The Downfall Of Flight 1420 (Plane Crash Documentary) | Mayday S1 EP2 | Wonder

[Music] [Music] we are in an emergency [Music] i can't see anything damn we're off course oh i can't see it way off on june the 1st 1999 as an american airlines jet prepared to land amid fierce thunderstorms passengers knew they were flying into trouble i don't know what made me aware so dog gone aware that we were gonna have a problem oh no within minutes their worst fears would be realized i'm yelling get away from the plane run get away from the plane i don't know where we're at but there's a road that goes around the airport this film tells the story of a tragic and avoidable disaster the investigation would reveal a lethal combination of pilot error the devastating effects of severe weather and a dangerous race to keep the plane on schedule it would also uncover disturbing evidence of an industry-wide failing one that could kill again at any time despite reliable aircraft and extensive training modern airlines and their crews face unprecedented pressures intense industry competition demands that the whole system from the flight planners to the pilots be efficient and on time the stresses this can bring would play a vital role in the loss of flight 1420 for a large operator like american airlines the pressures start with a complex task of scheduling their vast fleet dispatchers direct the planes around the world in a carefully choreographed dance [Music] the strain of maintaining this efficiency affects the entire system of course competition has become very intense a lot of pressure on the dispatchers pilots flight attendants and basically the whole infrastructure to accomplish the mission and make a dollar every effort is made to ensure that nothing disrupts these fragile schedules but there is one variable that no airline can control the weather the southern states of america are especially prone to severe weather storms not only cause delays but pose extreme dangers to commercial jets delays scheduling problems and fierce thunderstorms would all conspire to turn a routine flight into a terrifying race against time june the 1st 1999 american airlines flight 1420 is running late [Music] it's the movement of the storms everything is sliding to the southeast so yes we do have a stormy evening headed our way the delay of flight 1420 put pressure on the pilots even before takeoff the responsibility can fall on flight crews to keep a tight schedule on track dispatch please yeah it's michael ago crews have strict legal limits on their duty time the first officer warned the dispatcher that they were in danger of running out of time flight had to take off in the next hour or be cancelled the pilots also became aware of another pressure caused by deteriorating weather near their destination pilots had a weather briefing that they got before they departed dallas fort worth which provided the forecasts the weather alerts the dispatcher and the captain preparing for the flight looked at the weather information and thought they could get to little rock before the thunderstorms impacted the 139 passengers just wanted to get home i was traveling with my son and my daughter we were coming home from our vacation was my daughter's first flight the plane was late and there were a lot of delays of course it was tiring it was frustrating it was late at night they soon began to sense that flight 1420 was racing against the weather as they called for us to board the plane and they wanted us there and just to get on really quickly just get on sit down put your seatbelt on we're going they did mention that there was bad weather between us and little rock they wanted to get ahead of the bad weather coming into little rock finally over two hours behind schedule flight 1420 leaves dallas to the crew the storms are already messing around little rock 40 minutes later 1420 is 100 miles from its destination at this point the voice recorder transcript reveals a calm and steady cockpit routine american 1420 so far it's okay so far so good ma'am american 1420 will let you know the first officer on american 1420 was a new hire he had just recently completed training and he had been paired on one of his first trips with this management captain so now you had a very experienced pilot sitting in the left seat with the company paired with a relatively new hire bushman and oracle are clearly relaxed as they plan their approach and landing 25 for 24 set and armed i think this stuff's going to work out pretty well yeah we're almost down to max landon wait uh there's a moon out or a spaceship oh it's the mother ship center pumps coming off all right the pilots are keeping a close eye on the storms ahead onboard weather radar scans a cone-shaped area of sky in front of the plane potentially severe storms show up in red there's your big what italy yeah we got to get over there real quick i don't like that that's lightning sure is the american airlines dispatcher issued an update on the shape and formation of the thunderstorms right now on radar there's a large slot to little rock thunderstorms are on the left and right and little rock is in the clear sort of like a bowling alley approach thunderstorms are moving east north eastward towards little rock and they may be a factor for our arrival i suggest expediting our arrival dispatcher gave this flight crew the weather information it appeared to him that there was going to be a gap or what he called the bowling alley where you had two types of thunderstorms or two thunderstorms with an alley between