The Most Terrifying Plane Landings Ever Captured On Camera | Super Scary Plane Landings | Wonder

[Music] as a plane comes into land these are the words we never want to hear but with 80 000 aircraft flying every day landings do go wrong the pilot really does say mayday i want to come back in immediately some passengers can barely believe they're still alive [ __ ] i can remember thinking i hope we don't pitch into a school or a hospital pilots need astonishing skill at some landing sites we'll take you aboard the planes that were shaken so badly it was time to pray i love my family very much that were lashed by weather it's hard to imagine that began to fall apart as passengers watched fasten your seat belts for a bumpy ride there's turbulence ahead as a plane weighing 70 tons approaches the runway at 150 miles an hour pilots have to make split-second decisions often if they're wrong there's no second chance the frightening incident that temporarily closed one of the nation's busiest airports the nose gear of a crowded passenger jet collapses on landing at new york's laguardia airport july 22nd 2013 a boeing 737 with 145 passengers and five crew plows into the runway here triggering a full-scale emergency a passenger records the terrifying moments including flames rising from the searing heat of friction as the aircraft slides for half a mile the man with the camera even makes a joke first time coming to new york we crash i ride a second passenger is filming as smoke starts to enter the cabin this plane is not going to move suddenly there's the sound of the escape slide inflating it's an evacuation that's it cross your arms and jump sit down it's not clear whether the smoke means there's a real danger of fire emergency crews are racing across the tarmac everyone's desperate to get out a woman clasping a young child is next to escape it's an emergency with all the confusion and tension that brings the nose wheel collapsed police department aircraft rescue and firefighting crews responded immediately 10 of the 150 people on board need hospital treatment bruised and bewildered they've survived a horrific experience we just went straight down and then just bounced and went all around and the door blew in they finally did open the doors but it took a while the plane was pretty filled with smoke before anyone did anything so what happened when crash detectives investigate a frightening story emerges pilots have to treat new york's laguardia airport with particular care its runways are only half as long as one at neighbouring jfk airport and there's water on three sides laguardia airport is about seven thousand feet long which makes it a bit short this is a runway that you want to have it touched down at the proper place investigators home in on the cockpit voice recorder in the last seconds before the crash and an extraordinary scene unfolds we asked an airline pilot to study the report and then help simulate the flight the recording shows that the plane crash-landed after one pilot took control from the other less than 30 feet from touchdown but why at 5 40 p.m the plane is nearing the end of a two-hour flight from nashville as they approach laguardia the more junior of the two pilots is in control the first officer was the one actually hand flying the aircraft the captain remained in command but the person actually maneuvering the airplane in this case was the first officer the recording shows that the captain thinks they're flying too fast and at the wrong angle for landing the worst case scenario is that they overshoot and end up in the water the captain commands her colleague to get the plane down on the runway with the plane less than 100 feet from the ground she orders [Applause] then she takes control the first officer replies when the captain takes control the plane is just 27 feet from the tarmac and traveling at 200 feet per second it goes catastrophically wrong as the 70 ton weight smashes down on the single nose wheel the nose landing gear is not designed for the forces applied to the airplane at touchdown it's the main landing gear underneath the wings that are designed to withstand the loads as the airplane actually touches investigators found that when the captain sees control so close to the runway rather than save the plane she probably caused the crash she lost her job the first officer was sent for retraining to weight as late as 27 feet to say i want the airplane and take it is unusual you're so close to the landing that it probably would warrant aborting the landing the same decision faced the crew of this commuter jet flying in from london it's buffeted by storm force winds at cork in ireland the wheels have actually touched down when the pilot decides it's too dangerous to continue and at the last minute takes off again but at laguardia it seems the captain made the wrong call as these pictures were taken the pilots were just about to switch control we trust pilots to know what they're doing it's when they're not sure that things get truly scary when analysts looked at every crash worldwide in a 10-year period they found that it's in these final seconds that we're especially at risk and while flying is getting safer more than half of the fatal crashes that do occur happen as the plane is coming in next 400 passengers brace for impact when part of the landing gear on a london-bound jumbo jet gets stuck the cabin crew started chanting