to the pylon it was easier the attach points from the pylon to the wing were accessible the attach points from the engine to the pylon were much more difficult to take apart and put back together removing is not the issue it's the attempt to reinstall well stock is where the problem comes from left a bit they were using the forklift and this forklift is not very manageable it cannot be finely controlled as far as the altitude is concerned Whoa stop stop I think I know what happened take her down the team is on the verge of discovering how a mysterious dent in an engine pylon set off a catastrophic chain of events what do you got NTSB investigators learned that a maintenance crew struggled to reattach the pylon into the mounting bracket or clevis of flight 191 just weeks before the crash and then it all came together so clevis itself had produced this deformation that was on the fracture the team concludes that the clevis on the doomed plane must have slammed into the pylon bulkhead as the engine was being reattached the impact could have initiated the crack that led to the pylons failure time the plane took off the stress that the massive engine put on the pylon made the crack larger the engine is not only imparting a Thrust load but it's also imparting a sideways load so each time you have this load it breaks a little bit more and more and more the team now understands what caused the engine to tear off but that doesn't explain why Captain Lux wasn't able to land plane was in bad shape it had lost an engine it lost several critical systems but it was still airworthy and was still able to fly in fact you could lose a second engine shortly after I left off and you would still be able to power the aircraft around photos taken just before the crash provide investigators with a vital clue is that hydraulic fluid several of the dc-10's hydraulic lines run along the Leading Edge of the wing take a look at this it's the area that was damaged the most when the engine broke off we need to see those slats American 191 thank you to actually hold Runway 32 right flaps this last to 10. deployed at takeoff the slats increase the Wing's surface area which enables Pilots to climb at lower speeds investigators discover that while all the slats on the right wing were extended some slats on the left wing were not [Music] you have One Wing that is flying in the other Wing that isn't the team determines that the engine tore away from the wing with enough Force to rupture the hydraulic lines the fluid keeping the slats extended on the left wing would have drained quickly I can't hold it without fluid some slats on the left wing retracted causing that Wing to lose lift the plane began to roll left I'm losing it without full slats the plane had required a higher speed to avoid stalling [Music] so why didn't the experienced Pilots increase speed if they were about to stall to find out investigators recreate the takeoff in a simulator there is a stall warning system that will advise the pilots when the airplane is about to start it's called a stick Shaker the stick Shaker vibrates the control column to get the Pilot's attention if you get a stall wearing you obviously lower the nose and you apply full power and you fly it out of the stall investigators examine the DC-10 stall warning they make an important discovery or the alarms are powered by the left engine once the engine broke off the stick Shaker stall warning went dead I've lost power to my side correct hooray without that warning the pilots didn't know their plane was stalling instead they followed procedures for an engine failure on takeoff we're taught to pull back on the wheel and go back to the minimum safe flying speed to get away from the ground reducing speed is the opposite of what pilots need to do when a plane is about to storm if they didn't know they were stalling they didn't stand a chance the pilots flew the plane exactly as they've been trained to do exactly as procedure demanded that they fight the NTSB concludes the pilots were not at fault they do however fault American Airlines maintenance practices the Federal Aviation Administration is also singled out for not enforcing the installation of stick shakers on both columns and for not mandating that Warning Systems be powered by more than one engine the dc-10s Hydraulics are also redesigned with special plugs to prevent slats and other control surfaces from retracting if the lines get cut when Pilots they lose an engine we lose engine power This Plane actually lost an engine this kind of accident never happened again this engine never fell off this kind of airplane again though the DC-10 never lost another engine it takes only a few years for a different aircraft to face the same terrifying event in Cold Bay Alaska Revolution Airlines flight 8 is set for takeoff destination Seattle Washington the route will take the plane over a wide area of the icy North Pacific Captain James Gibson is a hardened Bush pilot with more than 25 years experience after us Gibson's flight engineer Thruster is 45 year old Alaskan Gerald moose Lauren [Music] his first officer is 39 year old Gary Lindner generally we flew that route once a week on this particular day we are scheduled for five hours of flying time Europe [Music] they're flying a Lockheed l-188 Electro powered by four turboprop engines Gibson completes