Air crash investigation S6E3 Special report Who's flying the plane? (HD)
This special looked at accidents and incidents where problems with the interface between crew members and on-board avionics were a factor and the causes of those problems.
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00:00Every time you board a plane, you put your trust in the pilots.
00:06And every time pilots enter the cockpit, they put their trust in computers.
00:12It's a complicated relationship between man and machine.
00:17And when it doesn't work perfectly, disaster can strike in an instant.
00:22We're going to turn over!
00:29We didn't know if we were going to live or die.
00:33Autopilot!
00:38Life and death decisions have to be made in a moment.
00:41Confusion can kill passengers and crew.
00:45Flying in today's world is a very complex task.
00:48The pilot's always the last line of defense.
00:51When the worst happens, the question is, who's flying the plane?
01:18It's just after 8.30 in the morning in Sanford, Florida.
01:29These student pilots walk out to ground school.
01:33Their topic today, a Cirrus SR-20.
01:37This is one of the newer models.
01:39We can tell just from looking at it because of the lights on the wingtips.
01:43They're called recognition lights, or recon.
01:45Every year, dozens of students enroll at the Delta Connection Academy,
01:49hoping to eventually become pilots with major airlines.
01:54Their lives, and one day the lives of the passengers they fly,
01:58depend on their deep understanding of their airplane.
02:02From this side, right here, you can see the propeller governor.
02:07The majority of our students come to us with zero or very little flight time.
02:12We want to run someone through our entire program
02:15and end up placing them with one of the regional carriers.
02:19The wingtips here are called Horner wingtips.
02:23They help to reduce the induced drag.
02:26These flight students are getting started on smaller aircraft.
02:30In the years to come, they will move into large commercial jets
02:33boasting the latest in technology.
02:38When you go back to the Wright brothers,
02:40they had no automation and everything was by muscle power
02:43other than a small internal combustion engine.
02:47Everything that they did when they moved the wings,
02:49the elevators and the rudders, they did manually.
02:55But in the last hundred years, technology has revolutionized flying.
03:00Pilots share the cockpit with automated computer systems
03:03that control virtually every aspect of flight.
03:07We do everything now up to and including land the airplane.
03:10Everything is set so that the autopilots and automation systems
03:14are tools for the pilot to use, but they're not a replacement.
03:18It's a critical lesson for student pilots to learn.
03:22Safe flight is a balance between automation and training.
03:26If a pilot makes a mistake or if an instrument malfunctions,
03:30these flying computers can turn into lethal machines that can't be controlled.
03:39Lima, Peru. October 2, 1996.
03:45Aero Peru Flight 603 prepares for takeoff for Santiago, Chile.
03:52The plane is a four-year-old Boeing 757,
03:55a highly sophisticated jet known for its reliability and safety.
04:01The 757 is flown by two of the national airline's best pilots,
04:07Captain Eric Shriver
04:12and First Officer David Fernandez.
04:17There are 61 passengers and nine crew members on board.
04:24The jet is among a new generation of computer-controlled aircraft
04:28in which pilots are trained to rely on a central data system
04:31that is designed to reduce errors, both mechanical and human.
04:37Gear up.
04:39Tonight, though, within minutes of takeoff, the flight begins to go horribly wrong.
04:46The altimeters are stuck.
04:48The altimeter indicates how high the aircraft is flying over the ground.
04:53It reads zero, but the plane is clearly airborne.
04:58This is really new. Keep V2 plus 10.
05:02The 757 is equipped with three altimeters.
05:06One for the pilot, one for the co-pilot and one for backup.
05:11All three seem to be dead.
05:16As the two men try to solve the first problem, they lose another crucial instrument,
05:22the air speed indicator.
05:24The speed.
05:26Eh?
05:27The speed.
05:28What's going on? We're not climbing.
05:29No, I am climbing, but the speed.
05:31Hold it. Maintain speed.
05:36Bewildered by the host of confusing warnings, Captain Shriver decides to land.
05:45Lima Tower, Aero Peru 603.
05:47We are in an emergency.
05:49Aero Peru 603, Lima.
05:50We are declaring an emergency.
05:52We have no basic instruments, no altimeter, no air speed indicator.
05:56Declaring emergency.