head down feet back passengers it was frankly terrifying the latest commercial aircraft can cost hundreds of millions of pounds and use the most advanced gadgetry but when a vital component on this plane didn't work there was no gadget to fix the problem putting hundreds of passengers in danger [Music] they were headed here more than 400 tourists had boarded at london to spend new year in las vegas cat sterling also had a birthday to celebrate with her husband trevor and friends we'd spent a lot of money on the nice hotel and um just to make the most of it there were three of us who were turning 40 so the three girls their dream trip turned into a horror story much of it caught on camera more than 400 lives were on the line when the decision had been taken we're now going to actually have to land a human brace position it was frankly terrifying we asked an aviation expert to study data from accident investigators and help simulate the flight using the latest computer technology peter collins has also studied the evidence gathered by investigators he's a former fighter pilot a member of the elite raf red arrows and now a test pilot [Music] so after analyzing all the data here's a simulation of what happened the plane's carrying 200 000 liters of fuel that's 150 tons for the 13-hour flight from london gatwick to las vegas [Music] just after takeoff the first warning sounds there seems to be a fault with the landing gear the warning they got was an abnormal it was an amber warning it's not an immediate action that they must take as you would with say a fire passengers thought there was no cause for alarm was no sense it was anything significantly wrong but we need to return to gatwick we just expected well there's going to be some delay we'll be back on another plane pretty soon but it's impossible to land the plane right away having just taken off with all the fuel for america they're overweight they're above their maximum landing weight so what they do is they climb to ten thousand feet go over the bristol channel and jettison field so they can come back in to land at gatwick when fuel starts gushing from the wings some passengers begin to worry the first thing that was fairly alarming was the amount of fuel that was being just lots and lots of it that was quite a spectacle because we were right by the window finally after 20 minutes dumping more than 100 tons of fuel they're at the right weight for landing but their real troubles are just about to begin as the flight crew line up for the approach to gatwick they release the landing gear but instead of four sets of wheels in the middle of the plane there are only three the jumbo has two outboard undercarriage legs and two inboard uncharacterized it's the right hand one that's hung up the worst case scenario is the fact on landing there's a possibility that the wing would drop rim on a jumbo it's a low wing airplane and they're under slung engines so those engines are very close to the ground to start with especially the outboard one now with a chance that an engine could smash into the ground cabin crew prepare the passengers for a possible crash when you hear the command brace brace you must adopt in the brace position and practice the brace position you assume the position silly things go through your mind such as you know do i take my glasses off do i leave them on um if this goes terribly wrong what will it be like will there be things flying up and down the cabin will people scream all those things go through your mind it's easy to imagine the passengers fear and confusion and now the pilots struggling to handle the crisis need to call for help a top of the range jumbo jet costs more than 200 million pounds its six million components include electronic warning systems but the electronics can't tell you everything what if this is a false alarm and the wheels are in place after all the crew can't see the undercarriage and there's no camera or other device to help them because you have no underbelly view you don't really know quite where it is that's why you go for a visual inspection they resort to old-school technology and radio ground staff at gatwick to get out their binoculars and peer into the sky the news isn't good the vital fourth leg is stuck the unfolding drama becomes news all over the world some terrifying moments today aboard a 7 47 in the sky above the uk a virgin atlantic flight from london to las vegas discovered a problem with one of its main landing gear plane turn back the pilots even seek advice from boeing in america they say in effect try shaking the plane maybe the wheels will pop out we're in contact with over in seattle and we'll just try out this now dislodge this uh gear door uh just prepare with us and stay in the seat we had to brace ourselves for what were going to be fairly incredible maneuvers frankly to try and literally bounce the airplane drop the plane from a distance banking it sharply to the left and to the right and dropping it again a chunk of metal about the weight of a 20-inch tv breaks off the plane and plummets 3000 feet to the ground luckily it doesn't kill anyone landing in an empty field after 15 minutes of the aerial roller coaster desperately trying to dislodge the stuck wheel they have to admit defeat passengers are told they're going to land with one set of wheels missing you trying to stay calm for me trying to make sure you know cap was okay was important