TRAPPED above the clouds and running out of TIME | Air India Flight 101

new york city september 11 2018. as an air india boeing triple 7 made its approach to john f kennedy international airport a cascade of electrical failures disabled numerous vital instruments in the cockpit in poor weather and running low on fuel the four pilots in the cockpit had to make some crucial decisions should they attempt an unfamiliar type of approach into new york or should they risk taking their electronically crippled aircraft to an airport further afield where there was better weather but where they might run critically low on fuel the fate of all 357 people on board depended on whether the flight crew could successfully manage this complex set of failures for which they had never been trained this is the story of air india fight 101 [Music] air india fight 101 departed indira gandhi international airport in new delhi at two o'clock in the morning on september 10 2018. the journey to new york would take 15 hours on board were 342 passengers and 15 crew many of the passengers were families traveling back to new york after visiting relatives in india there were also a number of students returning to university in the us as well as some business travelers the plane was at its maximum capacity and had over 140 000 kilograms of fuel on board by the time they reached new york this figure would be just 8 000 kilograms in the cockpit for the long journey were four pilots two captains and two first officers they would each take turns at the controls of the aircraft during this flight so that each crew member would be well rested for the arrival into new york the captain of this flight 49 year old rustom palia also known as rusty was highly experienced with over 23 years of flying under his belt and 3 500 hours on the triple seven it was his first time flying with the three other men in the cockpit first officer vickers captain shushan singh and first officer diaz batty this crew didn't know it yet but in a few hours they would be forced to work together to solve a series of problems that they had never trained for in one of the busiest airspaces in the world the aircraft being used for this flight was a nine-year-old boeing triple seven though introduced in 1995 the triple 7 remains one of the most modern and reliable aircraft in passenger service this particular aircraft was a stretched version of the original triple 7 known as the dash 300 er with eor standing for extended range technologically sophisticated aircraft like the triple 7 require a lot of maintenance however and when the pilots of air india fight 101 boarded the aircraft in new delhi in the early morning of september 10th they were informed there had been some technical issues with their aircraft on its previous flight these issues were not deemed critical however and apart from the lack of a functioning auxiliary power unit the aircraft was more or less in a normal state as a result of this they were able to depart without delay the first indication that there were problems with the aircraft occurred 40 minutes after takeoff when the crew had reached their initial cruising altitude a warning message appeared on one of the pilot's displays saying single source radio altimeter the radio altimeter is an instrument which tells the pilots how high they are above the ground it's more accurate than the main altimeter known as the barometric altimeter because rather than using air pressure to determine the plane's altitude above average sea level it works by bouncing radio waves off the ground below and measuring exactly how long it takes for the signals to return for redundancy the triple seven is equipped with three radio altimeters one for captain one for first officer and one backup two of these had now failed this was not a problem while the plane was in cruise however the radio altimeter is only used below 2500 feet while the plane is on approach however if the weather at new york was foggy and the pilots couldn't see the ground they would need to be extra vigilant about monitoring their altitude for the first few hours this was the only sign that there was trouble brewing in the aircraft's electronic systems however when the fight was midway over the atlantic the pilots got a warning that their tcas was not working tcas stands for traffic collision avoidance system it uses radio signals to display the location of nearby aircraft on the pilot's navigation displays if two aircraft are on a collision course tcas alerts the pilots of each aircraft and advises them on whether to climb or descend to avoid a collision the loss of tcas on board air india fight 101 was not critical however tcas is a last line of defense against mid-air collisions it is the primary responsibility of air traffic control to prevent collisions however the pilots were now getting concerned it wasn't that the tcas or the radio altimeters were vital systems by themselves they weren't but the failure of two separate systems raised the question of whether these failures might be related and if they were related what other systems might fail before they reach new york the crew received their answer to this question at just before 8 in the morning new york time as they made their final approach to jfk they noticed as they tried to line up with roommate for right that their instrument landing system or ils was not functioning the ils provides pilots with precise vertical and horizontal guidance down to the runway it is especially useful on days like this where the cloud base is very low and pilots are unable to see the runway until seconds before touchdown on this day the cloud base at new york was 200 feet meaning that the pilots were only able to see the runway mere seconds before touchdown almost every approach conducted into airports these days is an ils approach even in good weather so a malfunctioning ils is a significant failure the aircraft was traveling at over three miles a minute at this point and the pilots needed to act fast to savage the approach they used the heading select mode on the autopilot to point themselves towards the runway while they rapidly set up a different kind of approach in their flight management computer this is known as an lnav vnav approach and it uses information from the aircraft's gps to guide it towards the runway el nav stands for lateral navigation and vnav for vertical navigation an el navinhav approach is not as accurate as an ils approach and so is known as a non-precision approach however it should get the crew down to the point where they could see the runway so that they could then land visually from there the crew had never attempted this kind of approach before and now they would have to try it in poor weather in one of the most congested airspaces in the world as the pilots continued to set their aircraft up for landing the gear configuration warning sounded this alerted the pilots to the fact that the landing gear was not properly extended after checking the position of the gear lever however they determined that the gear was in fact extended and