05:58To add to their problems, Shriver and Fernandez are flying at night over water
06:03with no visual reference points.
06:06Not being able to trust their instruments, the pilots are flying blind.
06:11The airplane was controllable, but you first have to diagnose what's wrong,
06:17and it's very easy from 20-20 hindsight sitting here in a chair on a nice sunny day
06:22to say this is what he should have done.
06:26But in the cold, dark night with bells and whistles going off,
06:32it's very difficult to analyze conflicting information that you're getting.
06:39Not being able to trust their instruments, the pilots have to depend on information from the ground.
06:44Can you give us the air speed, please, if you have us on the radar?
06:47Yes, affirmative. As of 10 seconds.
06:50It seems that you're climbing at level 6,000 at 22 miles south on heading 195.
06:56Okay, we have that. We are on heading 190, and we have 7,000 feet on the altimeter.
07:01Yes, correct. You are now reaching 7,000.
07:06Even as they try to return to the airport, the havoc in the cockpit gets worse.
07:12Systems warn that they're over speed.
07:15Over speed!
07:17They're flying too fast.
07:19Extend the speed brakes.
07:25Now the stall warning sounds.
07:32And then...
07:33Too low terrain.
07:34What's happening?
07:35Too low terrain.
07:36We have the terrain alarm. We have the terrain alarm.
07:40The ground proximity alarm warns them that they're flying dangerously low.
07:44Flight level of 10,000 over the sea.
07:47Too low terrain.
07:49Too low terrain.
07:51There is no checklist for if you have these 7 or 8 warnings going off, which they did, and they couldn't shut them off.
08:00Altitude is 9,700.
08:049,700?
08:05Yes, correct.
08:06Do you have any visual reference?
08:089,700, but it is indicating too low terrain.
08:12Are you sure you have us on the radar at 50 miles?
08:15The crew is bombarded with conflicting warnings.
08:19They have no idea which of them to believe.
08:24Suddenly, they realize the horrible truth.
08:28We're hitting water. Pull it up!
08:31They're flying just meters above the water.
08:36We're going to turn over!
08:42Aero Peru 603, Lima.
08:58There are no survivors from Flight 603.
09:02All because something caused the onboard computers to go haywire.
09:08Searching through the Pacific waters, investigators managed to find the data recorders.
09:14It was clear to us that they were really experiencing a problem with airspeed and altitude.
09:24On the 757, devices called pitot-static tubes measure the airspeed and altitude.
09:31They are small external sensors which relay that information to the plane's computerized systems.
09:44Deep underwater, tape is discovered covering the plane's sensors.
09:52How the tape got there leads investigators back to the maintenance crew at Lima airport.
10:00Just before Aero Peru 603 lifted off from Lima, maintenance workers had cleaned the jet.
10:07A worker had covered the static ports with tape to protect them.
10:12This is standard procedure.
10:14But when the maintenance was complete, the worker forgot to remove the tape.
10:20It was a small oversight with tragic results.
10:24The inspector who was supposed to quality check his work did not do it.
10:29And the supervisor out on the line that night was not there.
10:34He was sick and there was a regular mechanic who was filling that role.
10:40He did not see it.
10:43In this case, the captain did the pre-flight.
10:46They do a walk around looking for just that kind of thing.
10:50The captain did the pre-flight that night and he did not detect it either.
10:55Yes, correct. You are now reaching 7,000.
10:57The blocked tubes also explain why the air traffic controllers told the crew they were flying at 7,000 feet.
11:06The information on the plane's height isn't calculated by radar on the ground, but by the plane's onboard systems.
11:15From 7,000 feet, the plane began to slowly descend.
11:19But the onboard systems couldn't detect it.
11:22And the air traffic controller had no way to know the altitude indicated on his system was wrong.
11:31Blindsided by bewildering readings from their instruments, the crew was completely lost.
11:37They had no idea where they were, how high they were flying, or how fast they were going.
11:45We're hitting water! Pull it up!
11:47Climb. Climb Aero Peru 603 if you need to pull up.
11:59Aero Peru was a deadly lesson about how dependent pilots have become on their automated flight systems
12:06and how helpless they can be when the systems are crippled.
12:12Student pilots need to understand the complex technology at the heart of their airplanes.
12:18When something goes wrong, they need to know who's in control.