then there comes that point where you actually think actually are we gonna be okay gatwick the world's busiest single runway airport is shut down firefighters and medics are standing by as the plane comes into view the problem's there for all to see instead of four sets of wheels there are only three for the 465 people on board the danger is that the remaining wheels could collapse smashing the engines and wing mounted fuel tanks onto the tarmac these are enormous loads that are placed on the undercarriage on the legs that undercarriage has to start working from what you might say is a stancil in the air to 150 miles an hour on the ground straight away we didn't know if it was gonna yeah that's how it you know you'd think if the wheels on your side are missing the cabin crew started chanting head down feet back over and over again over and over again yeah all in houston extremely loud and it was it was petrifying it just filled the plane so all you could think about here is this challenge it was frightening and as the plane came down and was getting lower alone chanting was getting louder and louder you're tensing up because you're kind of waiting for potential impact the fate of all 465 people on board depends on what happens in the next 10 seconds [Applause] one tire appears to burst in a cloud of smoke but the landing gear holds up under the enormous strain as it came to a halt there was just this silence this overwhelming relief from all the passengers and cabin crew everyone's 100 safe now so you know chill out relax thanks to the skill of the pilots the wing remains just clear at the ground but even now the plane could still tip over getting it balanced and getting all the passengers off takes another two hours investigators discovered that the whole dramatic incident was caused by a mistake during routine maintenance one of the six million components a key part of the landing gear had been fitted incorrectly for cat and trevor through the terror there'd been one glimmer of hope there was one really curious feature in all of this we knew that the pilot's daughter was a passenger on the airplane if there's one thing that's going to give you confidence that a pilot is going to land safely it is when you know that his daughter is on the airplane landings that look terrifying happen every day at our next location a paradise island but with an airport like no other in the world said bart's is a tiny island in the caribbean less than 10 square miles it's spectacularly beautiful and difficult to get to a perfect hideaway a favorite with hollywood stars like leonardo dicaprio and billionaires like roman abramovich the russian who owns chelsea football club but the rich and famous usually arrive by helicopter or by yacht for everyone else this is the only way in and you pray that your pilot knows what he's doing [Music] this speeded up plane's eye view shows what it's like to arrive the landing is so difficult pilots need special training and must get a certificate proving they've mastered all the hazards including traffic swooping in low over the traffic island if you overshoot then you're in the sea most landing strips are perfectly flat this one makes first-time passengers and probably pilots too gasp in disbelief aircraft have to nose dive towards the runway missing traffic by maybe 20 feet it's one of the most difficult landing sites in the world and easy to get it horribly wrong [Music] this pilot walked away from the crash every day local airline pilots have to put their skills to the test sunbath is probably our most difficult field the approach in the sun bars has a very narrow passage and the winds that come into the valley squeeze between the hills and can either create updraft downdrafts and that can dangerously put aircraft closer to the terrain that you really want it to be the training program to get that license to fly to some baths leaves nothing to chance i think five landings with emergencies simulated engine failures a board of take-offs things like that we try to keep everyone on top of the game next how scary it can get when extreme weather wreaks havoc on an aircraft five miles high then forced to land it's terrifying the noise level is immense you don't know how much damage is being done to the airplane [Music] on december the 16th 2014 turbulence hit this flight heading for dallas texas with passengers recording the mayhem throughout injuries were so bad that the plane turned back 12 people went straight to hospital one passenger with a broken neck a boeing 777 similar to this one sets out from seoul south korea with 240 passengers and 15 crew as they cross japan at 27 000 feet they hit violent opposing currents of air known as clear air turbulence clear air turbulence can come up and if it does it comes up without warning is invisible not only to the pilot's eyes but also to the electronics onboard the plane this is the turbulence that you might have encountered when you're flying above the clouds thinking that the skies are clear you can just hit a wall of turbulence out of the blue aboard the dallas-bound plane john mitchell a language teacher is flying home to see family i captured the most severe part of it i had never been as frightened in my life as i was at that moment amid the turmoil john mitchell says a prayer lord i love my family i love my family very much in business class it's just as bad this is nuts passengers