the turn on a course Bound for Seattle when an unusual vibration resonates throughout the cockpit you hear that gear I do well let's have a look yeah you bet flight attendant Wendy croon helps Lauren check the engines and just as I looked out the window the engine went as the prop came off I thought oh crap it's gonna kill me it's gonna cut me in two but it flew forward and then it came back and slapped the engine and then went underneath a gash in the fuselage has caused an explosive decompression the rapid change in air pressure and temperature creates heavy fog and starves the plane of oxygen you end up getting lightheaded and you can actually pass out the pilots must act quickly to have any chance of saving the plane in the cockpit of re-evolutions flight 8 Captain Gibson and first officer lintner attempt to regain control of the aircraft when the fog cleared I saw out the window that we were in the right turn the damaged plane has veered off course and is now flying Northwest towards the Bering Sea and so I naturally grabbed the Yoke to try to level the wings [Music] it felt like the Yoke was in just felt solid as a concrete block meanwhile Wendy croon and moose Lauren spring into action my first thoughts would get the passengers to the back of the airplane but the gash in the cabin floor tells her everyone must stay put I had a really bad feeling I stopped with one foot still in the air fear just ran through me I'm looking straight down at my foot over a hole straight down to the ocean in the cockpit a jammed control column won't let the pilots descend to a lower altitude where there's more oxygen everybody calm down just a second Gibson tries the autopilot it's working the pilots realize the cables controlling manual operations are jammed but those for the autopilot seem to be functional [Music] Captain Gibson sets the autopilot to keep the plane flying a steady and descending course now he needs to slow it down its high speed could tear the damaged plane to pieces when his hand moved those throttles back and the horsepower gauges didn't move I boy I'll tell you what I said man I wish I'd have called in sick this is about as bad as it can get the pilots can't reduce their speed if we can get turned around Gibson sets the autopilot to make a right turn back towards Cold Bay a plane goes into a rapid rolling turf the autopilot's lateral control must also be damaged here at the live and crap out of all of us Gibson has no way of steering his airplane the crew and passengers are heading straight out to sea flight dispatcher Richard Huff receives the call at the Reeve base in Anchorage no flight control confirmed coaching 10 000 feet dropping a ten thousand feet okay we got you the autopilot brings the Elektra down low enough for everyone to breathe comfortably thank God [Music] it's now safe to remove your mask yet Gibson still can't move his column enough to turn back and I thought well hell maybe I can do that so I reached up and I grabbed the Yoke and I just I moved Lindner moves his column just enough to turn the Plane Slightly now at least we knew that we could overpower or help the autopilot so that meant that probably our control cables were not severed the pilots combined their muscle to force the plane into a right Bank towards Cold Bay the wide turn will get the plane on course but won't provide the Precision needed to touch down we can't land like this the older Electra is not equipped to land on autopilot The Landing has to be performed manually but there's a bigger problem the plane is still traveling too fast to land the captain needs a longer Runway breviate dispatch considered flight director acreage over Richard Huff proposes something risky fly 440 miles Northeast towards Anchorage Airport which has two long runways this thing's a damn tank we'll make it okay dispatch we are flying to Anchorage the controls were just real stiff and all we knew was that as long as we tried to use the autopilot and manually helped that we could fly the airplane a little bit it takes four hours for the crew of flight 8 to get within sight of the runway but they still don't have the manual control needed to touch down this match remake hang on okay I gotta get some controls back where I absolutely cannot land over 15 lives depend on the Pilot's skill grappling with the unpredictable aircraft hours of wrestling with the damaged controls have taken their toll on the captain Gary I'm done you got to take it as lintner takes control he notices something that changes the entire situation I suddenly saw that the autopilot was off it's it's turned off there are two sets of flight control cables on the Electra one set for the autopilot and one for manual control they work independently of each other somehow lintner is hand flying the plane without the help of the autopilot and I turned to Gem and I said hey I've got control here what man immediately he grabbed the yolk and the two of us got on it with the two of us hell we have pretty good control the pilots can now pitch the nose up and can accurately line up with the runway as long as we have manual control over the airplane without the autopilot we'll deal with the rest but this doesn't solve all of their problems the plane is still flying too fast to land safely so Gibson tries shutting down one of the engines okay moose number two their