12:23Because even an experienced pilot can rely too heavily on his systems.
12:28And when he does, disaster can be just seconds away.
12:37All right, gentlemen, what we're going to do today is practice rejected takeoffs in preparation for the V1 cuts.
12:42It'll be engine fire, engine failure, or loss of directional control.
12:46At the Delta Connection Flight School in Sanford, Florida, students are facing the worst in the safety of a simulator.
12:55No pilot can graduate unless they can deal with problems they may never have to face in the real world.
13:01The course that I teach, we typically, they work as a crew.
13:04They'll get 26 hours in the simulator, 13 hours in each seat.
13:10Simulation can now introduce problems that are hard to introduce in the air.
13:15Doing it with simulation allows it to be repeated.
13:19And then if you are ever faced with the emergency, it becomes almost a matter of routine.
13:24Engine 500, you're clear for takeoff.
13:26Clear for takeoff, runway four, engine 500.
13:33Right after takeoff, the students are faced with an emergency.
13:37And we've got a left engine oil pressure.
13:40When you get one of those warnings, don't just punch it out.
13:42Go ahead and acknowledge it so both pilots are in the loop and you're both on the same page.
13:46All right, we've got a left engine oil pressure.
13:49I'll take flight controls.
13:51I have flight controls.
13:53They run through the drill again and again because surviving in the air depends on getting it right in the simulator.
14:01In an actual cockpit, even a small inconvenience can escalate into a desperate struggle to save the airplane.
14:12February the 19th, 1985.
14:15China Airlines flight 006 is tumbling through the sky.
14:23One of the engines has failed.
14:26The instruments seem to be making no sense.
14:30People just popped up like popcorn hitting the cabin.
14:34We didn't know if we were going to live or die.
14:37The 747 falls more than 10 kilometers in two minutes.
14:44The pilots can barely keep it airborne.
14:48You know, this airplane is totally out of control.
14:51It is going to crash.
14:54The jet nosedives towards the Pacific Ocean.
14:58Then, just moments away from impact, the crew regains control of the plane.
15:04Oakland Center, Dynasty 006, we're declaring an emergency.
15:10Dynasty 006, Oakland Center, you are now cleared.
15:14You are free to descend at pilot's discretion.
15:19After surviving a tremendous fall, Captain Min-Yun Ho makes a smooth textbook landing.
15:36I thought he was a hero. He saved our lives.
15:39We thought he was a hero and everything was fine.
15:42Two dozen passengers have suffered minor injuries.
15:46One crew member is hospitalized and soon released.
15:51But the 747 looks like it's been through a war zone.
15:58Parts of the entire tailplane at the end were ripped off as though a tornado had come through
16:04or a crane had been in and ripped pieces out of it.
16:09Investigators soon realized that damage to the plane wasn't the cause of the problems
16:14but had actually occurred during the plane's wild plunge.
16:21They pore through maintenance records and flight logs to try to determine the cause of the near fatal incident.
16:29Inside the plane, investigators find a worn valve.
16:35It led directly to the failure of the jet's fourth engine.
16:39But this shouldn't have caused the plane to fall through the sky.
16:45Engine four flamed out.
16:47The loss of thrust on a four-engine airplane is a minor event.
16:52It's an event. You have to take care of it.
16:54But the airplane will fly on three engines with no difficulty.
16:59I do not think I was fatigued.
17:02The captain tells investigators that while the crew was dealing with the faulty engine,
17:07he left the autopilot in control of the plane.
17:11But on this 747, the autopilot does not control the rudder.
17:17Autopilots are set to maintain stable flight.
17:20If something goes wrong, the system tries to respond.
17:24With more engine power on the left wing, the China Airlines jet began turning right.
17:31The autopilot reacted by using the plane's ailerons to try to keep the 747 flying straight.
17:37But the ailerons weren't up to the job.
17:40The jet kept turning.
17:43In order to keep it from turning to the right, the proper thing to do would have been to step on the rudder.
17:47Now, it's possible that he'd forgotten that the autopilot didn't use the rudder.
17:51He may have been assuming all along that the autopilot was just flying the airplane the way a human being would have, which it wasn't.
17:59Focused on his malfunctioning engine, Captain Ho left the autopilot in control.
