Sukhoi Superjet 100 SLAMS Into An Infamous Mountain | Mayday Air Disaster

where's that going a suy superjet 100 one of the world's newest and most advanced airliners slams into a mountain killing everyone on board why was the plane so far off course Indonesian investigators face one of the biggest challenges they've ever encountered the crash site was below an 800 met Cliff only an elite team can get there you guys search up here I'm going down risking life and limb to recover the Black Box the situation was quite scary and it's just mindblowing but will it give investigators the answers they need [Music] mayday [Music] it's a Wednesday afternoon in Jakarta Indonesia at halim ped ausuma International Airport flight ra 36801 is almost ready for departure champagne sir 36 invited guests are getting the gold star treatment on a demonstration flight for a brand new Russian aircraft the atmosphere in the cabin during a demonstration flight is usually pretty relaxed people are chitchatting you know people are smoing people are cracking jokes it's a very light atmosphere the plane is a suoy superjet [Music] 100 well suco is an aircraft manufacturer that's known for making military aircraft Russia hadn't really dove into the realm of creating commercial airliners and this was their first so it's kind of a big deal for them this afternoon's flight is part of a six-count welcome to Asia tour the passengers are a mix of potential buyers from major airlines and journalists who can create some balls Alexander kavalo is a reporter who has been covering the development of the plane since the beginning I joined the tour at the very start it's a brand new airplane and presenting it to Top members of government and potential buyers delighted me in the cabin a flight engineer and Navigator prepare to monitor the plane's performance from takeoff to Landing but that's not their only job today they know that that in Russia there are hopes the superjet 100 will help revive the nation's troubled aviation industry a big part of their job is to help sell the plane Russia has kind of a poor reputation for safety over the decades so a lot is at stake this is the beginning of their reputation and these reputations will carry on in the future I'm sorry I'm going to have to take that glass from you I'll bring you another when we're in the air thanks the superjet has already flown demonstration flights in Kazakhstan Myanmar and Pakistan Jakarta is the fourth stop on the Whirlwind tour the tour's Russian organizers have hired local Indonesian flight attendants for the day the young flight attendants were anticipating a flight on a brand new airplane it was a big chance for them and a big [Music] honor laps 15 laps 15 check Captain Alexander yablon is suho's Chief test pilot transponder set he has 10,000 flight hours under his belt and more hours in the superjet than any other pilot uh Chef pilot uh the chief pilot was involved in this project from the very start as Russian Pilots say he gave the plane wings before take off the checklist complete first officer Alexander ketov is also a seasoned test pilot both Pilots conducted themselves in the most professional man absolutely impeccably decoy 3681 cleared for takeoff Runway 6 here we [Music] go V1 [Music] rotate this is the second demonstration Flight of the day the first flight from halim airport was completely unremarkable but before the second flight I was asked to shoot the plane from the ground I simply set out towards the runway to shoot video of The superjet 100 ascending into the [Music] skies the flight is planned to be a tight 30-minute Loop South from Jakarta into the rural area of bogor then back to the airport suor 36801 turned right to intercept radio 200 and climb to 10,000 Air Traffic Control guides the plane away from the busy commercial flight Zone near the city Jakarta control so 36801 intercepting radial 200 and climbing to 10,000 the superjet is the First new Russian passenger jet since the collapse of the Soviet Empire it's been 12 years in development suoy hopes it's now ready to Take On The World the superjet itself was a regional aircraft designed to compete globally against other aircraft manufacturers like Canadair and embri a which had other Regional Jets about 100 ft long long about 100 passengers little bit less and are very popular around the world and with a growing population of 240 million Indonesia could be a huge market for Su check out of control Su 36801 Reach In level 10,000 Roger 36801 proceed to bore your discretion ladies and gentlemen this is your captain speaking so welcomes you on board of the superjet 100 uh you've seen I've turned off the seat belt sign now you have a few minutes to tour the cabin that's a very smooth asent for this second flight there's a potential customer in the cockpit a pilot from a major Indonesian airline in a demonstration flag they're not operating under the same exact rules as an airline flight it's not abnormal at all in any part of the world to invite one of the folks up just give them that special experience that's promised a fresh glass of champagne the short flight is already almost half over but no one in the cabin is in a rush to get back on the ground let's get down to 6,000 so we can start to turn back check out control 36801 requested to set to 6,000 suar 36801 cleared to 6,000 ft ey 7136 cleared to land JT 792 continue approach to Runway 24 impressive Flight Deck I could certainly get used to this all right then let's do the full orbit before we return the captain decides to prolong the flight by flying an extra Loop Jakarta control Soo 36801 requesting right orbit at 6,000 it was just them having a little bit of fun do a little holding spin over here just to show