have to hold on tight broken crockery is scattered around show me the ball that hit your head it broke hey because the turbulence is so sudden heavy food carts are still in the aisles one flight attendant was holding on to it with her hands her feet hit the ceiling of the aircraft she went down and the food cart landed on top of her another flight attendant to my left hit her head on the ceiling of the airplane and broke the exit sign in turbulence that strong there will be periods of time when the passengers are in free fall literally weightless gravity can't pin them down strongly enough so they they were lift up out of their seats the guy that was behind me bounced out of his seat hid his head on the roof of the airplane knocked himself out the injuries are so severe the plane has to land tokyo is nearby and already on touchdown medical teams are standing by an american airlines flight from south korea to dallas hits severe turbulence this was one of the worst turbulence incidents in recent times some scientists believe that there's even worse to come we do have good reason to believe that the frequency and strength of clear air turbulence is strengthening on some flight routes there's more friction between the layers of the atmosphere in the jet stream and that's causing an increase in the average strength but also an increase in simply the amount of turbulence in the skies if he's right then flying may become more uncomfortable more scary even as we're always advised better keep that seat belt fastened next how pilots contend with the world's shortest runway you have to have a plan of action just in case something goes wrong and a plane circles london both engines damaged one of them on fire there was some sort of explosion that was pretty scary there was only one engine left every day 200 000 travelers pass through london's heathrow airport it's the busiest in europe with aircraft heading for 170 different destinations on may the 24th 2013 all this was brought to a shuddering halt this is the occasion when the pilot really does say mayday i want to come back in immediately clear everything out of the way i want an immediate landing the plane with 80 people on board landed with just one engine the other on fire one passenger john chaplin summed up the experience in just a couple of words experts spent two years investigating we asked an airline pilot to study that data then simulate the accident it should be a two-hour flight to the norwegian capital oslo but immediately on takeoff the large metal engine covers the cowlings are torn from both sides of the plane at first the flight crew don't realize confirmation comes from air traffic control in these chilling words john chaplin films the left-hand engine the inside's exposed but still working normally on the right of the aircraft it's even more serious a fuel pipe has severed it's gushing fuel over london at 120 liters a minute then suddenly catches fire there was some sort of explosion you could hear a sort of sound and then the cabin was filled with an orange glow that was pretty scary and that of course meant that there was only one engine left what they have is an uncontained fire that's being fed by a pressurized fuel this is starting to become a life or death emergency 23 minutes into the flight the pilot announces a mayday he needs an immediate emergency landing that has immense implications in an airspace over london with all the airplanes backed up but if that's what he needs that's what he'll get with the right engine shut down and still on fire it's only this left engine that's keeping them airborne if this one fails there's a real possibility that they'll crash i can remember thinking i very much hope we don't pitch into a school or a hospital even if the passengers were killed that would be a double tragedy in a way john chaplin remains mesmerized by the damaged engine just outside his window one engine on fire one with no casing the outlook's not that great as they rapidly descend and heathrow comes into sight can it hold out for just a few seconds more you thinking how long have we got [Music] [Applause] so [Music] 28 minutes after takeoff they're back on the ground but not out of danger the fire crew were assessing the situation to see if it was safe for us to get out then it will happen very quickly and i was right everybody out down the slide and off you go people were sort of as they came off the slide looking back at the aircraft and wondering what what had happened another breaking news story at one of the world's busiest airports an emergency landing this morning forced london's heathrow airport to shut down both of its runways disaster had been averted but only just it turned out that engineers had been working on the plane the previous night hadn't fastened the engine covers photographs taken coincidentally just before departure show one cover part way open and also the latches in the open position but it wasn't spotted by ground crew or one of the pilots in their pre-flight checks investigators ruled that the engine cover latches need to be redesigned so that this kind of near tragedy can't happen again [Music] flights turn scary when equipment fails but at our next location they're scary simply because of where it is you need special pilots and special aircraft to land here and it has a unique claim to fame saver island is in the caribbean only a short flight from saint bart's