it and that the flight crew if they had expedited their travel to little rock could probably make it up that alley before the the two storms close together but as flight 1420 descends the plan to beat the storms is about to go seriously wrong the pilots do not realize that the walls of the bowling alley are closing in the route flown by american airlines flight 1420 is flanked by treacherous thunderstorms a corridor the pilots called the bowling alley with 80 miles to go the path to little rock still appears to be clear this is the bowling alley right here yeah i know in fact there are the city lights straight there you want to go down not yet but pretty soon uh we're about 80 miles uh from the airport and we started our descent toward it quite a light show on the side of the aircraft and we're going to be passing that on our way to little rock uh it's been a pleasure having you aboard our short flight and i'd like to take this opportunity to thank you for flying american airlines the lightning seemed to be on both sides of the plane it lit up the inside of the plane very quick you know just kaboom type lightning which was a little scary there was quite a light show off to the left normally that doesn't get pointed out if you go past the grand canyon that gets pointed out but not a lightning show as the plane descends transcripts of the cockpit voice recordings show that the pilots are aware of rough weather ahead descent checks complete we got to get there quick yep sit him down early hello i think it's gonna get a little bumpy here again uh if you don't mind uh do we need to sit down uh well how far through are you um we're almost done but not quite well finish it up real quick okay i thought it was more turbulent than normal i remember especially watching the flight attendant and i was looking at her with amazement i was wondering how could she hold those trays and poured the drinks and and not spill everything from that point you know it just got worse with flaps 40 130 000 pounds 200 feet as they prepare for landing the pressure on the pilots will now steadily rack up not required manual brakes uh manual is fine at first as the crew picked their way around the storms everything seems steady yeah actually there's a city right there yeah breaking through this crowd good doing good even when the first indication comes that the storms are advancing the pilots take it in their stride whoa looks like it's moving this way though yeah just some lightning straight ahead i think we're gonna be okay though right there yep right down the bowling alley as my friends would say california cool cool beachy exactly 14 20 at 11 30 for 10 000. but when the pilots contact the controller at little rock he gives the first of a series of alarming weather alerts roger uh we've got a thunderstorm just northwest of the airport moving through the area now wind is 280 and two eight gusts four four and uh i'll have new weather for you in just a moment i'm sure gale force winds are gusting to 50 miles per hour enough to blow tiles off a rooftop high winds pose a severe hazard for flight 1420 crosswinds could make it difficult to control the plane on landing the pilots must quickly determine if they're within safe limits they calculate the strength of the crosswind from its angle to their final approach all right so that's uh two eight zero at four four uh gusts at 44. right near the limit well it's 40 degrees off i mean you're not out of the limit because of the angle but but that's pretty close the crosswind limit for landing is 30 knots on a dry runway but bushman and oracle now become confused about what happens if it rains well 30 knots is the crosswind limitation but see 30 knots that's wet yeah dry what's the wet 20 it's 25. the discussion is never resolved and the crosswinds will soon be gusting well over the limit flight attendants prepare for landing please the pilot's attention now returns to the bad weather ahead he said the storm was to the northwest of the field you said northwest yeah lightning strike he said storm but the task of tracking the storms is made more difficult by the lack of sophisticated radar at little rock uh american 1420 um your equipment's a lot better than what i have how's that final for two two left what's that uh we can see the airport but uh we can just barely make it out uh we should be able to make two too that storm is moving closer like your radar says but it's a little farther off than you thought the controllers are going well your radar is better than mine and so forth the controller in this accident had a monochromatic or basically almost a black and white set of radar and could not determine the intensities of the storm just eight miles from the airport the pilots now face another key decision how to approach the runway through bad weather controllers routinely ask pilots if they want to land visually instead of relying on the airport's electronic instrument landing system or ils but a visual approach means they must be able to see the runway and this is proving difficult uh no we can't really make it out right now we're gonna have to stay with you as long as possible now as the wind suddenly changes direction the pilot's problems quickly mount up uh the wind's kind of kicked around a little bit right now it's 330 at 1-1 whoa it's a little better than it was yet 330 is a tail window the crew now face the problem of having the wind behind them when they land greatly increasing the dangers of overshooting the runway [Music] then the controller calls in with more bad