Miracle Escape | FULL EPISODE | Mayday: Air Disaster

in heavy wind and blinding rain the crew of a passenger jet struggles to land put it down a terrifying crash landing leads to a desperate fight to survive the only thing that matters to me now is to get my daughter emily and protect her as but we just knew that there were so many passengers in that plane that had not gotten open out door this is a true story based on air traffic control recordings official reports and interviews with those involved tuesday august the 2nd 2005 charles de gaulle airport in paris 297 passengers are boarding air france flight 358 bound for toronto uh far aisle left-hand side philippe lakkai is traveling with his wife and two of his four children they're stuck at the back of the enormous jet and they're not sitting together it just happened that we were separated from emily they had three seats together so we were in the middle section and emily was actually sitting a couple of seats ahead of us on the right side so close to the right wing on the plane for eddie ho flight 358 is the continuation of a trip that began in johannesburg i'm an international student in canada at queen's university and every summer i go back to south africa ho isn't traveling light i was carrying everything that i had my books to my clothing to tuition money for the year computer laptops this is also another leg in a long journey for joanne cordery bundock who's returning from a trip to thailand i rerouted myself in the last two days before the flight from bangkok through paris to come directly to toronto as the passengers continue to board the flight crew gets settled into the airbus a340 the captain is 57 year old alain rozai he's been with air france for more than 20 years his co-pilot is 43 year old frederick no do you want to start or should i why don't you fly first and then i'll take over for landing in toronto i check the weather on this flight the two men decide that captain rosai will handle the takeoff in paris and co-pilot no will land in toronto destination toronto pearson jet crews often split the duties so that co-pilots can get more experience rizzai and no are joined by one other person in the cockpit i think you've been expecting me miles tricia is the son of an air france employee he's allowed to ride in the cockpit's jump seat for free i just want to let you know i've done this before i promise i'll be quiet this air france plane is one of the safest in the world since the a340s first went into service in 1993 they've had an excellent safety record have a good afternoon gentlemen [Music] just a few minutes before two in the afternoon flight 358 powers into the sky above paris toronto may be several thousand kilometers away but the friends and family of those on board flight 358 are already making plans to meet the plane when it arrives huh audrey i won't forget i'll make sure to pick up mom and dad no i won't forget the two brats either i'll get them all well we usually make arrangements before we go to france to be picked up it's easier because we have lots of luggage you know and we bring back stuff from france so it just happened that julian our son was going to spend the summer in uh in toronto and was available to because what's this i'll give you a call as soon as we get in don't worry i got it covered okay all right talk to you soon bye center we have a humidex advisory and extreme heat alert for toronto as well as a thunderstorm warning in effect for toronto a regular flight from paris to toronto takes about eight hours as air france 358 closes in on canada there's little to separate this trip from any other [Music] i found that their service was amazing the food was great they had very good flight attendants there were a lot of exchange students from france you know like teenagers you know coming to canada for their first time usually their first flight and they were very rowdy there was a beautiful day on the flight over and the sun was shining it was just blue skies and white clouds and just a lovely day the autopilot does most of the work for captain alain rozai and his co-pilot frederick know just as the two men had planned no is now in control of the plane we have a new weather report the two men get regular updates on the weather conditions in toronto overcast and rainy with a chance of thunderstorms temperature in the low 20s at toronto's international airport the thunderstorms are already rolling through rain wind and lightning are hammering the runways the lightning has already forced airport authorities to declare a red alert it means that the chance of being struck by lightning is so great that ground crews are not allowed to work on the planes [Music] just as flight 358 closes in on toronto it's put into a holding pattern the weather isn't getting any better there's going to be a little delay uh air france 358 so roger on delay ladies and gentlemen this is your captain speaking i'm sorry to inform you that there'll be a short delay there's some weather conditions above toronto and we're just going to give it a couple of minutes to clear up i was very surprised when i heard the captain's announcement that we were going to be delayed in landing for about 25 or 30 minutes because of thunderstorms over toronto while they're not in the storm yet the crew enters their holding pattern north east of toronto their alternate airport is almost 300 kilometers away in ottawa at the moment the plane has a little over seven and a half thousand kilograms of fuel in its tanks more than enough to get them there typically a pilot will think about the economic impact of diverting to an alternate airport while that is not a primary decision maker it is an alternate decision maker as far as if they have to divert