speed drops but not enough our problem was that we're just going too fast Gibson cannot slow down the speeding plane but he must land the plane now it's his only chance to save everyone on board let's do this [Music] Reeve flight 8 is moments from touching down hey Rich rebate ready to land Runway six right here down but with two engines stuck on Full Throttle landing at 160 knots could cause a fatal crash [Music] 146 knots the plane hits the ground 15 knots faster than it should Gibson needs to act fast cut all engines emergency shutdown engines one and three thank you it's a risky move cutting the engine slows the aircraft but it also severs power to the hydraulic brakes and the steering I mean we're essentially passengers now we've become passengers with front row seats the plane hurtles forward at tremendous speed all Gibson has left to try are the emergency brakes and they don't have nearly as much stopping power as the main brakes [Applause] the emergency brakes burst into flames [Music] I'm going off the Runway we're definitely going off the Runway we're just looking straight into that ditch brace yourself [Music] nice [Laughter] [Music] the terrifying ordeal is finally over Captain Gibson and his crew have landed a shattered plane and saved the lives of everyone on board sometimes Pilots have to fly by the seat of their pants and they have to rely on their instincts what is that really it's experience and training the exceptional ammanship of flight 8's crew prevented tragedy on the runway now it's up to the NTSB and Lead investigator Ron schlied to find out what happened to bring Reeve flight 8 so close to disaster they study the wrecked plane the wreckage really didn't give us much of a clue uh because what we needed to look at was gone the propeller and the gearbox it was attached to are both lost at sea the team turns to the flight data recorder but it too is of little use in determining why the engine tore off in mid-air the flight recorder on this airplane was a very rudimentary recorder it records by a stylus scraping a metal foil and so it's not a very scientific thing compared to what we have today but they still have to answer the crucial question why was Gibson's plane so hard to control the loss of a propeller is not necessarily catastrophic it's designed to fly with only half its engines and still with three engines intact Gibson could barely maneuver the plane NTSB investigators examined the gash where the propeller punctured the hull doesn't look like any cables are cut it's only by taking a closer look at the tear from inside the cabin that they finally discover the source of the problem that buckling of the floor from the explosive decompression jammed the flight controls where the cables ran through Holes in the Floor structure the autopilot and manual control cables were both pinched by the collapsed floor chat but because the autopilot uses Hydraulics to move the cables it can apply far more force on them than a human pilot this is why the autopilot was able to control the plane ever so slightly hey I've got some control here what [Music] but if the manual cables were jammed why was the crew suddenly able to regain the control they needed to land the plane a closer look at the pinched cables provides the answer looks like they saw their way out of this mess they kept pulling as hard as they could on the Yoke pushing and pulling turning come on deep scars in the Hull's joists reveal what happened the pinched control cables gradually carved grooves they were actually cutting right into the metal during the long flight before they landed that gave the crew enough maneuverability to line up with the runway rebate right but it's Gibson's quick thinking that saved the day Legends remember to shut down engines one and three I personally thought that was probably one of the smartest things that anybody ever did in the history of Aviation lost an engine the only thing you yet even the most skilled Pilots may be powerless to stop Rogue engines from causing Devastation in a dense residential neighborhood Amsterdam skipol Airport an LL cargo jet is fueled and ready to depart for Tel Aviv LL 1862 good evening good evening LL 1862 lineup in sequence zero one left Roger the Boeing 747 is under the command of Yitzhak Fuchs he earned his wings in the Israeli military gedalia sofa is the flight engineer clear for takeoff zero on left Roger first officer Arnon Ohad will be handling the controls for this flight or brother engines are looking good climb power set for the first seven minutes of the flight the plane climbed steadily over the Dutch capital thank you what the hell without warning the 747 rolls violently to the right the crew has no idea why I have control you have control engines three and four are out both engines on the right wing have suddenly died the captain tries to level the plane we're losing hydraulics on system three no three and four critical flight controls begin to fail hello 1862 mayday mayday we have an emergency Halal 1862 do you wish to return to skipple affirmative mayday mayday mayday we need to land see if they can get us down on Runway two seven two seven for landing and miles to go from current position damn it there's no way that we can slow down on this distance Captain Fuchs decides to descend and turn over Amsterdam so he can lose speed and altitude