18:05But without the help of the rudder, the ailerons were losing their battle to keep the plane level.
18:11The gentle turn got steeper.
18:17The airplane started to lose speed, and in the end, it was really that little error of airmanship,
18:24the failure to step on that left rudder pedal, that triggered everything else.
18:29We're banking right, Captain. Airspeed 230.
18:34Facing mounting problems, the captain finally takes complete control of his aircraft.
18:39We're banking right, Captain.
18:41I'm disengaging autopilot.
18:50When the autopilot snaps off, his situation only gets worse.
18:54Without the ailerons to control the jet bank, the plane flips over.
18:58It plunges into thick clouds, and Captain Ho is unable to get his bearings.
19:06The crew has no visual reference point. They have no idea which way is up.
19:11They're totally dependent on their attitude indicators, but they don't think they're working properly.
19:18I've lost ADI.
19:20The ADIs have malfunctioned. It's going out of limits.
19:25But the instruments had not malfunctioned. They told the crew an unbelievable truth.
19:30They were falling towards the Pacific Ocean.
19:36They simply didn't believe what they were seeing, and they thought they had lost their attitude instruments.
19:43They hadn't lost their attitude instruments.
19:45They hadn't lost their attitude instruments.
19:47The airplane was, in fact, embarking on an aerobatic maneuver.
19:51You can see the students, all these people who didn't have their seatbelts on, they were flying.
20:04It's only when the plane finally breaks free of the clouds that Captain Ho is able to regain control of his plane.
20:11I can see the horizon!
20:14Because he now has a visual reference.
20:23By the time Captain Ho takes full control, it was almost too late.
20:29The near-fatal dive highlights the need for pilots to avoid relying too much on their computers.
20:36So, what automation has done, in a sense, is taken pilots and taken them from being hands-on controllers of the machine
20:45to monitors of what the automation is doing to the machine.
20:48You really are just sitting there with your arms folded, and this goes on for hour after hour after hour.
20:54And, understandably, people become stupefied.
20:59But whatever mistakes the flight crew made, they did succeed in their ultimate task.
21:05The one big thing they did right is they saved the airplane.
21:10And, in principle, that's all you ever need to do right.
21:14You need to save the airplane, and you need to save the passengers, and that's what they did.
21:20Student pilots practice emergencies again and again.
21:25Student pilots practice emergencies again and again to ensure that when disaster strikes, they handle it correctly.
21:34Automation is an enormous aid to long-distance flying.
21:37But if a crew doesn't fully understand how their plane works, they can quickly get into a situation from which they cannot escape.
21:46Autopilot engaged.
21:48Autopilot engaged.
21:50Ten years after the China Airlines mishap, another crew is baffled by a more complicated autopilot and fails to take control until it's too late.
22:12March 1994, Siberia.
22:15Search parties comb through the wreckage of Russian International Airlines Flight 593.
22:21All 75 people on board are dead.
22:27The plane was one of the newest in the fleet, a European-built Airbus A310.
22:36Listening to the cockpit voices, investigators are shocked by what they hear.
22:41Children's voices in the cockpit.
22:44They are stunned when they realize these children had operated the flight controls.
22:53The children were the son and daughter of the pilot in command, Captain Yaroslav Kudrinsky.
23:00Investigators begin to piece together an almost unbelievable story.
23:05On the evening of March 22, 1994, Flight 593 begins its scheduled 10-hour journey to Hong Kong.
23:15Several hours into the jet's flight, the aircraft is cruising on autopilot.
23:23On board are two children, taking their first steps into the world of aviation.
23:29A family friend and fellow pilot brings the children in to see their father.
23:38It's the beginning of a deadly chain of events.
23:41Flight 593 is now over 2,000 miles east of Moscow, near the middle of Siberia.
23:48Secure in the knowledge that the autopilot is flying the plane,
23:52Captain Kudrinsky is calling for the children to go to a safe place.
23:56He is asking,
24:00Flight 593 is now over 2,000 miles east of Moscow, near the middle of Siberia.
24:07Secure in the Knowledge that the autopilot is flying the plane,
24:11Captain Kudrinsky allows his children to sit in the pilot seat and hold the controls.