but that short flight can sometimes be scary at less than 1 300 feet it's the shortest commercial airstrip in the world it's very short we have a specially designed aircraft so we can stop on the dime once we land sabre is mountainous so there's nowhere else for the airstrip there are sheer cliffs around most of the island hardly anywhere safe enough to land a boat so for the 2000 people who live here the air service is their only lifeline pilots make the perilous landing twice a day to be qualified to land in sabre you have to fly 100 hour as a captain then you are put through the test and go through all the emergencies in the process of takeoff and landings coming into stable you have to be well prepared you have to have a plan of action just in case something goes wrong so you always would be here for plan b it's the only piece of flat terrain on the island and there's not much of it with sheer cliffs at either end the margin for error is practically nil the pilot has to fly in as low as possible and use the wing flaps to force the aircraft onto the ground this was a good day to land in sabre the 20 mile an hour wind blowing straight down the runway acts like a break they could stop more quickly and take off more quickly too there have been crashes but remarkably no one's ever been killed here but one thing sabres never experienced is the invisible terror which pilots fear most of all some terrifying moments on friday for passengers on board a delta flight from boston to salt lake city they look like they've flown through a war zone and for everyone on board that's what it felt like but it wasn't bullets that did the damage it was hailstones and there's one part of the world that's earned a fearsome reputation let's move over to north america and the united states here there's a part of the united states nebraska colorado wyoming that meteorologists call hail alley flight dl1889 takes off from boston an airbus a320 it's carrying five crew and 125 passengers three hours into the flight they hit turbulence i remember hearing some kind of crashing against metal it was just incredibly loud and i looked up to the side at the wing and started to see flashes the turkish was just incredible at that point they're at 34 000 feet a little after 8 p.m when the danger erupts from nowhere it's essentially somebody throwing rocks at the airplane the windshield may shatter you're going to have engine anomalies the noise in the cockpit will be very loud passengers aren't aware that they're now literally flying blind but some doubt whether they're going to survive at all people were crying people praying i was texting my wife at the time saying hey you know if this is the real thing then you know i definitely love you i love the kids we descended for a solid minute and a half it felt like we were going down they're heading for the nearest airport denver they burst out of the hailstorm but the pilots still face an incredible challenge the tricky part is putting it on the ground you need to see the runway to be able to land on it i would have to basically get over the runway chop the power and then just let the aircraft settle down onto the runway [Music] it's only when passengers see the plane that they realize how badly they were hit we were just dumbfounded we saw that the entire windshield was shattered the nose cone caved in there were burn marks and holes on the engine from what i assumed to be lightning the plane was really battered it was incredible what makes hail so hazardous for pilots is that it can come out of nowhere weather radar cannot see hail very well because it's ice weather radar reflects much better off of liquid water that you see within the thunderstorm hail in an airplane is something no pilot wants and if you do experience it it's very serious it's just a matter of how badly we've been damaged and are we going to divert can we continue hail stones big enough to damage a plane only happen when a storm is so violent that the hail is being sucked upwards instead of falling to the ground they can go up and down a number of times actually and each time they're going up more moisture is freezing onto the hailstone so they're growing the danger isn't only in america's hail alley on june the 17th 2015 a boeing 747 jumbo jet is heading for seoul south korea from detroit three hours before landing over china we hid something i mean it literally felt like we hit another plane or we hit a mountain or we hit we hit something brian walker is on a business trip on a route he's flown many times before that was a wall of hail that we were slamming into i was holding the seat ahead of me for dear life with my hands turned into claws everything started flying my glasses flew off eventually i got my glasses back thank goodness but they were about seven rows away as the plane lurches towards its destination the nose cone starts to break up as soon as they land brian walker documents the damage it looked as though a shotgun had blasted the front part of the nose to the point where there was a hole in it where the wing meets the fuselage on the leading edges of the wings there's a lot of scoring and if you notice the hub that's inside the engine the cell is beat up the damage was so extensive that the 26 year old plane was retired from service i've flown enough and been through enough turbulence where this is the most unbelievable thing i've been through coin flip