how are the folks going to be transported from that alternate airport back to the destination airport that the airplane was originally going to flying almost 300 passengers to ottawa would be a logistical nightmare but the crew can't circle for too long with the fuel they have if the delay continues they'll have no choice but to divert our friends toronto arrival your hold is now cancelled you are cleared for a wassey ii arrival to maintain 5 000 feet yeah france 358 roger on cancellation of hold cleared for washi to arrival and maintain today the delay isn't long at all although the storm continues to thunder down near the airport the crew is put into their landing sequence ladies and gentlemen this is your captain speaking we just wanted to let you know we are beginning our descent into toronto at this time we should be on the ground out about 4 p.m local time usually when they say 45 minutes you know it's to be nice you know usually it's like an hour an hour and a half this time it was like 20 minutes 20 minutes later they said okay well now we're gonna go down prepare you know for for the landing with co-pilot frederick no of the controls the plane begins its descent into the storm efrance 358 reducing speed to one nine zero no isn't prepared for what he's about to face the storm has a savage surprise in store for everyone on board flight 358. the brutal summer storm is battering toronto winds and lightning are hammering the airport making it tense for incoming planes after a short hold air france flight 358 with 297 passengers aboard begins descending into the storm flaps too f-speed landing gear down spoilers armed for green you're down spoilers arms full green you'll be fine don't worry it immediately turned into very dark skies and dark clouds and a little bit bumpy and choppy and the weather outside was definitely within a thunderstorm but really and truly to me it was just a typical uh stormy landing nothing out of the ordinary in the main cabin though not everyone is so sure the plane was getting very bumpy there was a lot of turbulence we were surrounded basically by heavy rain and this was completely not expected i didn't expect that flaps full it was going darker and darker we were like in the middle of hundreds and hundreds of lightnings like every second we had lightnings all around us so people were getting uh nervous uh quite nervous i was getting nervous ahead of the air france airbus two other planes have just touched down on the same runway that flight 358 is heading for fair france 358 this is toronto tower toronto tower air france three five eight so go ahead they were cleared to land runway two four left be advised the preceding aircraft reports breaking action is poor and they estimate the surface winds near the runway as 290 degrees at 15 to 20 knots breaking poor 15 knots gusts to 20 france 358 thank you the crew is being sent to runway 24 left which will allow them to land into the wind it also happens to be the closest runway to the city's biggest freeway which is gearing up to handle the evening rush hour traffic facing unpredictable winds and a wet runway the crew prepare for the landing select auto bricks to medium medium is set the final approach for landing was was hellish lightnings were all over turbulences were enormous uh you could feel the pilot fight with a plane to keep the the plane in line with the runway to land and had a heck of a time to keep it uh lined up i know my son next to me was getting very nervous and i was nervous to see my daughter actually far from us i cinched up my seat belt tighter than it was expecting a very hard landing and the pilot was going to stick it on the uh runway or we were maybe going to do a touch and go and he was going to give it power and go around because i knew that it was not going to be just a normal landing [Music] landing at two minutes after four o'clock air france flight 358 roars over the beginning of the runway [Music] [Music] put it down this landing was more intense and harder than any time i've ever landed in another aircraft it's a very difficult landing and everyone started clapping and even the lady who sitting next to me i remember very clearly she said you know wow that was an amazing landing [Applause] [Music] and as soon as she finished that sentence then or hal broke loose [Music] we started just the the the plane started violently going up and down and it felt like we were going 100 miles an hour down a road filled with potholes that were about three feet deep immediately you could see this orange aura and for me it's a picture i will never forget my daughter was sitting on the head of us on the right side of the plane and at that time she turned her head towards us you know with very wide eyes you know looking at us and her face was surrounded by this enormous aura or orange aura of fire then moments after touching down still traveling at 146 kilometers per hour flight 358 runs out of room at that point that i believe that we were all going to die it was obvious that no one can survive this kind of thing i thought this was it the next thing that i can remember is that a an announcement came ladies and gentlemen everything's okay we've stopped now oh well no kidding of course we've stopped now but i could tell that everything was not okay because i could immediately smell jet fuel as the smell of jet fuel fills the cabin panic quickly spreads everybody was expecting the plane to blow up it was obvious smoke and flames are spreading quickly now it's a desperate struggle to escape [Applause] now you hear shouting from the back that there was a fire fire and then people started really panicked if they don't get out they have just seconds to live we know that about two minutes into a fire in