you what that looks like zuk 36801 right orbit approved AK 734 wind Southeast 10 knots proceed with approach everything is exactly where it needs to be very pilot friendly the turn is so smooth passengers hardly feel it in the cabin would you care for some Russian caviar another great feature is the toss it gives us excellent terrain awareness it has predictive Hazard warning and uh it's really state-ofthe-art the superjet was equipped with the latest in aviation technology this defin def itely set it apart from its many worthy competitors which were available on the market do you want to do another orbit or shall we begin their approach uh let's start the approach as the first officer checks his approach chartrain terrain an automated warning begins to sound terrain terrain terrain terrain why is that going off maybe the database here here here here [Music] here at the control center the air traffic controller notices a problem the suho superjet has vanished from radar where'd you go Su 36801 please come in in Jakarta air traffic controllers are trying to understand what happened to a Russian plane on a demonstration flight come on come on talk to me on approach a crew is always listening to air traffic control they're always waiting for their next command of guidance communication is not constant they're aware of each other suor 36801 please come in after four calls there's still no reply the controller knows the plane should have landed by now suco 36801 is off radar he alerts his supervisor and authorities declare an emergency all of us who remained on the ground were deeply worried about the people on board we called their cell phones and two phones suddenly started working the signal was there but nobody answered them as minutes turn to hours the mystery deepens the fear is that the plane went down in the mountains south of bogor relatives of passengers camp out overnight at the airport desperate for news of their loved ones at 8:35 a.m. the next day 18 hours after the plane vanished a helicopter pilot finally gets close enough to spot something blue and white specks in the distance the sukhoy superjet has crashed into Mount salak the the debreeze spilling thousands of feet down a cliff [Music] face marono sisas suano is the lead investigator assigned to the case by the KNN KT Indonesia's Transportation safety agency when I first heard about the location of the crash my initial reaction was how could this plane end up there Mount salak has a fierce reputation its Jagged Peaks reach 7,200 ft locals call it an airplane graveyard Mount salak is Infamous according to the local press the mountain and its surroundings have seen many crashes of different light Plaines and helicopters I personally felt the negative energy of this mountain the crash site is right here How could a brand new jet with sophisticated navigation systems and an expert crew crash into a notorious mountain when there's a crash everything is on the table you have no idea there are any number of variables at play until it gets eliminated by providing fat we need to send a team up this mountain fast it's one of the most challenging locations Indonesian crash investigators have ever faced our mission was to search for the black box but how do we find it and retrieve it this is the problem and our biggest challenge there are no easy routs marono knows only the most skilled Mountaineers will be up to the task we need to bring in only for this Onie wio is a Junior Investigator with the kkt he's also an expert climber now tasked with joining a group of Indonesian Marines on a treacherous hike up Mount salak before I joined the kkt I developed a hobby for trekking mountaineering and rope work keep moving guys this location was quite extreme for me we had to create a new path and it required a lot of effort we had to climb to higher elevation before we were able to reach the location it takes 9 hours but finally they reach the crash site what they find is [Music] overwhelming when I reached the site the situation was quite scary there was lots of smoke and wreckage and debris everywhere it was such a sad thing to witness there's no hope of survivors 45 people are dead Indonesian Russian American and French I tried to imagine what the people who were in the cabin at the time felt and how it ended it's the single memory which has haunted me ever since somehow they must regroup and try to find the black boxes I was determined to use all my knowledge to find out why this plane crash at Mount salak happened in Jakarta the search for answers to what brought down a suho demonstration flight takes investigators to air traffic control so can you tell me what happened well they were just supposed to do a 30-minute Loop then before I knew it they had disappeared from radar so what did they end up at M select I don't know but weren't you supposed to be monitoring them I was so busy I lost track of the plane investigators learned that the controller had an exceptionally heavy workload he was monitoring about a dozen flights ey 7136 cleared to land JT 792 continue approach to Runway 24 making matters worse both his assistant and his supervisor were absent that shift he was doing three jobs this person was working Beyond the Edge of his limitations uh for any air traffic controller and that alone is is incredibly unsafe any air traffic control organization around the world uh usually has backups in place even when their Staffing is low they will delay aircraft and keep them on the ground to not have that is is huge why did you clear them to fly at 6,000 ft you must have known they were never cleared the mountain my system said it was a military jet investigators did discover that the airport status system had incorrectly