news uh right now i have a windshear alert windshear is a sudden change of wind direction over a short distance it is one of the most feared elements of a severe thunderstorm to combat constantly shifting winds the pilots are forced to throw away their previous approach plans and start again they have to reverse the direction of their approach so they will be landing into the wind yeah we're gonna need uh or we would rather go into the headwinds sir the pilot's decision to land in the opposite direction is a prudent move but it will create serious problems okay uh right turn two five zero is a long way around uh yes sir you're a little close to the airport yeah right two five zero that'll work as the pilots turn to their new approach the aircraft's weather radar which scans in front of the plane loses track of the thunderstorms [Music] worth still the turn delays landing by more than 10 minutes and with every passing moment the storms are growing in intensity runway four right 111.3042 i think uh i think that was the airport below us yeah right okay switching runways keeping track of the storms all add greatly to the pilot's heavy workload okay 2 2 17 glide slope intercept all the way down missed approached right turn to 4 000. uh let's see you got the airport right so yeah i don't have the airport well i'm i'm saying you've got the ils yeah i got the ils airline pilots they make their money when they're flying into bad weather when the weather goes down now all of a sudden the workload starts to increase because you have to factor in low clouds rain lightning thunderstorms wind all of these elements start to bombard you the closer you get into the airport environment american it appears we have a second part of this storm moving through the wind now is three four zero at one six gusts three four with the storms worsening the pilots need to make it to the airport as quickly as possible you want to accept the short approach keep it tight yeah but if you can see the runway because i don't quite see it uh yeah it's it's right there all right see it you just point me in the right direction i'll start slowing down give me flaps 11. damn it's heading right over the field american 1420 did you call me uh yeah uh we got the airport but we're going right in between clouds um i i think it's to my right uh off my three o'clock low about uh four miles american 14 20 that's it do you want to shoot the visual approach you want to go out for the ils a visual approach will allow 1420 to reach the airport faster than one that depends on instruments uh well yeah i can start the visual uh if we can do it american 1420s cleared visual approach runway for right if you lose it need some help let me know please but a visual approach means the pilots must keep the runway in sight at all times the transcripts now reveal rising confusion on the flight deck as the captain struggles to fix the position of the airport okay did you notice something did you see the airport there where there okay right you're on a base for it okay it's it's right there i'm on a base now it's it's like a dog lake we're coming in and and there it is right there i lost it you're downwind of it it's it's right it's right there well i still don't see it just vector me i i don't know american 1420 monitor 118.7 runway 4 right cleared to land the wind now is three three zero at two one eighteen seven will monitor american 1420 thanks uh clear to land runway four see those red lights there now what are they in relation to there's the runway uh there's two runways yeah i know see we're losing it yeah i don't see how we can maintain visual the pilots now have to abandon their direct visual approach and request help from little rock's instrument landing system but this delays landing even further approach american 1420 american 1420 yes sir yeah there's a cloud between us and the airport and we've lost the field we're on a vector well basically we're on the last vector you gave us uh which is like a dog leg it looks like uh american 1420 can you fly heading 2-2-0 i'll take you out for the ils this news footage shows the storm on the night of the crash as heavy rain cuts visibility even further captain bushman becomes frustrated yeah i hate droning around visual at night and weather without having any clue where we are the thing that was really getting to me was i knew we were getting very low i knew that the rain was not letting up and that we were being jolted around quite heavily see how we're going right in the middle of this crap right approach american 1420 i know you're doing your best sir but uh we're getting really close to this storm and uh we'll keep it really tight if we have to the plane was rocking and rolling at that point it was pretty doggone unstable i don't know what made me aware so dog gone aware that we were gonna have a problem i don't know what did that as flight 1420 lines up for final approach they are heading straight into the heart of the thunderstorm the crisis for the flight crew is about to get even worse with flight 1424 minutes from touchdown severe thunderstorms give the pilots another major problem blinding rain and thick clouds are obscuring the airfield the visibility on the runway known as rvr is getting dangerously low oh we're going right into this american 1420 right now we have heavy rain on the airport i don't have new weather for you but uh visibility is less than a mile and the runway four right rvr is three thousand visibility is down to three thousand feet the pilots are unsure if it's safe to land