24:15the controls. Unlike the China Airlines 747, the more sophisticated autopilot on this jet
24:24can control every part of the plane, including the rudder. Eldar's small pressure on the
24:32controls actually turns off part of the autopilot. Eldar is now manually controlling the jet's
24:39ailerons. Imperceptibly at first, the plane begins to bank. No one in the cockpit responds
24:48to the gradual change in direction. And the very design of the plane hides the fact that
24:54the jet is on the brink of disaster. Another peculiarity of the plane is that it has no
25:01alarm signaling the disengaging of the autopilot in the list channel, while our Russian planes
25:11have an alarm sounding in such an event. The autopilot is still controlling the plane's
25:18other functions. Only the ailerons are in Eldar's hands. But it's enough to affect the
25:25plane's flight. Moments later, the airbus is banking at 45 degrees. The force of the
25:42turn pushes everyone into their seats. The increased g-force makes it difficult to reach
25:59the controls. Eldar is the only one with both hands on the controls. The speed of the turn
26:10is pushing him back in his seat. But Eldar can't leave. His body feels twice its normal weight.
26:29Suddenly, an alarm sounds. The autopilot is shutting down.
26:33When the jet reaches such an extreme position, the autopilot is designed to completely disengage.
26:41It's a safety feature to put the pilot back in complete control. But in this case,
26:49a teenager is in the captain's seat. The plane begins to dive towards the ground.
26:57The plane dives at an incredible speed, plunging over 200 meters per second. For
27:07the passengers, it's like having an elevator suddenly fall out from under them. Captain
27:15Kudrinsky fights his way back to the pilot seat. But it's too late to save flight 593.
27:27As in the China Airlines incident almost a decade before, the Russian crew was confused
27:39by their automation. But in this case, they couldn't regain control until it was too late.
27:46The accident began not with a mechanical problem, but with a simple decision made by a very
27:52experienced pilot. I've never heard of anything like that before or since. It was very unprofessional
27:59on the part of the captain. The first officer also bears some responsibility for not raising
28:05major objections immediately. To allow someone unqualified to sit in the seat of a commercial
28:11airliner is unthinkable. The crew's mistake was compounded because they didn't fully understand
28:19their computerized systems. Ten years later, another experienced pilot gets confused by
28:28his instruments. And this time the situation is complicated by a common sensation pilots
28:35are trained to ignore. Paul Morrow is an instructor at the Delta Connection Academy in Florida.
28:49His job is to put students in extremely uncomfortable situations and then get them to land safely.
28:56Upset recovery is where we take a student or any pilot and we try to get them the ability
29:01to recover their aircraft from an unusual attitude or an upset such as weak turbulence,
29:05wind shear, unintentional stall. We're going to do a low level pass and bring right down
29:12to the edge of the runway. And then just about halfway down, we're going to break up and
29:15demonstrate how quickly we can get the aircraft into a nose high situation. At that point,
29:22we're experiencing in that first portion of the pull up, we're experiencing the max G
29:26load in that turn. We're hitting just about six, six and a half G's for that pull. Six
29:30G's, you're experiencing six times your body weight. I weigh 200 pounds. So six times that
29:35at that point, I feel like I weigh 1,200 pounds to my body. It feels like I'm being squeezed
29:40completely all over my entire body. It feels like your face is kind of peeling down over
29:44you. And it's just a once you get used to it, it's kind of fun.
29:50In a tightly controlled situation, with an instructor in the next seat,
29:57a student pilot learns to cope with intense physical sensations that can disorient and confuse.
30:04Pilots have to overcome these sensations and even ignore them.
30:08Trusting what your body is telling you can have deadly results.
30:18January the 3rd, 2004. A Flash Airlines charter flight is preparing to depart from the popular
30:26tourist resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. 148 people are on board. Good morning, ladies and
30:36gentlemen. On behalf of Captain Kader and his entire crew, we welcome you on board Flash
30:41Airlines Boeing 737-300. The captain is 53-year-old Kader Abdullah, a former officer in the Egyptian
30:51Air Force. He has over 7,000 hours flying experience. In the darkness before dawn,
31:03Captain Kader and his crew execute a smooth takeoff. Flying manually, they haven't yet
31:09engaged the plane's autopilot. But while still climbing, the flight plan is already
31:14beginning to fall apart. Turning right, sir. What? Aircraft is turning right. Turning right?