before coming in for an emergency landing at skipol airport two all right nice and easy easy no no no no no we're losing it by going slower he was having even more control problems than he already had going down 1862 going down I can't hold it I can't hold it [Music] ill Al 1862 has slammed into an 11-story residential block the building is engulfed in flames it's not until dawn that the full extent of the crash becomes apparent no one aboard has survived another 43 people on the ground are dead it's the worst Aviation disaster in the history of the Netherlands the Dutch government assigns Pym van santen to lead the crash investigation how soon can I get my team in here thank you there was a lot of pressure both from the public from the press to come up with some findings as quickly as possible digging guys we need those black boxes City officials have ordered the crash debris to be taken to dump sites around Amsterdam that's where ntsb's Bob Benson joins the team you'd be surprised how much a building debris pipes and things can actually look like airplane parts it gets confusing within hours Witnesses provide a stunning lead just minutes before the crash they saw what looked like two jet engines falling into Lake goemer a lake east of the airport first was we've never heard of that before the entire investigation hinges on the recovery of not one but two engines at the bottom of a lake okay [Music] the search of the lake pays off the team recovers the two missing engines from the right wing thorough examination leads investigators to discover an unusual streak of paint on the cowling of the inboard engine let's see if the lab can tell us where this came from in the meantime the team recovers the flight data recorder its badly damaged condition means it'll go to NTSB headquarters in Washington DC for analysis [Music] the cockpit voice recorder is never found but there's a break in the case when the paint analysis results come in the paint found on the engine came from the cone-shaped spinner at the front of another engine get everyone together I think I know what happened van santon believes there's only one possible scenario to explain the unusual findings this is engine 3. paint transfer right there no way Engine 4 could come forward but if engine 3 came off first it could fly back and the spinner would hit right here in other words engine 3 knocked Engine 4 off the plan what the hell Pim van Santa knows how Engine 4 was knocked off the 747. now he and his team have to determine why number three came off in the first place they scrutinize the engine fitting in particular The crucial fuse pins which secure the pylon to the wing a metallurgical scan leads to a stunning discovery there's a four millimeter crack on the inside of one of the fuse pins if there's a micro crack in it it weakens the entire structure and makes it easier to break once the fuse pen failed the entire engine fitting would have broken apart but there is still one more mystery to be solved the damaged plane got within sight of the runway no no no come on going down but why couldn't it make it all the way there the damaged tape from the flight data recorder has been repaired okay let's get started Pym van santen is now able to combine flight data engines are working fine at takeoff with the recordings captured from the tower zero Roger then right here pylon fails engine 3 breaks away engine 3 moves sideways tears off the Leading Edge and damages hydraulic lines before hitting engine 4. if the Hydraulics inoperable the massive jet becomes increasingly difficult to balance and control s to slow down flaps don't go out on the right side much like American Airlines flight 191 some of the plane's Hydraulics are so badly damaged that the wing flaps can't extend as they should when the speed drops so does the wing easy we're losing it more lift on the left left on the right causing a roll to the right and as the aircraft slowed down this rolling tendency got harder and harder to counteract 43 dead because of one small part investigators conclude that the accident is the result of the faulty fuse pin [Music] the dutch-led team immediately calls on Boeing to redesign the critical engine Fastener knowing the massive redesign of the pylons to its credit to the company knew they had a problem and they fixed it the safety record of subsequent generations of airplanes says that problem has been solved three planes facing the nightmare of lost engines lives lost Live Safe [Music] but vital lessons learned from each investigation have made the skies safer [Music] good investigations of incidents and accidents that do happen cause changes in the industry for the good and that I think is why the accident rate worldwide has just plummeted over the years

Channel: Mayday: Air Disaster

Views: 192,656

Keywords: DC-10 engine incident, Mayday: Air Disaster, air disaster, aircraft incidents, aviation experts, aviation history, aviation industry, aviation investigations, aviation regulations, black box analysis, cargo plane accident, critical situations, emergency response, flight simulations, flight trajectory analysis, historical aviation events, major disasters, mayday protocol, pilot training, plane engine failure, takeoff missteps

Id: XLiRpxQUteY

Length: 42min 40sec (2560 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 24 2023