many cases the environment becomes untenable so 90 seconds is a good rule that we use in trying to get people out to make sure that they have as much time and safety as possible 297 passengers are desperate to leave the planet the only thing that matters to me now is to get my daughter emily who's sitting like two seats ahead of me get her get her under me and protect her as we blow up am i going to try to get my luggage my laptop and then i thought to myself what if i would die trying to get my laptop i just said okay i've got to get out i've got to get out flight 358 has eight possible emergency exits but seconds after the crash most of them aren't open people were crawling over the seats they were pushing each other they was basically all for yourself stay concrete please stay calm [Music] open the door and i could see the air attendant there struggling with the fact that should i or should i not open this door because the fire was raging just in front of it if the fuel tanks rupture and we have a lot of fuel that gets out either onto the ground well then there's enough heat and fire there that would uh cause the airplane skin to melt in a couple minutes at the front of the plane thick smoke is pouring in through one of the open doors joanne caudery bundock races to the other side of the plane the gentleman in front of me had his bag with him and he was kind of fumbling around with that and trying to take that down the slide he was a rather large man and the slide did not deploy the entire way so i kind of bailed off the side above him and hit the ground eddie ho has found an exit too but there's no slide and people pushing me forward i couldn't even control myself and i was like you know i don't want to jump as well because you know it was five meters down at least is he okay is he okay [Music] in the cockpit captain rosai has been badly injured when his seat was ripped off the floor by the force of the crash as precious seconds tick by the flight attendant near the lakais manages to open the exit door even though passengers are confronted with the flames and smoke of the burning engine they jump out of the plane so push them down my wife went down i went down we we just ran up as fast as we could through torn metal and thorns and like through whatever was left of the ground where the plane was once the fire gets inside the airplane all of the furnishings are much like furnishings in your house and there are foams and materials that when they catch on fire produce toxic gases and that's really the uh the most important lethal aspect of the fire basically you just had to jump so what i did was you know i prayed quickly and i closed my eyes and and jumped emergency workers are able to reach the burning jet just 52 seconds after it crashes but with the threat of an explosion it's dangerous to get too close it was very difficult to see anything due to the rain that was coming down there was a lot of smoke engulfing the plane some fire that was still ongoing as well as you could see that some of the parts of the plane had broken off some of the wheels that were at the side of the roadway as well as portions of the plane's wings that had broken off philippe lakai and his family struggle up the hill the plane has just plowed down you know and at that point the the plane blew up once twice three times so you could feel and hear that this enormous explosion actually uh taking place um on the first one i i looked at the first one because i just couldn't believe my eyes you know i could see i think pieces of luggage things flying up in the air of course at that time i figured oh my god you know that could have been us you know we had a perfect view of the airplane and see this black smoke coming out the side of the airplane and the yellow and the orange and the red flame shooting out we were fine but we just knew that there were so many passengers in that plane that had not gotten out [Music] august the 2nd 2005 air france flight 358 has crashed off its runway in toronto flames are tearing at the fuselage smoke is pouring from the ruined jet dazed passengers are stumbling from the plane passengers that were coming up uh again were very uh rain-soaked and muddy from coming up the hill there were several individuals that once they got up there were crying and a bit emotional as well as looking around for other passengers or family or friends that may have been with them at the time about 35 minutes ago a plane ran off the runway at toronto's pearson airport footage of the crash quickly appears on local tv stations philippe dakai's daughter audrey is one of the many people shocked by the pictures she turned on our tv and here we go there was the air friends crash right here live in front of her you know burning exploding right in front of her eyes 250 people on board we have not had any reason to make a statement yet as to whether anybody has survived or escaped philly placai's son julian is waiting for his father at the airport he has no idea what's just happened to the air france flight what what do you mean where am i not the airport waiting for my open bed like you what so julian didn't know anything and he was there at the airport and she says well you know what i think you're gonna have to wait a long time because the airplane just crashed one of the busiest highways in north america borders the airport just before rush hour it's packed with thousands of vehicles drivers slow down captivated by the terrifying sight of the burning plane some of the passengers who've escaped the plane stumbled dazed and shaken right onto the edge of the highway passing motorists stop to take them to the airport [Music] at this point there was only about 25 or 30 people with me in the airport and in here you're