31:22How turning right?
31:30Autopilot. Autopilot in command. Autopilot. Autopilot.
31:39Go autopilot, commander.
31:52Oh, God.
32:10In the morning light, investigators find no one has survived the horrific accident.
32:16The plane had just taken off, and it looked very strange why this accident happened so quickly
32:22after takeoff. French and American investigators join Egyptian authorities in the search.
32:30It takes two weeks just to find and recover the cockpit voice and flight data recorders.
32:39Investigators explore dozens of possibilities, including the idea the crash was caused by
32:45vertigo. Vertigo is a physiological condition, and it's based on the inner ear. Over a dark ocean,
32:53without a defined visual horizon, no ground lights, the pilot may not be able to perceive
32:59visually whether he was flying up, down, left, or right. And if the fluid in his inner ear
33:06was moving or he tilted his head, that may induce a sensation, a physiological sensation
33:12that may cause the pilot to believe the airplane is flying straight and level when it's actually
33:17turning. Roger when ready, Inshallah. Left turn to establish 306.
33:27As the plane banked over the Red Sea, it slowly began going off course.
33:32But the pilot says nothing. It seems that he's unaware of the changes to his flight path.
33:38It is actually a very high workload situation, and when there are no visual cues outside because it's
33:43a moonless night, and you're over featureless territory with no lights in it, you really,
33:51as a professional pilot, should be totally aware of the fact that you're going to be
33:56you really, as a professional pilot, should be totally aware of the fact that this is a
34:03situation in which you could get disorientated. Precisely what the captain perceived is unknown.
34:13What is known is that his control wheel slowly inched towards the right.
34:17In this particular instance, not only are you trying to fly the airplane and understand
34:21situationally what's happening, but you're going through the mental gymnastics because
34:25your expectations are one way. Meanwhile, you have the first officer who's telling him something
34:30that's totally different. Even with all the conflicting information he was getting,
34:36investigators were able to get a sense of what was going on.
34:40It is interesting that the recovery starts as the airplane turns towards the coastline.
34:45The lights on the shore would have given the pilots a clear and unmistakable view
34:50of the aircraft's attitude. This is the moment that the disorientation disappears,
34:56and this is the moment that the pilot is able to see the aircraft as it is now.
35:02The tragic fact remains that Captain Cader had all the information he needed to save the plane
35:07right in front of him. The thing that is important when you're experiencing spatial
35:13disorientation or vertigo is to put a lot of time and effort into the recovery.
35:19It's a very difficult task. It's a very difficult task.
35:24The thing that is important when you're experiencing spatial disorientation or vertigo
35:30is to put absolute implicit trust in your instruments, that they are telling you the truth,
35:36and that whatever your sensation is is a limitation of human beings. Trust the instruments.
35:44It's a lesson that's hammered home every day at the Delta Connection Academy.
35:49Brian Patricia is one of dozens of students here who wants to fly commercial passenger jets.
35:56It's a goal that's still years away.
35:59It should take me between five to six years at a regional airline before I move on to the
36:03major airlines. It's a typical journey. Senior crew members for international carriers often
36:10have thousands of hours of flying under their belt, but each one of them started with none.
36:16There's a very old saying, as soon as you feel like you're no longer learning
36:20with aviation, get out of it, because it's going to hurt you. Training is ongoing. Recurrent training
36:27is an integral part of safe flying. The reason we have the safe level of flight that we do today
36:34is in very large part because of the adequacy and completeness of the training.
36:38Relying on your instruments, trusting your automation is one of the most fundamental
36:44lessons of flight training. Insert the ignition key, clear the propeller area, and then start the engine.
36:59Every safe flight, from small planes to jumbo jets, depends on pilot and plane working together.
37:07But even if a jet's technology is crippled,
37:10modern planes are so well built, pilots can still bring them safely down.
37:19August the 24th, 2001. Air Transat Flight 236 is carrying 306 passengers and crew.
37:28Bound for Portugal, the Airbus is in serious trouble high above the Atlantic Ocean.
37:33You can literally hear a pin drop. The exterior was no sound in that plane, in that cabin at all.
37:40The airplane is so silent because it's run out of fuel.
37:45A state-of-the-art jet is now a very heavy glider.