that this warning must be erroneous the alarm continued to sound however as the pilots drew ever closer to the ground with such a low cloud ceiling the crew would have to use the autopilot to land the aircraft however with so many important systems going haywire that was not an option rather than continuing with their unstable approach the pilots decided to abort their landing attempt and climb to 2000 feet to do some troubleshooting india one going around runway four right here one sir one heavy roger fly runway heading climb and maintain two thousands this normal flight had quickly turned into a very high workload situation for the pilots they were flying low over new york in poor visibility with numerous systems failures they had never experienced before they had to coordinate with air traffic control to stay clear of other aircraft all while troubleshooting their issues and deciding what their next course of action should be because an el navinov approach is less accurate than an ils approach pilots are only permitted to land if they can see the runway by a height of at least 600 feet above the ground for an ils approach which is what they would normally do this would be 200 feet this limited the pilot's option significantly the cloud ceiling at jfk was 200 feet meaning that they could not land there using a non-precision approach as they conducted their go around they communicated this predicament to air traffic control the visibility is fine but the problem we are facing is with the ceiling because we can't continue with the ils uh without feeling of uh 200 because every time we try to lock on to uh the localizer the you know the implementation that doesn't allow us to do that okay okay so you can't you cannot do like an orderland or something i know auto land is not available because both uh we've got two radios failures we've got all multiple uh uh instrument failures okay uh so let me try and find so you need something with a better so what ceiling do you need uh we need something uh where we uh you know we have uh we can do like a non-precision approach and uh you know anything about like 600 or so okay i got it okay i understand that just fly heading two two zero let me find some weather pull some weather up and let me find something okay thanks the controller went to check the weather at a number of alternate airports and the pilots continued weighing up their options for all they knew more systems might well fail over the next few minutes on top of this they were fatigued after being in the air for 15 hours and were eager to get on the ground before they started to run low on fuel a few minutes later the controller radioed the pilots with some options aaron do you want one heavy i'm having trouble finding anything that's really that good i have albany is 600 feet overcast and boston logan would be uh 500 overcast um um is uh what i'm trying to find uh washington dollars is uh is it 200 feet also uh okay and uh any idea on the trend as far as this goes indefinite like you said earlier yeah that's the the clouds it's been cloudy like with this kind of marine layer for most of the morning i believe okay we were just checking uh boston as well because we're getting uh a little low on the fuel as well so we need to try it quick with just over 7000 kilograms of fuel on board the pilots couldn't make it to albany or boston they were simply too far away they had no choice but to attempt a landing into an airport in new york but as it stood the cloud ceiling at jfk newark and stewart airport was well below the 600 feet they needed for their non-precision approach to buy themselves time the crew climbed to five thousand feet as they would burn less fuel at that altitude heavy uh heading zero nine or zero five maintained five thousand uh zero nine zero climbing maintain five thousand one zero one the pilots were now stuck in a difficult predicament they were circling new york low on fuel in poor weather with numerous systems failures one of which meant that they could not attempt a landing at any airport in new york with every passing minute they were eating into their fuel and further limiting their options what else would fail in the next few minutes air traffic control then cleared the crew to climb to 6000 ft to further reduce their fuel burn which would give them more time in the air to weigh up their options controller also gave them radar vectors to keep them in the new york area so that they could make an approach quickly if the weather improved a few minutes later the controller suggested what he believed would be the best alternate airport available to the crew i think based on on the weather that we have in the area and based on the forecast that i'm seeing i think bradley bravo hilo bravo delta lima will be your best option uh okay and um right now the ceiling that's uh there is 500 overcast and then the the forecast is calling it first to get better uh after you know between now and one five zero zero zulu it should get a little bit better um if they think 1500 feet at 1500 zulu but um i'm trying to find boston also bradley international airport in connecticut is located about 200 kilometers northeast of new york city however with their fuel situation deteriorating by the minute the crew were eager to attempt a landing at one of the airports which they were already close to okay the other thing that we could try over here because uh we've got a trend showing it's uh the ceiling that uh jsk is also improving a bit i could try a v-nav uh approach a quick uh v-nap approach over here okay you know it can take up down in a situation like this because we're really you know stuck and there's no fuel at this point the controller received fresh weather information for newark airport which was much closer to the pilots than bradley and i'm showing newer just had a special and there and they're showing 400 overcast they just had a special at uh one two zero five zero so about six minutes ago okay so it's a bit uh better now in yeah sorry because the the weather came up just 400 feet overcast that sure this was still 200 feet lower than the 600 feet the pilots wanted but with every passing minute they risk running out of fuel if they waited any longer they may not have the freedom to pick their airport they knew that with a non-precision approach in low visibility there was a high chance that they would have to perform another go-around with this as a distinct possibility they wanted to have as much fuel on board as possible in order to keep their options open finally under increasing time pressure to get the plane down the crew decided on newark airport in new jersey which is about 50 kilometers to their south [Music] the weather is getting a little bit better they haven't had to go around for uh due to the weather okay so what we will do is we'll clear to the ils for right at newark but you're gonna you're gonna fly it as a vnava person that's correct and uh if i have a better feeling at least once i go visual i can continue my approach the controller started giving the pilot's radar vectors to