labeled the plane as s30 which identifies it as a suoy military aircraft the air traffic controller had labeled This Plane similar to the sey military aircraft that belonged to the Indonesian Air Force Indonesian Air Force not knowing it was in fact a civilian aircraft military can fly pretty much as low as they want Jakarta control 36801 requesting descent at 6,000 when the pilots requested a descent the controller assumed they were heading for a military training area in bogor right along the suk's flight path suo 36801 cleared to 6,000 ft ey 7136 cleared to land JT 792 continue approach to Runway 24 the ATC thought that it was a military aircraft flying in a military airspace so 6,000 is not a concern for them but I still don't understand why was the plane so far of course that's a good question I really don't know the plane was supposed to turn and fly north towards Jakarta but instead it flew South and hit a mountain 54 km from the airport investigators need to know why [Music] they hope the black boxes can give them some answers the most important thing is the black box which records the flight data and the conversation inside the cockpit cockpit this is what we're looking for but they could be anywhere you guys search up here I'm going down the search team targets the thickly forested valley below the from my experience I could predict that a relatively small object like a black box would fall down to the base of the cliff so this was their biggest challenge the crash site was below an 800 met cliff finally 6 days after the crash a breakthrough we found it we found the CBR the Recorder's outer casing is damaged but if the data inside can be retrieved investigators May finally be able to understand why the jet veered fatally off course while investigators wait for the cockpit voice recordings they consider two Stark possibilities regarding the fate of flight 36801 either the suho's flight systems failed and led the plane off track or the pilots made a deadly error since news of the crash broke there's been speculation that the chief test pilot was showing off trying to give passengers a better view this guy had a spotless record but his Personnel files reveal that during his 36 years of flying there has been no hint of Reckless Behavior his flight records showed he had more than 10,000 hours he was never unprofessional I flew several th000 km on that plane through varied conditions and weather he was not a reckless pilot so what do we know about the days leading up to the accident how busy were they they study the Pilot's work schedules looking for anything unusual they discovered that the captain and his first officer were on the fourth leg of the demonstration tour maybe they were tired a closer examination reveals that the suoy pilots had the evening off the day before the crash and the demonstration flight that preceded the accident lasted only 22 minutes this was not a tough schedule we didn't find any evidence that the pilot was physically unfit investigators are at a loss still with no solid clues about the cause of the crash they were supposed to go south to the area of bore turn and come right back to the airport how did they end up over here makes no sense let's get down to 6,000 so we can start to turn back the Russian crew had never flown in Indonesia before but handling new Roots is something all professional Pilots are trained to do flying in a new area is very common but this needs to be accompanied by having a very detailed briefing brief investigators wonder how well briefed was the crew before the Fatal flight can I help you yes can you tell me how the briefing with the pilots went they check in with the ground handling agent we went fine said the pilots never showed up so who exactly did you brief investigators are surprised to learn that only the chief Navigator attended the briefing I think it would have been helpful if the pilots were present in that briefing uh but I don't think it's that big of a deal as long as the Navigator is doing his or her job to make sure that the pilots have their their information according to the agent The Briefing was short just a quick chat about the flight plan with no mention of terrain you didn't warn him about the mountains didn't ask mind you uh he didn't speak English very well it seems a language barrier may have prevented the communication of a key piece of information the most important part of the briefing that should be given to the pilot is the area they should show a Bor area Southwest of Jakarta and surrounding the area with high mountains but a missed briefing doesn't explain the crash investigators know that the pilots had flight charts that should have given them detailed information about the local topography it's terrain its safe altitudes weather charts just general threats that might be specific to an area that they may not be used to all these different things should all be understood and briefed okay let's put this up and see what they were given investigators scrutinize the topographical map of the area they then compare it to the navigational chart provided by the ground Handler but where's Mount cic they make a disturbing Discovery the chart shows no terrain Contours or altitudes of any kind the mountains not indicated on the chart at all the map they needed is available in Indonesia and you can buy it anywhere but they didn't have this map on board why I have no idea I mean to not have any terrain info and not have any idea that there even would have been terrain to even be aware of is mindblowing the weather office near Mount salak reported low clouds and poor visibility that afternoon without knowing to look for the mountains the pilots may not have spotted them check out control 