37:48Functions we've lost. We have no more stabilizer. Blue and yellow hydraulic. ADR 2 and 3. No anti-skid.
37:56The technology that normally keeps planes flying has deserted the crew.
38:04The jet is 10 kilometers in the sky without the most essential instruments.
38:10Captain Robert Pichet and co-pilot Dirk de Jager have to find a way to get it safely back to Earth.
38:19For the first four hours of their journey from Canada to Portugal, the flight is unremarkable.
38:24We're getting to our next checkpoint.
38:27Every 30 minutes across the Atlantic, the crew had checked their position and their
38:32fuel consumption against their flight plan. 2 tons on the right. 11.2 tons on the left.
38:38Despite the computerized systems, some procedures like checking the fuel on board are done by hand.
38:44Fuel check complete. Levels normal for the distance flight.
38:54But then a small alarm breaks the air of routine in the cockpit.
39:01Look, we're getting a warning signal. Oil temp low and oil pressure high on number two.
39:09The computer display shows that the oil temperature is low in engine number two.
39:14But it also shows that the oil pressure is high.
39:17A low oil temperature indication is normally indicative of bad readings, some bad sensor.
39:25Oil temperatures don't decrease normally, they increase. A low oil temperature would be of no
39:31concern. The high oil pressure is a very strange indication. It's very rare. In fact, I've never
39:40actually heard of one. The oil readings are so unusual, the pilots believe they might have
39:45The pilots believe they might indicate a computer error.
39:49But captain and first officer keep monitoring the oil levels.
39:5630 minutes after the first alarm goes off, another warning sounds inside the Airbus.
40:02Fuel imbalance warning. Haven't seen that before.
40:06Follow all we can action. I have air traffic control.
40:10In the Airbus 330, most of the fuel is contained in large tanks on the wings.
40:16The computer had detected that the fuel level on the right
40:19is significantly lower than the level on the left.
40:24The flight manual recommends transferring fuel through a special crossfeed valve.
40:29Fuel will then flow from one tank to the other.
40:32Fuel will then flow from one tank to the other.
40:37Once you begin a crossfeeding procedure to correct a fuel imbalance,
40:42restorative action should commence quite quickly.
40:46In other words, the situation would not continue to get worse.
40:51Even though the crew is following proper procedures, the situation does get worse.
40:56Fuel quantity isn't rising in the tanks to the right wing.
40:59Check fuel quantity.
41:01It's very low. Hold on.
41:02That's much less fuel than we should have. It looks like a fuel leak.
41:08Check again.
41:10The systems monitor hundreds and hundreds of sensors.
41:14And, you know, they can be affected by, you know,
41:19such mundane things as a little bit of frost or ice on a sensor can cause it to present bad data.
41:29But in fact, the reading is accurate.
41:32There's a serious leak in one of the engines.
41:35And Pichet has been transferring precious fuel into the leaking tank.
41:40The fact is confirmed when co-pilot de Jagger completes another fuel check.
41:45According to all the gauges, all the tanks in the right wing
41:48are way below the level they should be.
41:49According to the flight plan, there's hardly anything in the other ones.
41:54What about the trim tank?
41:55There's nothing there either.
41:59With every passing second, the leak drains the tanks of their remaining fuel.
42:07Until finally, the jet is running on empty.
42:14We're losing engine number two. I don't believe this.
42:18OK, maximum thrust on number one.
42:25Try to transfer fuel from center tank into trim tank.
42:28Transferring.
42:29Fuel quantity is reaching zero.
42:32This can't be.
42:34I'm not going to go completely blind on this **** airplane.
42:39But in fact, the Air Transat has run out of fuel some 12,000 meters over the Atlantic Ocean.
42:46No fuel means no power to control the plane.
42:50But the jet has one last trick up its sleeve.
42:53One last source of power.
42:55The crew deploys a rarely used backup system.
42:58It's called a ram air turbine.
43:01It will deploy from underneath the fuselage near the wing fairing.
43:05And it's a small propeller that deploys out the bottom of the fuselage and it spins in the wind.
43:12And that small propeller will provide very limited electrical
43:17and hydraulic systems to run the aircraft.
43:20In other words, although it's a glider,
43:23at least it's a controllable glider.