you're also beginning to think is this all there is as people are brought in airport employees struggled to account for all the passengers and crew they were totally disorganized there's no announcements being made there's nothing of any kind of organization and you're in this little crowded area with all the array passengers waiting to be processed some people even said you know the first disaster was the plane crash and the second disaster is exactly how it was handled afterwards relatives wait desperately for any news is just one of many who fears the worst for at least an hour and a half he thought we were dead that's a shame because of course we uh we panicked we were scared to death but the families that were waiting for the passengers they were even more scared because it lasted much longer they really believed deep down that their family members were dead finally hours after the crash passengers who have waiting family members are reunited julian what's up oh you're okay okay we finally met up with julian it was 11 o'clock at night it was uh oh god where's lucky so lucky we're alive you know [Music] it's hard to explain but it's like you're giving a second chance you know here's my son you know maybe i didn't tell him i loved them you know when i left for friends now it's time to to say it right away it was uh it was a very nice moment very very deep moment it's just one of dozens of reunions it takes hours to confirm but by early evening air france and the local airport authorities can make the incredible announcement remarkably every single passenger and all the members of the crew of flight 358 have managed to escape the burning wreckage of their plane the next day smoke and charred wreckage are all that remain of air france flight 358 the airbus a340 is a sophisticated highly engineered plane with a glowing safety record what had gone so terribly wrong canada's transportation safety board quickly begins investigating the accident landing autopilot off rain and lightning had been battling the airport all afternoon was it simply bad weather that caused this crash put it down put it down neither the pilot nor the co-pilot have spoken publicly about the crash [Music] citing lawsuits that were filed soon after air france has kept all of its employees who were on the plane from speaking to the media i don't know is he okay i don't know but former air france trainer elves has spoken to captain rosai we spoke let me think for half an hour he told me that this is the crucial point that he has control more specifically in form control that he had reached the point where he would have to consider diverting what he told me is that control informed him that they would soon open the runway there was of course a lot of lightning rain and turbulence and turbulence can have a devastating effect instruments become more difficult to read the aircraft is harder to handle investigators discover that as the crew struggled for control in the cockpit on the ground delicate instruments used to measure the wind of the runway were destroyed by lightning with the ground equipment destroyed they were relying on their on-board systems for information about wind conditions the on-board equipment only gives them the actual wind direction and speed on the nose of the aircraft at that exact time it does not predict ahead of the aircraft so the pilots really have no way of knowing what lies ahead of them but two planes had touched down just minutes before the air france flight on the same runway the crews of those planes did their best to inform air traffic control of the tricky conditions air tower france france three five eight should go ahead you are cleared to land runway two four left the advised proceeding aircraft reports breaking action is poor and they estimate the surface winds near the runway as 290 degrees at 15 to 20 knots 20 knot winds are strong but are well within the allowable range for landing an a340 but when investigators study radar images of the airport they discover quite a different story as flight 358 landed a sharp line of rain moved across the runway from north to south it was driven by a sudden gust of wind of up to 33 knots the crew of the air france jet had to deal with conditions that were much worse than they were expecting landing autopilot auto thrust off 33 knots is the demonstrated maximum crosswind for an a340 and that would be on a dry runway so when you say 33 knots at 90 degrees you're you're encroaching on the limits of the aircraft studying the airport investigators uncover another piece of the puzzle maintenance issues and the storm itself were forcing air traffic controllers to use runway 24 left for landings it's the shortest runway at the airport almost 650 meters shorter than some of the others blinded by rain driven by unexpected winds and landing on the shortest runway at the airport flight 358 was in a dangerous position the over the previous four hours they had been made aware of the terrible storms and red alerts and that was for me my biggest concern were they perhaps over tired were they lacks victims of routine in any case it's obvious that they hadn't gauged the extent of the danger it's evident that the flight crew didn't perceive the information that they were getting from these various sources as being threatening therefore they attempted to make a landing but even in bad conditions even on a short runway the crew had 3 000 meters in which to land their plane it should have been enough to find out why it wasn't investigators turned to the past in 1999 an eerily similar accident took place in little rock arkansas damn we're off oh i can't see it way off struggling with unpredictable weather the crew of an american airlines jet landed their plane only to