36801 Rich level 1 ,000 the pilots had no idea the mountains were there but why didn't the plane's computer system wander investigators turned their attention to the suoy superjet 100 is the state-of-the-art aircraft somehow to blame for the crash I want to know more about how this tour system works the investigative Spotlight now Shines on one of the suo superjets most important Safety Systems it's called TS terrain awareness and warning system using GPS it tracks the plane's heading and predicts when it's at risk of colliding with terrain it's designed to alert pilots in plenty of time to respond maybe the system somehow fail everyone wants the answer for days the news has shown search and rescue teams collecting body parts from The Mountaintop and flying them to Jakarta for DNA analysis family members only hope is that their loved ones remains can be identified for burial all the fragments were identified with the help of DNA experts there were lots of flowers at the ceremony which happened right at Hal airport the highest ranking Indonesians were present it was truly a national state of morning it stretched over several days airlines put purchase orders for the superjet on hold millions of dollars are on the line that still stands to be a huge huge blemish for suco and and a costly one at that while inves instigators wait for the cockpit voice recorder they start with the flight data recorder which was recovered 21 days after the crash the flight data recorder becomes important in crashes like this because everyone was deceased on the aircraft it holds secrets that no one would otherwise know this is the original flight path here and we know from the controllers that they requested permission to do an extra 360° turn impressive Flight Deck I could certainly get used to this all right then let's do the full orbit before we return champagne sir the flight from halim to Bor only dect very short flights and flight attendant they will not have adequate time to serve all the passengers would you care for some Russian caviar but the question is how did they end up here the flight path data shows the plane's exact routee as is going Southwest he's on a heading of 240° it also shows all Compass headings entered by the pilots as he starts the loop down he changes to 333° at first everything seems to be going according to plan but then investigators discover something they can't explain we were all surprised and confused as to why this plane was headed south the last input was 174 heading south over here right here he should have put in another input heading back to the north a compass heading of 174° took the plane South into the mountain the pilot needed to input another heading of 333° to turn the plane back towards halim airport this is where something went wrong right here our biggest question was what was the reason for the flight path heading south after the orbit over bogor investigators wonder if the navigation system somehow failed leading the pilots off course they study the data looking for any sign of a malfunction flight systems look fine the blackbox data showed no problems with this plane all the engine and flight control systems were in normal condition can you isolate the terrain warning system next they look at how the terrain warning system performed did it alert the pilots to impending danger this toss warnings the data shows the tours sent out multiple alerts in the final 40 seconds of flight the terrain awareness warning system has two type of warning first visual warning with lights and oral warnings they' been with sounds so it is impossible for the pilot that they will not recognize the warning I don't get it if the warnings work then these guys would have known what to do investigators are stumped flight data shows the captain made no attempt to turn the plane even more baffling the tour system was deactivated 28 seconds before the crash or did the pilot turn it off why that happened is a complete mystery we didn't know for sure if the crew had indeed disabled the system or if there was an error in the system 240 M hour straight into the side of a mountain so the question was why didn't they take any action to avoid the crash let's hope the CVR can give us something more Indonesian investigators now know that the pilots of the suho superjet failed to complete a turn sending their planes straight into a mountain they also know that the aircraft's advanced terrain warning system was shut down before the impact what they don't understand is why they hope to find some answers on the cockpit voice recording a recording they fear they might never get to hear when we received the CVR the memory module wire was burned so it takes sometimes for us to rewire this ready investigators synchronize the audio from the cockpit to the flight data to create a comprehensive timeline FD the FDR data shows the direction of the flight every second if we superimpose this data with the CVR then we can know second by second the position of the flight and what the pilots were conversing about highly important data so we know everything is fine when the plane heads towards bore it's on course facing Southwest play from there let's get down to 6,000 so we can start to turn back the plane is about 20 M south of Jakarta flying over bogor when the first officer radios Air Traffic Control check out control so 36801 requesting to set to 6,000 Dark Cloud ahead it's a crucial three words Dark Cloud out between cockpit and the mountain they probably don't see the mountain in front of them the dark clouds were in the direction of Mount salad they wouldn't be able to see anything not even a mountain all right then let's do the full orbit before we return check out of control so 36801 