three thousand roger that three thousand american fourteen twenty this is four right correct american fourteen twenty that's correct sir and runway four right cleared to land the winds now three five zero at three zero gusts four five can we land zero three zero at four five american fourteen twenty three thousand r vr we can't land on that no three thousand what does it mean no it's twenty four hundred rvr okay right yeah we're fine all right uh 15. landon gear down let's please as we descended we descended through a very dark black cloud the rain seemed to be going horizontal it was windy enough apparently outdoors that the the plane was moving around a lot i'd never done this before i buckled up really tight almost uncomfortably tight and i was concerned enough i put my shoes back on and got ready to go there was something going on that made me very nervous the crosswinds are way over the limit the pilots could divert to another airport but they don't even as the weather gets worse windshear alert center field wind three five zero at three two gusts four five north boundary wind three one zero at two nine north east boundary wind three two zero at three the jolts seem to be much stronger than i'd ever felt you could tell that the thunder heads were extremely close to the plane i said words to the effect that if he tries to land in this weather will crash flaps 28 add 20. then visibility falls drastically below the limit american 1420 the runway four right rvr is now 1600 damn the crew are rattled under pressure they begin to make mistakes i can't see anything looking for 460 it's there couldn't see anything the wind was throwing the plane around so violently i think it was enough of a crosswind i was afraid we were going to land on the wing we felt like going to tip over i mean it just felt that bad you want 40 flaps yeah i thought i called it i knew the way he was jockeying the plane and the sounds of the engines that he was trying to get lined up for the runway and i couldn't see it i couldn't see it but i could tell we were close and i kept thinking where's the runway thousand feet 20. 40 40 land this this is a can of worms wind is 3-3-0 at 2-8 i'm going to stay above it a little there's a runway off to your right you got it no i got the runway in sight you're right i got it stay where i got it i got it most of the people at that point in the plane were just holding on really tight just looking forward i mean that like ridgid i suspected the worst i mean i really did we might not get down [Music] in the midst of fierce thunderstorms flight 1420 is about to land at little rock low visibility and high winds make the final approach treacherous wind three three zero at two five five hundred feet plus twenty wind three three zero at two three damn we're off course no i can't see it way off i can't see anything got it got it 100 feet 50 feet 40 30 20 10. [Applause] we hit the runway real hard we didn't slow down we're down we're sliding oh no we were still going very very very fast and at that point i thought we're dead on the brakes [Applause] it was just chaos it was terrifying it looked quite literally terrifying [Music] when the plane actually stopped there was a moment of absolute total silence there was fire in front of me and i could see debris and it was silent and i thought oh my gosh i'm dead well i knew we were in deep trouble you know it's a process that started and in some way it's got to end it's going to end and when it ends how do i get out of here within those minutes i heard a small screen and i heard it get louder and louder and louder like it was on a megaphone and it hit me that's my daughter and it's like oh okay we've got to get out of here you know we got to do something the passengers struggled to get out before fire engulfed the cabin i had a broken scapula dislocated shoulder and cracked ribs and all sorts of stuff going on i didn't feel a thing i just want to get out i was not going to die in that thing i got out of that plane probably in 10 seconds it's like being in war go go go i'm yelling get away from the plane run get away from the plane go go go [Music] [Music] some folks look like they'd been in an explosion their clothes were tattered i saw a man using his cell phone to call for help [Music] traveling at over 100 miles an hour the aircraft ran off the end of the runway plowed down a 25-foot embankment and slammed into a steel walkway the plane was ripped into several pieces the wreckage finally came to rest on the muddy banks of the arkansas river [Music] ten passengers died in the crash captain bushman was killed instantly when the cockpit was split open by the steel walkway it was a shame i hadn't literally a shame that i had not done more to save people that's the worst nightmare i have [Music] the u.s national transportation safety board was immediately notified greg feith was the ntsb's chief investigator [Music] the night american 1420 happened i received a phone call about one o'clock in the morning from our communications center at the ntsb advising that there had been an aircraft accident at little rock and there may be some fatalities involved fellow investigator don ike was quickly on the scene there's a sense of adrenaline as an accident occurs like this where you're being launched to the accident scene and there's a strong urge to get there to try to find out what happened to document the facts so we can prevent it from happening [Music] the ntsb set up a command center close to the site they would spend the next 18 months piecing together