have it skid off the runway eleven people were killed greg feith helped investigate that crash one of the first things that i thought about was deja vu having the first bits of information about the air france accident it reminded me so much of the american airlines accident in the little rock crash fife discovered that the crew had made a critical mistake which contributed significantly to the accident they hadn't followed all of the checklist procedures and they didn't have the ground spoilers armed which basically degrades the efficiency of lift on the wing and settles the airplane heavily on the main wheels so that braking action is more effective spoilers are only one of several ways pilots of passenger jets stop their massive planes reverse thrusters are used to redirect the engine power forward as the plane lands and sophisticated brakes help slow the jets down to rule out any mechanical fault all three systems are examined by investigators of the air france crash one of the brakes on flight 358 was destroyed in the fire but the seven other sets of brakes are all tested after the accident all of them are working properly flaps investigators in toronto also discover that unlike in the little rock crash this time the spoilers had deployed properly spoilers armed for green and when the engines are examined the reverse thrusters are deployed no obvious mechanical fault can be found [Music] as the investigation continues a french newspaper prints a bombshell le figaro publishes a story claiming that the thrust reversers which used the jets engines to slow it down were not turned on until the plane had been on the runway for more than 12 seconds as for captain rosalie he confirmed the newspaper report his explanation was that his co-pilot had 10 stop and was having difficulty controlling the lateral movement of the plane no doubt because of the strong cross winds and because the runway was so slippery his hand was clamped tightly on the throttle release lever which prevented the captain from reaching it himself so the reverse thrusters could not be activated shortly after the newspaper story appears investigators published their initial report it confirms the figaro's version of events canada's transportation safety board reveals that while the thrusters were found in the on position at the crash site they had not been deployed as soon as the plane landed in fact it took 17 seconds before they reached maximum power was a question raised in the in the report and i wouldn't want to hazard a guess as to why there was such a delay or what was the cause of it i just know that pilots as a rule want to get those reversers in as quickly as possible for maximum stopping the investigators reveal other confusing facts about the last few seconds of flight 358 when it came over the start of the runway it was twice as high as it should have been and when it did land it was nearly halfway down the runway in these stormy conditions the crew didn't have enough time to stop once they found that the airplane had floated down the runway the pilot has to make the decision whether we stay on the ground and try to salvage this bad situation or we abort the landing power up pull up and go around get our stuff together and then come back for a second landing france 358 but decisions in a cockpit are joint decisions the captain and the first officer work together if the captain sees that landing will be difficult he must open throttle and go through a board lending procedures that's his and of course the co-pilot is also allowed to be the first to act but the captain's duty is to avoid at all cost a lengthy touchdown that is clear by the time the plane touched down it had only 1500 meters to stop and when it did land critical seconds were lost when the reverse thrusters weren't engaged would it have made a difference to immediately activate the reverse thrusters of course it would since reverse function reaches its peak efficiency at high speed that is the exact moment of touchdown that's what reverses therefore it's all a matter of aerodynamic braking the other problem is that the wheels touch ground in the middle of the runway in reverse or no reverse at that point it was already too late as was pointed out by the head of the inquiry that being said if the reverse thrusters had been activated immediately the plane would have come to a stop more quickly in heavy storms the margin for error is razor thin on this rain-filled afternoon sudden wind a long landing and a short runway sealed the fate of everyone on board flight 358 [Music] what concerns some in the aviation industry isn't this particular flight but the reality that overruns are far too common they happen all around the world and safety procedures that could stop them are not in place in august 2005 air france flight 358 crashed off the end of a runway in toronto it was a horrifying incident yet amazingly everyone survived but flight 358 wasn't the only jet to go off the end of a runway in 2005. worldwide there were 37 other runway overruns and the causes of all these accidents were remarkably similar there are a number of causal factors that occur again and again in runway overrun accidents the weather conditions the state of the runway surface it can be wet it can be icy it can have snow on it speed in excess of a normal approach speed for the aircraft that does not then bleed off as the aircraft attempts to land and these factors occur again and again in runway over on accidents unlike the crash at toronto some overruns are deadly this southwest airlines flight in chicago slid off its runway several months after the air france crash a small child was killed in a car that was driving on the nearby highway many older airports in particular in big cities