requesting WR orbit at at 6,000 2 36801 right orbit approved as the plane starts to turn and descend it initially moves away from the cloud covered mountains the flight computer does all the work for me a pilot would be demonstrating to a potential customer that was in the flight deck at this time uh hey this is how this works this is how this happens it's actually showing how Automation and other knobs are creating a turn in an aircraft I know he's trying to Showcase a plane but shouldn't he focus on flying the orbit investigators suspect that on this flight the cockpit demonstration became too much of a distraction for the pilots the aircraft started to make orbit we heard the discussion among three person in a cockit the captain tried to show the sophisticated of the aircraft as the plane turns the captain keeps talking another great feature is the toss this discussion took about 30 8 seconds gives us excellent terrain awareness it has predictive Hazard warning and it's really State ofthe art now he's showing off the toss now the plane is about a third of the way through the 360° turn but no problem with the terrain at this moment yes because it's flat terrain wait stop there they are in a wide turn facing this way and the toss is telling them it is flat but it won't be for long the aircraft was on heading towards Jakarta when there is no mountain ahead it's only flat area and the Sea let's keep playing how's the fuel consumption fantastic as you can see we've hardly burned in fuel yeah these engines are so efficient wait stop his last input was 174 that would take them towards the mountain and he needs to keep turning but he's talking about the engin investigators suspicions prove to be correct the captain is so distracted he never completes the [Music] circle as we learned they ended up not performing a full orbit but went off track at 174° 174 he's so busy chatting he simply forgot to input the rest of the turn during this time where the discussion was so intense the pilot did not reselect the heading to get a a complete circles let's start the approach I'll check the charts after the fuel consumption talk the pilots prepare for landing the captain thinks he's on course for the airport when in fact he's heading for disaster make a the request to Jakarta terrain terrain pull up this Defan the toss the CVR confirms that the warning system did sound when it needed to pull up why aren't they doing anything about the terrain warning why is that going up um they knew that this warning indicate that they fly toward the terrains but they stting questions why it should be active investigators know that the tours warning system will be shut off moments before the plane flies straight into a mountain but they still don't know why until the CVR provides a crucial clue May datase that's it database the database the flight computer has a database loaded with Terin information but the captain thinks it is faulty and he hasn't seen the mountain because of the clouds and he's not on his navigation chart he is convinced toss warning is an error we strongly believe the captain thought he was on flat ground this is supported by what we heard the pilot say why is this it may be data why is this maybe data to the captain the potentially life-saving tours warning is nothing more than a harsh annoying sound not a warning Terin ahead pull up alerts like terrain ahead or pull up are strong warnings in this case he should have pulled up don't bother asking if it's a drill or a real fire fire he was not well briefed he didn't take the diligence to find out what the potential threats were the crash is now inevitable either pilot should have stepped up to act let's move let's climb let's turn uh let's get out of the way for what this system is telling us to do both of these Pilots just kind of let it be I went about their merry way we conduct simulations based on the FDR data the simulation conclude that the pilot have around 202 seconds to decide and react properly I was quite sad that the pilot did not the act the warning in their final report investigators conclude that the crew disregarded the t's warnings because they were unaware of the nearby mountains they were flying in the wrong direction due to distractions in the cockpit I think that this accident was almost all human error humans not properly charting the area humans not properly taking care of the air traffic controller the pilots being uh lazy about their decision making in the flight deck these are all human factors every single one of them the most important part to be learned from this accident was that the pilot should react properly to the warning the superjet continues to fly but without making much of a dent in the global Marketplace Su superjet has not performed exactly as desired uh there's just a little over a 100 uh that were built and delivered uh which Falls very short of of where suco had wanted the worst part was that those were people with whom I had already flown several thousand kilometers and now they're gone I don't know what they felt in their last minutes I hope they didn't have time to feel anything

Channel: Mayday: Air Disaster

Views: 132,690

Keywords: Mayday: Air Disaster, air emergency, aircraft crashes, aircraft disasters, aircraft incidents, airplane crash analysis, airplane crashes, airplane investigation, aviation accidents, aviation catastrophe series, aviation catastrophes, aviation disasters, aviation incidents, aviation investigations, aviation safety, fatal air accidents, flight catastrophes, flight disasters, plane crash analysis, plane crash reconstructions, tragic airplane crashes

Id: GDqe7EjndFg

Length: 42min 34sec (2554 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 29 2024