the events that led to the crash we did have a basic idea when we got on scene of what had happened we just didn't know why we knew the airplane went off the end of the runway we knew that the pilots couldn't stop it we knew that the aircraft was destroyed going through this catwalk we knew that the subsequent post-crash fire killed people we just didn't know why at that point the ntsb worked backwards from the impact piecing together the sequence of events from the final approach all the way back to dallas fort worth the first question for investigators was why the pilots have been unable to stop the plane analysis of the tyre tracks left by the skidding plane showed a complete loss of control after touchdown when you look at the width of those tire tracks you then see that the airplane wasn't going straight but in fact was sliding sideways here you have this machine that weighs 130 140 000 pounds it has 100 or so people on it it is sliding uncontrolled off this runway [Music] something had gone terribly wrong on landing and investigators had to find out why they questioned the survivors of flight 1420 who would provide an extremely important clue [Music] the ntsb investigators needed to find out why flight 1420 had slid uncontrolled off the runway they set out to interview surviving passengers many of whom were local to little rock their eyewitness testimony would point the inquiry towards the most important mechanical system used to slow a plane down after landing we were really interested in were those passengers that were sitting in a position right near the wings who could look out the windows and tell us whether they saw the ground spoilers deploy spoilers are large flaps that flip up on landing literally spoiling the airflow over the wings this prevents them from giving lift and allows braking to take effect crucially none of the passengers saw the spoilers deploy to check their testimony the ntsb examined information from the airplane's black boxes the flight data recorder which monitors the systems on board during flight confirmed that the spoilers had failed to deploy the implications were catastrophic flight 1420 had no hope of stopping in time on the brakes we're sliding oh no so was the failure of the spoilers to deploy a mechanical problem or in the confusion of final approach was it pilot error [Music] to find out the ntsb would make clever use of the cockpit voice recorder or cvr you want 40 flaps yeah i thought i called it one of the key elements that the cvr team was listening for was the setting of the spoiler handle we saw on the flight data recorder that the ground spoilers didn't deploy we wanted to know if the handle had been actually armed or not and we were looking for a specific click sound we couldn't find that sound on the accident cvr which led us to believe that the handle was never in the armed position at touchdown [Music] intensely busy in the cockpit the pilot simply forgot to arm the spoilers had they deployed the md-80 aircraft might have overshot the runway but it would have stopped before hitting the catwalk the pilots had made serious and ultimately fatal errors but investigators wanted to know why they suspected that pressures earlier in the flight led to these mistakes they turned their attention to the weather it was clear to us that severe weather had been in the area around the time of the accident how it played a part was one of the things we had to try to discover in putting the radar images in the observations trying to put it all together would take weeks of course to get this information done the ntsb wanted to know what role the weather had played in the crash and had the pilots been fully aware of the dangers see how we're going right in the middle of this crap one of the concerns that all pilots have when they're trying to land an aircraft is of course making sure that the crosswinds that they may experience don't exceed the capabilities of either themselves or the aircraft the winds now three five zero at three zero gusts four five can we land this particular flight crew had a limitation not imposed by themselves but imposed by the company and that was that they were not allowed to exceed a 10 knot crosswind on a wet runway crosswind limits are clearly stated in the operating manual the crew of 1420 were flying beyond regulation limits this this is a can of worms there's a runway off to your right you got it no the effect of the winds can be seen in this ntsb animation showing the captain's desperate last maneuvers wind's definitely impacted the flight if you look at the animation you'll see him fighting the winds definitely not good we're down on the brakes hold on another one but runway thunderstorms not a goods but were the pilots of 1420 aware of the hazards posed by the severe weather for the ntsb previous accidents had made the dangers of thunderstorms all too clear in 1994 a u.s air dc-9 fell victim to wind shear in north carolina the plane stalled at 250 feet and fell from the sky a delta tri-star crashed after flying into the most severe kind of wind shear that created an intense downdraft of air so should the crew of 1420 have aborted the approach there's the runway uh there's two runways yeah i know see we're losing it i don't see how we can maintain visual this ntsb weather animation overlays the path of the aircraft with ground radar images of the storm bushman and oracle landed in lightning torrential rain and hail and the cross winds gusting well over the limit based on the information we had from ground-based weather radar the flight crew of 1420 should have been seeing majority of that storm they would have been seeing the leading edge going green rapidly changing the yellow to bright red i can't see anything looking for 460. as they progressed towards little rock they started to paint the bad weather not only on their onboard radar but they could see out the window lightning and one of the key statements that this captain made which basically summarized the entire flight was the captain saying i hate droning around visual at night in weather without having any clue where we are i hate droning around at night when i don't know where i am that was such a key statement it was at that point by an experienced ten thousand hour captain that he should have abandoned the approach going into little rock and either gone to his alternate or made his way back to dallas but to make a statement like that and then continue an approach to an airport where you have a thunderstorm in progress over the airport is a recipe for disaster but the pilots were not the only ones to be heavily criticized as the investigation continued american airlines flight policy would come under fire and an industry-wide scandal was about to be exposed [Music] for months after the crash of flight 1420 the ntsb dug deeper into the circumstances surrounding the accident the question was who would take responsibility american airlines were reluctant to admit that their pilots had knowingly flown into a severe thunderstorm initially they tried to pin the blame on the controller at little rock americans started legal action against the authorities responsible for airport controllers americans lawyers claimed that the crew of flight 1420 had not been given all the current weather information american 1420 um your equipment's a lot better than what i have how's that final for two two left but after interviewing the controller at little rock investigators were unconvinced it's highly unlikely that the flight crew wasn't sufficiently informed about the nature of the weather and the severity of the weather not only in route but of course during the course of the landing at little rock the focus turned back on the pilots lawyers representing the passengers were determined to get american airlines to accept liability for the crash i mean it is about money in a way because you want to make them pay because i saw the letters that they would write back to my lawyer minimizing what we had been through minimizing my daughter's burns cuts the psychological effects it had on my son at age 15 and my daughter and me and just minimizing everything so you want to find a way to hurt him renee solomon's and many other survivors attended the ntsb public hearings held in little rock eight months after the disaster with the captain dead the co-pilot was the first to testify as we went off the end of the runway i could see the runway lights coming up and i knew we were going off the end of the runway i couldn't see anything in front of us and all i thought was the gear would collapse and we would continue to slide it's got to be okay and then all of a sudden i felt the impact i followed as close as i could you bet i mean i wanted to know what happened i went to all of the ntsb hearings i was outraged i was mad for me they didn't ask him the right questions you know i wanted to ask him what were you thinking why did you all play chicken with our lives the co-pilot's testimony was highly controversial in his account of the final moments of the flight he claimed to have told the captain to abort the approach otherwise known as a go around who can call for abandoning the approach uh either pilot did you call for a go around at any time uh yes sir i did it sounds like after reviewing the tape you can definitely hear the go and the around it seems like he talked the same time i did and i looked over at him and he brought the airplane back on course however when ntsb specialists studied the cockpit voice tapes they couldn't hear this statement damn we're off course no i can't see it way off even though he stood by that statement we could never validate it that led to a controversial finding because we weren't really sure if that that took place or not the ntsb asked tough questions of the co-pilot but was american airlines training also at fault greg feith put an american airlines manager on the stand what were the company rules for pilots flying near thunderstorms when asked the question he basically responded that he just didn't want his pilots flying into that type of weather our pilots are forbidden to enter or depart a terminal area blanketed by thunderstorms to the ntsb this policy simply wasn't clear-cut enough well that's a very subjective call for a pilot pilots need boundaries you have to set limits if there's convective activity that is thunderstorm activity it's within five nautical miles of the airport there's lightning there's wind shear don't go there the deeper they looked the more the ntsb found that flying into thunderstorms was disturbingly widespread extraordinary evidence given at the hearings revealed that the problems spread through the whole industry [Music] expert analysts from mit spent weeks recording the flight paths of planes landing at dallas fort worth they waited for thunderstorms and watched how pilots reacted their animation plots the planes coming into land overlaid with radar images of the storms anything yellow or orange is a potentially severe thunderstorm of the 2000 encounters with thunderstorms two out of three pilots flew into