it could have gone the other way my remains could be somewhere in the desert in china coming up the propeller blade that came through the aircraft window what to do when a plane is headed straight at your car if you see the plane in your rear view mirror get out of the way and we meet some real scary landing fanatics kind of a surprise how big they are some landings look so scary it's hard to imagine that anyone could walk away in this case remarkably all the passengers escaped with only minor injuries but the accident provided a chilling foretaste of what would happen seven years later in canada the same type of plane a de havilland dash 8 is coming into land at edmonton airport just after touchdown [Music] and here's where fate intervened one of the plane's propellers has broken off and sliced into the cabin the prop came in and then the interior of the plane came down and smacked me out the guy i was sitting with said i just dropped and he thought i had died when i came to i could smell smoke and whatnot and people were screaming and the flight staff was yelling at me to get off the plane investigators discovered that a tire had burst the rim of the wheel dug into the tarmac and collapsed the landing gear christina carrillo suffered concussion from the debris and everyone else escaped unhurt the propeller it's estimated missed her by two inches i am really lucky that i wasn't in a different position to have gotten hit from a different part or something but um yeah it was the whole prop that is sticking through my window [Music] scary landings can be fun just provided you're not on the plane some people make a hobby of seeking out the lowest loudest landing then stand in the way europe's top spot is the greek island of skiathos oh yes but the most famous most notorious venue is the caribbean island of saint martin it's kind of a surprise how big they are it's huge and it's loud and you don't realize how much wind is blowing underneath it the runway is only two-thirds the length of heathrow but takes the same size planes that means they have to land as close to the start of the runway as possible and come in low flame spotters travel from all over the world to get this close to their favorite aircraft and it's the perfect spot to experience the power of a jet plane engine we're waiting now for one to take off we want to be behind it the jumbo jet that calls here twice a week is the one the fans love best that's the awesome power that's needed to lift more than 300 tons of aircraft into the sky saint martin and ski athos are certainly two of the world's more unusual airports but they come in all shapes and sizes in fact there are 42 000 of them dotted around the globe the united states alone has 14 000 airports but as our last scary landing demonstrates sometimes there isn't one near when you really need it this was the scene on the traffic monitor one quiet sunday on the us northeast coast nothing out of the ordinary until [Music] it was uh july 12th at 10 12 a.m on a state highway route 72 which is a major artery to long beach island tadas simonis is a skydiving instructor and passionate about the sport a couple of years ago he even taught his mother to skydive but in 2015 he was on a tuition flight when things went very wrong there were four other people on this skydiving trip the pilot another instructor and two pupils it's good it happened in the morning because later in the day all the beach traffic goes home it would have been much worse all that's been recorded of the epic flight is this clip from the cctv so tadas helped our computer experts to depict what really happened they're at 4000 feet over the ocean when suddenly the engine just stopped stopping its tracks we all knew right away wasn't good you start to think what your options are but is that obvious they've all got their skydiving parachutes i suggested that option we got ready to jump actually really quick but we're still over the water so we decided to stay in the plane now the pilot has to decide where to put the plane down he can only glide for a short time we have water and a lot of pine trees so the options were limited and that's how they came to choose highway 72 to the surprise of the motorists already on it what's the best option in a situation if you see the plane in your rear view mirror get out of the way in an emergency situation you do what you have to do so anyone that's trying to protect and preserve life is going to trump any other laws that we may have [Music] so they escaped with their lives and they didn't get a ticket either it wasn't me it was a pilot who did a great job and of course luck is a big part the universe had a different plan for us that day [Music] 10 million people fly every day and in the overwhelming majority of cases 10 million people safely land even when there is a scary landing it is possible to walk away because remember in all that you've just seen scary yes but nobody died

Channel: Wonder

Views: 1,385,705

Rating: 4.7108102 out of 5

Keywords: Wonder, wonder channel, fight to survive, craig de martino, survivor, survivial videos, survival stories, i shouldn't be alive, i shouldn't be alive full episodes, wonder i shouldn't be alive, outdoor channel, keefer brothers, dropped, trapped, inspiration, human interest, only human, real stories

Id: _QtHBUOyZ4I

Length: 44min 45sec (2685 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 17 2020