43:25When it took off, this Air Transat jet was a state-of-the-art marvel.
43:30Now it's falling from the sky.
43:33And the crew has to hope this last piece of technology will help them get down in one piece.
43:43A passenger plane has run out of fuel.
43:46The Air Transat jet is now an enormous glider with more than 300 people on board.
43:53The crew have diverted their flight from its destination in Portugal.
43:57The plane is now heading for a military airbase on the tiny island of Terceira in the Azores.
44:03I saw flight attendants with life jackets in their hand running down the aisles.
44:07And obviously that was a sign of fear.
44:12What was happening was the first question that popped in my mind.
44:15If Captain Robert Pichet can't make it to the airport, his only other option is the ocean.
44:21But Pichet doesn't want to risk it.
44:24Planes aren't designed to survive landing on water.
44:30In 1996, a Boeing 767 ran out of fuel off the coast of East Africa.
44:36Its last moments were caught on amateur video.
44:39Of the 175 people on board the Ethiopian Airways jet, only 50 survived.
44:48Without vital controls, Captain Pichet and co-pilot Dirk de Jagger have to rely on each other like never before.
44:58The thought that a commercial airline would be able to do this,
45:02with all the safeguards and all the redundancies, is hard to fathom.
45:06This crew faced it together.
45:08Slides out and locked.
45:12The very design of the plane prevents it from dropping like a stone.
45:18Even without engines, the plane's forward momentum gives it some lift.
45:23It's falling faster and faster than ever before.
45:27Even without engines, the plane's forward momentum gives it some lift.
45:31It's falling fast, but it's still flying.
45:35Can you give me a landing speed, please?
45:37No engine, no flaps. Ideal approach speed is 170 knots.
45:41We're too fast.
45:43Yes.
45:45And the runway is very long.
45:49But at the end of the runway is a very steep cliff.
45:51Using the power available from the ram air turbine, Captain Pichet forces the plane to turn steeply, trying to burn off some speed.
46:09The plane was almost on a 45-degree angle. I thought it was just going to flip over and just nosedive straight down.
46:17Everybody, I need you to brace.
46:24Hang on.
46:30The tires have blown.
46:44Oh my God!
46:47Oh my God!
46:56After bursting eight tires, the plane finally stops in the middle of the runway. Everyone on board survives.
47:05He got that plane down safely, only blew out eight of the 12 tires, and saved 300 people. He saved 300 people's lives.
47:15Pichet and De Jager have flown their Airbus without power further than any passenger jet in history.
47:22News of their remarkable achievement spreads around the world.
47:26You don't have time really to think about anything else than taking care of the safety of your passenger, you know.
47:32That's your main goal, and since we didn't have any engine, the other main goal was to make the landing safely.
47:38So at that time, I guess the experience came in.
47:41Investigators discover that the leak on board the jet had been set in motion when the right engine had been replaced five days before the crash.
47:52We have to realize that there was a small mistake made in terms of changing the pump.
47:58We installed it, but then some pipes, so to speak, were needed to be connected to the pump, but there was a mismatch.
48:08The small mistake had crippled this highly engineered machine.
48:13But its very design left the pilots enough control to steer the plane away from disaster.
48:19At the Delta Connection Academy in Sanford, Florida, another student has earned his wings.
48:25After 14 months of training, he's one step closer to becoming a commercial pilot.
48:30We don't take everybody here at the Academy for granted.
48:34We take them for granted.
48:36We take them for granted.
48:38We take them for granted.
48:40We take them for granted.
48:42We take them for granted.
48:44We take them for granted.
48:47We don't take everybody here at the Academy.
48:49We want people that are motivated, that want to come, that have a passion for flying.
48:55It's a career that you've got to want deep inside to accomplish, otherwise you'll never make it through.
49:03Accidents have reinforced the need for pilots to understand the complicated relationship between crew and computers.
49:10The lives of countless people depend on it.
49:13Pilots take the responsibility for their passengers very, very, very seriously.
49:18We're responsible from the time that that passenger enters the airplane until they leave at the destination.
49:23The pilot's always the last line of defense.
49:27Automated systems make flying more predictable and dependable.
49:33But it's the marriage of computers and crew that ultimately makes flying one of the safest ways to travel.
49:43NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology