Korean Air Flight 801: Inexperienced Crew Cause Crash Landing | Mayday | Wonder

[Music] the crew of a passenger jet search in vain for their airport look carefully rain is making it impossible to see inside missed approach go round more than 200 passengers are on board as i turned around the huge fireball came out investigators search for clues could a vital missing piece of equipment be responsible for the crash i think the best way to describe that would have been irresponsible i know a lot of people could have walked off that plane that night nothing will change my views in that [Music] nimitz hill guam [Music] once the site of fierce american offensives during world war ii for over 50 years there's been peace here now the hill is peaceful invaded by hunters and the normal quiet is broken by the roar of jumbo jets as they fly overhead every night commercial pilots must fly over this tall rocky outcrop and land at guam's aganya international airport flights come from airports all across asia just past midnight on august the 6th 1997 korean airlines flight 801 is on its way to guam from seoul south korea 42 year old captain park jung chol is at the controls a former korean air force pilot park has been flying 747s for more than six years just a few months ago he received a flight safety award from the president of korean air for successfully handling a 747 engine failure at low altitude [Applause] park is supposed to be flying to the united arab emirates tonight but a scheduling change has put him in command of this shorter flight to guam in the cabin korean japanese and western tourists are heading for guam's pristine beaches [Music] guam is a u.s territory run under u.s law the island is tiny fewer than 600 square kilometers but there's enough sand to keep people coming [Music] 24 year old sean burke and his girlfriend wendy bunton are planning to make the most of guam's beaches they're flying in from san diego for a vacation shawn and wendy were going to guam to do some scuba diving reef diving and at the same time they were going to visit her brother who was in the navy over there he was a navy doctor flight 801 is taking barry small back to work he's returning to guam from new zealand for another six-month contract as a helicopter pilot but he does it with a heavy heart the night before i left my father had a heart attack and i head to cprm until the ambulance arrived and decided to cancel the contract so i could help him but he was insistent that you must carry on with your job the flight is still a couple of hours from guam when the calm evening is brutally interrupted watch the speed it could be severe turbulence make an announcement to have everyone in their seats with seatbelts on ladies and gentlemen this is your first officer speaking even an experienced flyer like barry small is surprised there was no lead up to this turbulence again anybody that wasn't strapped down was going to be everyone that's for sure the lockers were rattling and anything in those lockers was was bound to break it was a horrendous shadow it's heavy turbulence but the crew ride it out eventually the flight returns to normal who's through it let the passengers know ladies and gentlemen this is your first officer speaking we have cleared the turbulent area but it's left some of the passengers shaken it's okay rika we'll be there soon ma'am if you don't mind i'm gonna move this duty free up here for you the cabin crew cleans up and the passengers settle in for the rest of the trip because of the 12-hour stop stopover in in seoul and no change of clothes it was getting rather uncomfortable in a tropical environment and i took my shoes off just to to relax a little bit and feel more comfortable captain park and his crew begin looking ahead they know there's more unsettled weather coming rain has been hitting guam on and off all day in fact august is the heart of the island's rainy season small showers can pop up making visibility unpredictable in that particular part of the world they have what's called a top hat thunderstorm that is a very small thunderstorm that builds up all times of the day and it's very short live so it wouldn't hamper the pilot's ability to actually conduct the approach it's going to just obscure his view for some period of time while they're transiting through it just past one in the morning korean air flight 801 makes initial radio contact with curt mayo the radar controller at guam's airport korea 801 leaving level 410 for 2016. korean air 801 roger the crew aren't the only ones preparing to land after more than three hours of flying through the night the passengers get ready for the airport [Music] i saw that the lights of guam and i knew exactly where the aircraft was because i've been there many times before [Music] captain park has navigated nimitz hill nine times before but this time there's a major difference at airports around the world pilots land with the help of a glide slope an electronic system that helps planes safely touch down if pilots follow the directions given by the glideslope it guides them to the foot of the runway the glideslope beacon at guam airport has been removed for extensive maintenance without the airport transmitter park's glide slope indicator in the cockpit is useless landing without a glide slope is rare but it does happen in guam the transmitter is scheduled to be out of service for more than two months but impaired navigation is only part of the problem captain park is fighting exhaustion because classic guys work to the maximum probably this way hotel expenses are saved on cabin crews and they maximize flight hours really sleepy now as the plane approaches guam clouds and rain block their way captain one condition is no good it's raining a lot it's been several hours since captain park and his crew left seoul now the rain is making the late flight more difficult tired and fighting the weather the captain begins the final approach to the airport august the 6th 1997 it's close to 1 30 in the morning on korean airlines flight 801 a tired captain is preparing to land at a ghania airport on the island of guam in the cabin 237 passengers are getting ready to begin their holidays or get back to work the flight other than the turbulence was um totally normal we had our meals and it was just a totally normal flight in every way as the jet approaches guam an erratic storm pushes rain and clouds between the plane and the airport it's hard to see the captain wants to make a small change in course to avoid the worst of the weather request 20 mile deviation to the left as we are descending bomb center korean 801 request deviation 1-0 miles left of truck korean air 8-0-1 roger veering around cloud cover captain park jung chol struggles to get a clear view of his approach and finally he sees what he's been looking for guam good today the weather radar helps us a lot korean air 801 cleared for ils runway 6 left approach glide slope unusable air traffic controller curt mayo reminds the crew that the airport's glide slope equipment is out of service it would normally help them find the runway but since it's under repair it isn't sending out any signals then with the crew in the middle of their landing sequence something unexpected happens the glide slope appears to come to life the glideslope working the client's slope yeah yes yes it's working why is it working it's a confusing moment unsure what's happening the crew continue to prepare for their landing 60 check gear down check approaching 1400 since today's glide slope condition is not good we need to maintain 1440. reset it at 40 minutes after one in the morning guam controller kurt mayo once again makes contact with the crew korean air 801 contacted ghania tower 118.1 he passes the plane on to the airport tower and says goodbye in korean 118-1 it's the last time he'll ever talk to the crew of the jetliner the guy working here probably was a gi in korea before again tower korea and air 801 to intercept the localizer six left heavy tower runway six cleared to land korean 801 roger clear to land six left slaps 30 flaps 30. as the plane descends clouds and rain close in again they've lost sight of the airport look carefully ladies and gentlemen we're preparing for landing at agania international airport in long please return your seats to the upright position fasten your seat belt and prepare for land set 560 feet as the plane flies closer to the ground the crew expects they'll see the airport any second but the rain makes it hard to see anything isn't the glideslope working wiper on then a computerized voice fills the cockpit it's the ground proximity warning system which tells the crew they're just 500 feet in the air but they still can't see the runway i've done this flight many many times before and when i estimated were about 30 seconds from landing i bent down to put my shoes on the plane is now just 200 feet above the ground but still the crew can't see the runway they're quickly running out of time let's make a missed approach not inside not inside mr porch go around go around perhaps one i had no doubts this was still just a normal landing and the aircraft went on and was decelerating quicker than normal but but nothing to really alarm me things were getting pretty serious then the aircraft was starting to break apart i forced myself up to look and there was just bottles bags everything you can imagine was coming out only way i can really describe it is like about it a thousand seven three sevens landing all at once on a wooded hillside in guam the shattered plane finally grinds to a halt [Music] i was too scared to undo my seatbelt at that stage because i was waiting for the next bounce to go over an extra another ravine or whatever was going to happen next miraculously eleven-year-old rika matsuda has survived and is virtually unhurt but her mother is trapped and injured barry small is also injured and terrified that fire is sweeping through the plane the fire started in the front and proceeded to from the front to the back towards me there was no floor lighting or anything like that but the fire was so intense there was no problems to see where i was going [Music] [Music] if help doesn't arrive soon those who survived the initial crash may be trapped inside the cabin [Music] korean air 801 heavy tower how do you hear everyone in the cockpit has been killed but airport authorities still have no idea what's happened aboard flight 801. hurt by the crash and desperate to escape the ruined plane barry small stumbles towards an opening in the cabin i got back these these six six seats and then there was about a six foot drop down to the ground the undercarriage had gone completely i came across an obstacle that i had to [Music] to cross because it was the only part that wasn't burning rika's mother tells her daughter to get out of the burning plane go go now get out of here go now go go the fire is spreading quickly as passengers struggle to deal with a disaster rescue workers don't even know the plane's gone down the fire engulfed both the asian gentleman and myself to the extent that it burnt my arms and my watch got that hot it was mounting into my ski into my flesh and i had to flick it off minutes earlier kurt mayo had passed the passenger jet onto the local tower controllers now he learns it hasn't landed yet no i cleared him he didn't land it's negative oh my god [Music] within minutes guam fire chief chuck sanchez is on route i was thinking my god 747 where's it at is it on islands you don't see what is the plan here [Music] we both fell off the side of the container and the asian gentleman disappeared into the jungle so i rolled over onto my back and i managed to crawl with my elbows there's still a bit of skin on my elbows left small has a badly broken right leg he crawls away from the wreckage many more people remain trapped inside lying there just sounded like a battlefield it was just like a movie things were exploding short of me going over the top of me things were landing beside us on fire it's just indescribable [Music] there's only one way for emergency crews to get down to the wreck site along a single access road that runs beside nimitz hill as they race to the accident scene rescue workers discover a major obstacle a pipeline has been ripped out of the ground by the crash and thrown across the road there's no way around it having heard about the crash the island's governor carl gutierrez has joined the rescue team engine company seven get this thing out of the way you guys get the medikits and come with me we reached the closest point of approach to the crash site which was up the hill and probably about another 150 yards downhill i yo gentlemen uh turn on whatever light she got to guide us down this path and let's let's do it we started running and just listening to the screams so we can guide ourselves because there was just nothing but overgrowth on the side of the road uh at one point i stopped in my governor um sir i need you to make some serious decision in this operation and i don't think i want you to move further i'd like for you to stay on this side and uh you know i don't want you to get hurt let us do this job he goes no i want to help you guys [Music] at the site of the crash flames are devouring the wreckage hampered by his broken leg small can only look on as people cry out for help i lay at that bank for the whole night during that time hearing people call out in a foreign language which initially sounded like good healthy calls for help then turn into screams as the fire got more intense and after a period of time the fire even grew worse and the screams faded away finally almost an hour after the accident sanchez's crew reaches the site i split them up into two rescue and search unit i need half of you guys to start from the tail end and i need the other half to start from the front end of this plane and let's meet in the middle and you know let's do what we can to help the survivorship guam's governor carl gutierrez sees rika matsuda all alone and crying out for her mother everything will be okay i did not dare let her go it's something that i almost like there was a bond between me and that young little girl and i found out later she was 11 but she looked really smaller than 11 years old fire chief chuck sanchez finds barry small in the sword grass he gave me his fire jacket and put under my head to comfort me let's go later on it was very distressed that he had to come back and get it back because he was getting burnt dragging people and bodies out of the aircraft we were cutting trees to use for splint we were taking off our protective gears to cover the survivors [Music] it's clear to rescue personnel that for many they've arrived too late but sanchez isn't giving up he sends a team to search further into the wreckage start at the tail and work forward go [Music] what i heard was this large explosion man right where they were at [Music] gonna go did we lose our people a boeing 747 has crashed on a rugged hillside in guam just a few miles short of the airport there were 254 people on board rescue workers comb through the wreckage when an explosion rips through the remains of the plane [Music] no radio transmission at all we lost our transmission and uh then finally somebody came out um sir we're okay uh we survived the explosion everybody's accounted for it's not until the dawn finally comes that rescue workers can see the extent of the damage the plane has spilled down the mountain and broken into several large pieces only 26 people survived the disaster [Music] [Music] friends and family are desperate for any news many bodies are badly burned although most of the passengers are korean sean burke and his girlfriend wendy bunton are among a few americans on the flight thousands of kilometers away news of the crash reaches shawn's parents when she hears about the crash schoenberg's stepmother doesn't know if shawn is alive or dead he could have been burned in the crash he could be unconscious in a local hospital there and we just wanted to go over and bring him back so i mean because that kept going through our minds that [Music] he possibly could be laying on the hillside since guam is an american territory the responsibility for investigating the crash falls to the national transportation safety board greg fife is the lead investigator when he arrives on the site he has to contend with more than just the carnage of the plane crash [Music] grieving family members surround the scene making it especially difficult for investigators to work [Music] as an accident investigator you have to keep your emotions in check it's like being a doctor in an er room you have you see this devastation you see this tragedy and folding in front of you you hear about all of the the sad stories especially when there are kids and innocent people involved and as an accident investigator you have to keep those emotions in check because you have to remain objective you have to remain emotionless to be able to do your job effectively and we had a whole building full of people just like us they were all grieving and crying out it was just horrible [Music] one of the first things we did was we went out on site and we did what we call a site survey we had to really get an understanding of what we were dealing with as far as the wreckage and how we were going to conduct the on-scene investigation during the preliminary investigation fife finds that large sections of the plane are almost completely intact the airplane landed relatively under control that is that the pilot basically landed the airplane into the trees and into that terrain unfortunately it was three miles from the airport investigators find a number of items that survived the crash and the fire that followed including the landing chart the crew was using as it approached guam airport investigators also find captain park's travel bag and in it discover a small plastic pill container captain park had been prescribed a variety of drugs including pills containing benzodiazepine a class of drugs often used as a sedative the pills and tissue samples from captain park's remains are sent for analysis the landing chart becomes part of a growing pile of evidence [Music] using information from the jets flight data recorder investigators recreate the plane's flight path the relatively gentle slope of its descent supports faith's belief that the jet all but landed on the hillside but the flight path shouldn't look like this [Music] korean air 801 cleared for ils runway 6 left approach glide slope unusable korean 801 roger clear for ils runway 6 left the crew had been told that the glide slope at the airport wasn't working it meant that the captain had to take more manual control of his plane it is now up to the pilot to fly an established procedure called a step down where he starts at an altitude of say 2000 feet he when when he gets to a particular point located by what they call dme or distance measuring equipment he then starts a descent to another prescribed altitude if the crew was following the step down procedure its flight path would resemble a set of stairs but after the first step the plane enters a long slow descent if you don't hit those step downs and those altitudes are prescribed to give you terrain clearance if you don't fly that as depicted on the approach chart you run the risk of flying into an obstruction or high terrain the plane's cockpit voice recorder has also been recovered from the debris fife and his team begin to analyze it hoping to better understand what happened in the cockpit [Music] on two separate occasions captain park gave orders to descend long before he was supposed to but there are other clues on the tape as well the cockpit voice recorder provided us the investigators quite a bit of information but one of the key elements that we found was that the flight crew appeared to be tired really sleepy this was a chartered flight so it would have put them on what we call back side of the clock flying that is they wouldn't be normally flying during the day they are now flying at night and typically your body says you should be asleep when it's dark outside the sedatives could have made a difficult situation even worse but when the lab results come back they're conclusive while he had the pills with him there are no traces of them in captain park's system when lead investigator greg feith returns to the cockpit voice recorder he focuses on the captain's discussion of the glide slope is the glideslope working the glass slope here yes yes it's working why is it working he started to see the glideslope needle move a little bit and started to question the other crew members as to whether or not the glide slope was actually working or not it's early in the morning after a long flight captain park is tired perhaps confused and distracted by the unexpected readings on his glideslope it became very apparent listening to the cockpit voice recorder that in fact he got fixated but fight still doesn't understand why park's glide slope appeared to be working was there a problem on this plane or is the equipment susceptible to problems that could affect other jets as well to find out he brings in navigation expert nelson spornheimer i spent some time looking at the transcript trying to determine what the navigation issues were why the a good airplane was in the wrong place and to investigate the apparent confusion on the part of the crew who thought that the glide slope was working at least part of the time spornheimer sends a team of investigators to guam they fly over the island trying to determine whether radio signals from a nearby military base could have acted on the plane making it seem like the glide slope was working glideslope receivers can respond to non-glide slope signals particularly when the intended glide slope signal is absent if if there are spurious signals on the channel and they contain the right information they can cause intermittent movements of the glideslope needle set 560 feet but the signals wouldn't be sustained like a light switch turning quickly on and off the glideslope indicator would give periodic indications that it was working but not for long my conclusion was that spurious signals whether they be from other transmitters or failed ground equipment such as personal walkie-talkies could not cause a sustained warning flag movement [Music] if the glide slope wasn't fully operating why did park believe it was and even if he did believe it was working why did he crash into nimitz hill isn't the glide slope working wipe her on [Music] as investigators continue to try to piece together the causes of the crash barry small is trying to understand why he and 25 others survived i went to touch my shoes we hit the ground and i was accidentally in the perfect crash position by some sort of miracle an airline engineering apprentice and helicopter pilot small understands airplanes i do firmly believe there are some changes that could be made to aircraft small believes that the way crossbars are built into aircraft seats caused one of his legs to break but luck saved his other leg my right leg went forward and crashed into the bar in front of the seat and broke my left leg was saved by my carry bag stopping my leg going forward at that bar still able to walk on his one good leg small escapes while others remain trapped inside since she's young rika matsuda's legs are shorter than a normal adult sitting normally her legs wouldn't have been pressed against the crossbar on impact so she was able to escape the plane while her mother died small is also convinced that the flames that first spread through the cabin of korean air flight 801 were preventable they estimate that those top lockers had over 462 litres of burnable alcohol on board had the plane been full it could be at least twice that amount during the crash small believes that the duty-free alcohol mixed with oxygen in the plane's ceiling the combination ignited with deadly results it's a fire he thinks could have been prevented why have this risk alcohol and oxygen i thought you know for aircrafts about safety this is just a blatant breaking of the rules of safety as far as i'm concerned as he continues to recover from the accident small is determined to prevent what had happened to him from happening to others he decides to push for changes on how seats are made and how duty-free alcohol is stored for ntsb investigator greg feith the biggest question still remains how did an experienced pilot one recently honored by his company for his safety record crash his plane five kilometers short of the airport as the investigation continues he discovers that the landing chart the crew was using was more than six months old and out of date [Music] it's an indication that the crew could have been better prepared for the landing [Music] when he reviews the training practices for korean airlines