the storm and landed their aircraft i was very surprised by the testimony at the public hearing given the fact that they're flying the best equipment typically have the best training have the best information available to them for those decisions to be made to continue into harm's way it was very surprising to me that they tried to do that pilots know that if we go into that thunderstorm we may not come out of that thunderstorm and if we do it may not be basically in one piece why did so many pilots fly into danger the mit researchers found pilots were more reckless if they were behind schedule if it was night and if aircraft in front of them were also flying into bad weather in the little rock case two of those three elements were present it was night and they were running late [Music] the mit investigation was chilling evidence that the crash at little rock was part of a much wider problem [Music] we're not seeing a major improvement put a bluntly there's a limited time for training weather was a significant part that set up the stage of this accident we do not condone any operation to be conducted in such weather is a known severe weather hazard and it should have been suspended no operation ironically it also emerged that new technology may be partly to blame for bad decision-making might be we're desensitizing pilots we're putting weather radar on board aircraft we're putting wind shear detection systems on airplanes most of these systems only react when you're in the hazard that time it may be too late but the root causes behind the crash of 1420 went even deeper why were the pilots so determined to land greg feith found the answer back at dallas fort worth before the flight even left the ground there he found signs of a deadly condition in aviation known as get their itis there may have been a sense of get their rightist the flight crew knew that they were pushing their 14-hour duty day it had been a long duty day the airport's right there let's try it let's see if we can accomplish the mission pilots are goal oriented we're mission oriented we will stick our nose in there to try and see if we can accomplish the mission sometimes we will accomplish that mission but sometimes we get too far into it that we can't bail out we don't have any more options and bad things happen for flight 1420 the pressures of get their writers sparked a fatal series of mistakes and misjudgments at the end of a long day rushing to beat the storms and get the passengers to their destination the crew of flight 1420 made the basic mistake that cost 11 people their lives they forgot to arm the spoilers they were so busy trying to get the plane on the ground that they forgot to do what they needed to do they didn't have time to do it after the accident american airlines revised their checklist procedures both pilots must now confirm that the spoilers are armed ready for landing in october 2001 the ntsb published their report they concluded that the two main causes of the crash were first the decision to land in a thunderstorm and second the pilot's failure to on the spoilers american airlines declined to take part in this film or comment on the findings as an investigator i had over two years to basically criticize and determine what the captain was trying to accomplish that particular captain had seconds to make decisions based on the information he was getting and while it's unfair for an acts investigator like myself to start pointing the finger i wasn't there i blame them but i'm not angry per se at them i don't waste my time with anger on them they'd got nothing but black you can understand it but i can't understand a person you know wanting to kill himself either we've been out and visited his grave at the air force academy a couple three times and the guy just got caught up in a bad bad situation i mean i've been there done that one year after the crash the survivors of flight 1420 gathered at the site to remember those who died for surviving passengers the effects of the crash are long lasting and profound we as a family worked long and hard to work through it we had many talks it blew apart a lot of relationships you find out who your real friends are i cannot do enough to mitigate what happened to the individuals on an airplane life is a precious thing and and you're definitely here for a very short time you know all of a sudden your life looks like about a second and a half long the impact of the crash is something that i try to block out on my mind because i still feel a reaction people ask me if i'm okay well no i'm not okay no we'll never be okay i mean what is this okay stuff you're different and deal with it i mean that's the way we're going to be the day after it happened when adam and i were in the hospital in samantha adam and i got up and we looked out the window and we just couldn't believe that life went on we just couldn't believe cars were driving and it was sunny and life went on you know because for us life stopped [Music] you

Channel: Wonder

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Keywords: Wonder, wonder channel, survivial videos, survival stories, i shouldn't be alive, wonder i shouldn't be alive, outdoor channel, extreme documentary, plane crash, air crash investigation, boeing 757, plane crash documentary, plane crash investigation, plane crash vr, air crash investigation 2020, plane crash survivor, air crash investigation full episodes, boeing 757 documentary

Id: KCHbDQElSHw

Length: 51min 45sec (3105 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 11 2021