which have expanded out towards the airport in the course of their growth are constrained in the area that they can use for overruns you have to consider what happens when the runway is contaminated snow ice standing water that will degrade the stopping performance of the airplane add to that a tailwind component which was existent at the time that air france landed that in combination with the contaminated runway can jeopardize the landing performance and in fact increase it probably by 50 percent the international civil aviation organization recommends that every airport have a 300 meter safety zone at the end of runways that handle international flights canadian standards are a little less strict they call for a 60 meter overrun area and recommend another 90 meters on top of that runway 24 left meets the low end of those recommendations there was another runway over an accident to the runway in toronto which was very closely aligned with the runway that is there at the moment in 1978 when a dc-9 and air canada dc-9 rejected a take-off and ran into the ravine while the plane started to break and then there was just nothing and then we dropped over the edges about a 50-foot drop i guess at the end of the runway we just went over the top and then there was a heck of a bang and people and seats all over the place two people died in the 1978 accident a coroner's inquest after the crash recommended that the gully be filled in but it never was it's a steep ravine it has about a 50-foot drop-off and when you take a large complicated and fragile piece of machinery like a commercial aircraft and you drop it 50 feet then it tends to break there is a possible solution to runway overruns but it's not being used in toronto or many other international airports it's called emass or engineered material arresting systems it's a form of artificial stone or artificial gravel which has a certain depth and anybody who's ridden a bicycle into a gravel pit knows that a bicycle stops very quickly and it can be almost impossible to pedal it out and the same thing happens to airplanes several airports in the us use the system but most international airports do not it's very much more effective than friction braking and it's certainly incomparably more effective than thrust reverse and spoilers and any one of these systems when properly engineered can stop a large airplane no matter what the runway surface conditions in a very short distance but one vital air safety guideline was met when flight 358 crashed in spite of the smoke and the spreading fire the crew of the crippled plane made sure that all the passengers escaped in just 90 seconds it's just a miracle that all of those people were able to evacuate the airplane as quickly as they did before the airplane was consumed the air france flight was particularly noteworthy and that everybody got out essentially unscathed i know there were some injuries but but everyone got out so i think it was noteworthy and it was very good evacuation from that perspective captain alain rozai may never fly for air france again his injuries required extensive physical therapy after the crash at the time he was less than three years from retirement every morning captain jose relives the experience coming face to face with the flames the noise the crash and it made him sad to end his career on that note having destroyed this plane that's the worst possible fate for a pilot the worst outcome the co-pilot frederique no is suspended for three months after the accident by early the next year he's back on duty with air france there are reports that after he helped captain rosa out of the cockpit he was the last person off the plane the passengers deal with the crash in their own ways i went through nightmares almost every single night flashbacks during the day i couldn't sleep i couldn't eat you know i questioned myself why am i here it's frightening you know to to be in such a state and it has taught me to be strong [Music] we really need to take seriously uh those safety commands and evacuation information because you never know it was a perfect flight there's not any indications that anything can go wrong and it's right at the very very last second that everything happens um so it's thank goodness i'm here to be able to talk about it now [Music] there's a lot of negative in the accident and there's a lot of positive the negative is oh my god you know i'm gonna die oh my god it's horrible oh i have these nightmares and you know yes i'm traumatized and my kids are traumatized however you have the positives and the positives are gee i'm alive you know i have been given a second chance i have been given a second life and all of us [Music] my wife and my children myself we all experience the same positive effects of the crash which is we have to give back we have to do something for others we have to extend our heart out our compassion to people who need it it's almost therapeutic for us you know the more you do for others the better you're going to feel so for me i figured you know if i can extend my heart out to others maybe it's going to help me as well you

Channel: Mayday: Air Disaster

Views: 479,034

Keywords: Mayday Air Disaster, Mayday Air Disaster YouTube Channel, Mayday Air Disaster TV Series, Plane Crash Documentary, Where to watch Air Crash Investigation, Worst plane crashes, Mayday Air Disaster streaming, Mayday Season 4, Mayday Air Disaster Season 4 Episode 1, Mayday Air Disaster Episode Miracle Escape, Air France 358 crash video, Air France 358 Toronto crash, Air France Aviation Accident Database, Mayday Miracle Escape full episode, Air France 358 crash documentary

Id: T6jq8MwziI8

Length: 49min 59sec (2999 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 01 2021