newark and then cleared them to descend the extent of the aircraft's dysfunction becomes clear to the controller when he asked the crew which systems they have lost their new ones other than both ios is both radar altimeters what other things have failed on the airplane uh basically here we've got a single source radio altimeter we've got decant failure no water land uh windshield system uh auto speed brake and the uh and our apu is unserviceable as well okay i didn't understand that one little last one so tcat fell no auto brakes moments later in a sobering reminder to the pilots of the gravity of their situation the controller asked them okay aaron do you want one um so just when you get a chance give me the people on board and the fuel on board please uh we have total of three seven zero and uh fuel um seven thousand two hundred uh in there seven thousand two hundred kilograms the crew continued setting up their aircraft for a landing as the controller gave them directions to line up with the runway at newark they informed the passengers who at this point were completely oblivious to the extent of the aircraft's problems that they would be diverting to newark airport due to technical issues at 25 minutes past eight they contacted newark air traffic control approach good morning 101 3000 feet heading uh apparently [Music] [Applause] uh the far right island very good express iowa as the aircraft made its way towards the airport the controller sent the airport's emergency vehicles to the runway in preparation for the worst truck one while we wait here nature of emergency is a computer failure aircraft pipe is a boeing triple seven whiskey model 270 souls on board and 72 000 kilo of fuel the pilots used their instruments to line their massive aircraft up of the runway at newark they were now locked down to the v nav path and started their descent down towards the runway shortly after this they contacted newark control tower one island one zero one heavy nurse tower come on inwards easier at five only four right here landing an aircraft requires focus and full attention at the best of times but this landing would require the crew to draw on their experience like nothing before they had been flying for 15 hours at this point and had been dealing with an unfamiliar set of failures for the past 30 minutes this untested approach into newark would be the ultimate test for the pilots and with their fuel situation getting ever worse they knew they may not get many attempts at landing as the pilots flew the aircraft in the rough direction of the runway at a speed of 135 knots or about 250 kilometers an hour they could see nothing but whiteness out their windscreen with every passing second they became increasingly desperate to see the runway if they couldn't see it by about 400 feet they would have to go around at 1 000 feet above the ground the crew got too high above their ideal approach path they used the vertical speed mode of the autopilot to increase the rate of descent from 800 feet per minute to 1200 feet per minute because the pilots had put their aircraft into a steeper descent however it started speeding up if it got too fast the crew would be unable to land and would have to waste precious fuel going around for another approach at this point the captain disconnected the autopilot and started to fly the aircraft manually he lowered the flaps further in order to slow the aircraft down at one point in the control tower a warning displayed on the controller's screen that the aircraft was getting too low to the ground [Music] [Applause] at just this moment the aircraft broke out of the clouds and the pilots could finally see the runway however they were too high and too far to the right of the runway captain palia pushed the aircraft's nose down and steered left to align the plane with the runway this would be one of only a small number of chances he would get to land this aircraft finally at half past eight in the morning the aircraft touched down safely on runway far right at newark all 357 passengers and crew were safe shortly after the pilots had parked at the gate an intense downpour came over the airport if the crew had delayed their decision to divert to newark by just 15 minutes or if they had attempted a go-around they would have been unable to see the runway through the rain by sheer good luck they made it down just in time but what had caused all of this in the first place the triple 7 is one of the safest aircraft in the sky with layers of redundancy built into every aspect of its design how could so many important systems fail while the findings of air india's investigation into this incident have not been made public i have spoken with a number of triple seven pilots about the failures which took place on board that day the common culprit in their explanations is a computer system known as aims ames stands for airplane information management system it's a computer housed underneath the cockpit in the engine and electronics bay of the triple 7 and it acts as the brain of the aircraft it uses four electrical buses to transfer information between different aircraft computers a fault with the aims itself or with an electrical bus known as the 629 bus may have resulted in the cascade of failures which took place on this day everything from radio altimeters to the tcas auto speed brakes and windshield warning system takes information from this system the failure of the aims or of the 629 bus explains the set of issues experienced by the pilots on this flight we can't know this for sure because no official report into this incident has been published however it does appear that air india were aware that this aircraft had significant technical issues before it even departed new delhi it seems fair to say that if these issues had been more fully investigated before the flight proper maintenance could prevented the entire incident as safe as the triple seven is it relies on regular maintenance from the airlines flying it to keep it this way it appears that in this case that maintenance had not been done the visibility at new york in this day had been any worse or if another critical system had failed the outcome of this flight may not have been so fortuitous in the end this is really one of those times where good crew resource management careful decision making and quick thinking on the part of the flight crew saved the day special thanks to the green dot patreon and youtube members for helping to make this video possible if you'd like to help this channel grow and get some cool perks like early access to new videos you can do so by tapping on the links here on screen i'd especially like to thank andrew shizkolov anthony whistler antolopony etops and garth farrell for their very generous contributions i hope you enjoyed this video thanks again for watching and i'll see you next week for another episode

Channel: Green Dot Aviation

Views: 1,298,585

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Id: f7mMCMBlO98

Length: 22min 10sec (1330 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 23 2022