fife uncovers more gaps in the information that the crew received we found that the korean airlines flight crew had all of their training based on airports with approaches where the dme was always co-located at the airport dme is distance measuring equipment electronic beacons that tell pilots where they are in relation to the airport often the final beacon is found at the foot of the runway that was not the case in guam the airport was in fact five kilometers further on struggling to see through the rain park was unable to find the airport distracted by the unexpected glide slope readings park used the final beacon as a guide expecting it to take him right to the runway let's make a missed approach not inside that looks like missed the porch go around it's clear that flight a01 flew an approach about three miles premature in other words the descent was about three miles early it was a nominal approach otherwise just to the wrong location we think that based on fatigue and some of their training that in fact when the flight crew crashed the airplane when the counter got to zero they thought the airport should be there a fully loaded 747 weighs more than 200 000 kilograms like an enormous ocean liner it can't change course quickly blinded by rain and relying on their equipment the crew of korean air flight 801 thought they were heading straight at the runway when they realized something was wrong it was too late as the investigation continues faith and his team make a startling discovery equipment that would have given the crew more time to react had been disabled on purpose in august of 1997 the crash of korean air flight 801 took the lives of more than 200 people the final accident investigation report is published more than two years after the crash it lays blame on the korean airlines training methods and the crew's over-reliance on the jets automation but it also has sharp words reserved for the faa the body that regulates air travel in the united states because of an faa decision a critical piece of technology that could have saved flight 801 was intentionally disabled [Music] the minimum safe altitude warning system or msor is a standard piece of equipment at major american airports but in guam the faa had made a critical alteration to the way it was used [Music] msor uses radar to watch the planes as they come into the airport if they're too low a warning is given to air traffic controllers who can then relay it to the crew but in guam the system kept giving nuisance readings to controllers the controllers kept getting these nuisance warnings they redesigned the software and moved the limitations of the msa further away from the airport where it afforded no one a level of protection instead of watching the planes as they neared the airport the system in guam now tracked them when they were more than 80 kilometers away over the ocean i think the best way to describe that would have been and should be irresponsible because you've taken this system that was designed as a level of protection not only for the controller but you've taken the protection away from the flying public for the passengers and crew of flight 801 the lack of the m source system sealed their fate if the system had been working the crash could have been avoided without it the crew had no warning at all [Music] the two pilots didn't want to die they had families no one wanted to die we still do not blame them is the bottom line is nobody wanted to be in that situation it was just something that happened for barry small the years since the crash of flight 801 have been emotional and frustrating the civil aviation authority in his homeland of new zealand has acknowledged the potential danger posed by duty-free liquor on board but so far no policies have been changed his desire to modify airplane seat design has also been ignored i have taken several steps to put this idea forward and in a lot of cases it's initially met with enthusiasm but it eventually ends up in the too hard basket and when i try to approach seat design people there's no one wants to hear about it sean burke was never officially identified as a victim of flight 801 wendy bunton was positively identified but dna samples only proved that a white male was on the plane near her bill and i never gave up hope that sean had survived the crash [Music] even after we came home for i would say a year or two every time the phone rang every time somebody knocked on the door we expected a phone message saying hi dad this is your son sean eventually several years after the crash barry small was able to give kathy burke and her husband some sense of finality and an enduring image of their son when we met him and he wanted to tell us that in the 12-hour layover in seoul he was wandering around and finally heard two people speaking english and he said they were so much in love that he did not want to interrupt their conversation for sean's father the deep sorrow of the crash will never completely leave for me the grief of sean's loss never ends hasn't gotten better hasn't gotten worse just another day uh for everybody else it's gone i expect people to move on but i'll be the this way till the day i'm i'm with him again [Music] for barry small there is anger too but also incredible gratitude for surviving so many people have told me that [Music] i survived for a reason i've been searching for that reason for nine years now and i truly believe if someone would listen to my story about the oxygen and alcohol and the improvement of the seats that i could justify in my own mind that i don't have to feel guilty about surviving [Music] you

Channel: Wonder

Views: 433,575

Keywords: Wonder, wonder channel, survivial videos, survival stories, extreme documentary, mayday air crash investigation, mayday air disaster, air crash investigation, air crash investigation full episodes, air crash documentary

Id: Jp0qnziN-Kg

Length: 49min 59sec (2999 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 16 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/Hopeful-Pollution]

I've watched this show for years and never realized he appeared in one episode way back in 2007.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Sun-Hyung_Lee#Filmography