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TVTranscript
00:00Arrow Air Flight 1285 is nearing the end of a 10,000-kilometre journey,
00:30from Egypt to the United States. The DC-8 is on its way to Fort Campbell, Kentucky,
00:36via Germany and Newfoundland. On board are eight crew members and 248 passengers.
00:46Most of them are US soldiers with the famed 101st Airborne Division, the Screaming Eagles.
00:52That division fought through World War II, through D-Day and the Battle of Normandy,
01:00dropped in behind the German lines, has really marked its place in history.
01:05I think everybody who serves in that division has a special loyalty and a special
01:14feeling about the division and being part of it.
01:16They had been in the Sinai for five and a half months,
01:21so I'm sure they were anxious to get back to friends and family and to enjoy the holidays.
01:28To bring the soldiers home, the military has hired the charter carrier Arrow Air.
01:35It was not unusual to do that back in the 70s and 80s, where the government would contract
01:43with the civilian airlines to transport troops in and out of the country.
01:49At 5.30 in the morning, the Douglas DC-8 lands at Gander International Airport,
01:55on the eastern edge of Newfoundland, Canada.
01:59They had to refuel in Gander before they could complete the flight into Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
02:08Okay, guys, I'd like to be refueled, checked and wheels up in 90 minutes.
02:12Roger that.
02:15Captain John Griffin has been an Arrow Air pilot for four years.
02:19He's also a flight instructor for the airline.
02:26First officer John Connolly will be at the controls when flight 1285 leaves Gander.
02:32Mike Fowler, the flight engineer, monitors the aircraft's mechanical systems.
02:42Okay, you want to give her the once over?
02:49While the pilots run through a series of pre-flight checklists,
02:53the flight engineer steps out to inspect the plane's exterior.
02:57He'll look for any damage to the fuselage or engines and check for buildups of ice on the plane.
03:04The soldiers wait inside the airport. Some shop for souvenirs at the gift shop.
03:12Anything?
03:17Okay, roger that.
03:25All right, 15,538 gallons, 101,000 pounds.
03:32Passengers and cargo unchanged.
03:36Weights confirmed?
03:38Okay, we're good to go.
03:42That puts us here.
03:49Rotation is 144 knots.
03:52Yeah, that looks good.
03:55On the air speed indicator is a marker or bug.
03:59It reminds the crew of the exact speed they must hit in order to get the plane off the ground.
04:06Bugs set on the right.
04:10Copy that.
04:12With the refueling and pre-flight checks complete, the 248 soldiers get back on board.
04:20I think it was probably a very joyous mood because when they landed in Gander,
04:26I know some of them went in and used the telephones to call Fort Campbell and
04:30call their families and say they were in Gander and they'd be home in a few hours.
04:34Gander Tower, Big A 950, we've completed refueling and pre-flight checks.
04:40Requesting taxi to runway 3-1.
04:44Big A 950, winds at 2-9-0 at 4 knots.
04:48Takeoff now, runway 2-2.
04:50A last minute change puts Arrow Air on a different runway than originally planned.
04:569-9-100 feet, takeoff to the south, we're good.
04:58Copy that, Gander.
04:59Runway 2-2.
05:09Big A 950, you are cleared for takeoff.
05:12Merry Christmas.
05:15Roger that, Gander Tower.
05:16And a Merry Christmas to you too.
05:28The DC-8 accelerates to takeoff speed.
05:3880 knots.
05:40Check.
05:54V1.
05:55Rotate.
06:03Arrow Air 1285 lifts off from Gander Airport at 6.46am.
06:10But just seconds later...
06:16She's flying like a pig.
06:18Positive rate.
06:26Negative.
06:34I'm sure for the last few seconds those soldiers knew that there was a serious problem in hand.
06:44What's your altitude?
06:45Hold on.
06:46Come on, airspeed!
06:49Airspeed!
06:53Watch the trees!
07:16Yes, Arrow 1285 is down, just off runway 2-2.
07:27Estimate 2-4 thousand feet.
07:32At the small airport in Gander, Newfoundland, emergency crews race to the crash site.
07:38It's a field of wreckage, bodies and personal effects.
07:42Thousands of litres of jet fuel are feeding a massive blaze.
07:47It didn't look like aircraft.
07:49It was just probably a 30-foot high burning mass of metal and fuel and everything.
07:58Hey, any survivors?
08:00Canadian Air Force Captain Tom Badcock is one of the first on the scene.
08:06As an Air Force officer, of course, I had been to numerous crashes,
08:10but this was nothing like I had ever seen in my life before.
08:16And to see the devastation and to see my basically comrades lying on the ground in pieces was...
08:27words couldn't, can't describe it.
08:30Many of them had bought t-shirts saying, I survived Gander, Newfoundland.
08:37We found that particularly emotional.
08:40After hours of frantic searching through the charred wreckage,
08:45everyone's worst fears are realized.
08:49The crash has claimed the lives of all 256 people on board.
08:55The search for the cause of the disaster is already underway,
08:59but it will lead to controversy and ultimately to the demise of the Canadian Aviation Safety Board.
09:06For the U.S. military, the crash of Flight 1285 in Gander, Newfoundland, is a historic loss.
09:13If you take a look at the history of the 101st Airborne Division Air Assault,
09:19even in World War II, that division never lost so many people in such a short period of time
09:26as they did on December the 12th in 1985 in Gander.
09:30The Canadian military sets up a security perimeter around the crash site.
09:38We controlled all access to and from the site.
09:48The RCMP asked me if I would identify an object which they thought to be strange.
09:55And he said, does this have any kind of a chemical or a nuclear connotation?
10:00And I said, no, I have no idea what it is.
10:04The find raises suspicion about what was on the flight.
10:11Certainly, it's possible that Aero Air could have been carrying things either,
10:14that it shouldn't have been carrying anything,
10:16or that it could have been carrying something else.
10:18Certainly, it's possible that Aero Air could have been carrying things either,
10:21that it shouldn't have been carrying anything,
10:23or that it weren't on any kind of cargo manifest.
10:29David McNair is an investigator with the Canadian Aviation Safety Board.
10:35There were aircraft parts everywhere, and you immediately became aware
10:39that it was going to be hard to find things that you needed to find.
10:43McNair is joined by colleague Peter Bogue.
10:45They arrive hours after the crash to a scene of complete devastation.
10:51The sights and smells, it's always unpleasant.
10:54But you just have to, you have to do this, it's part of your job.
10:57The terrible scale of the crash quickly makes headlines around the world.
11:01It will have a tremendous impact on this division.
11:04This is not only a sad day for the 101st Airborne, but a sad day for the nation.
11:09This is not only a sad day for the 101st Airborne, but a sad day for the nation.
11:15Most of the young men and women we mourn were returning to
11:18spend the holidays with their families.
11:22You do not grieve alone.
11:25We grieve as a nation, together.
11:28As together we say goodbye to those who died in the service of their country.
11:32There is just no way that I can express to you how tragic that was
11:39with the loss of so many people in that one plane crash.
11:45The Americans were really suffering in terms of military losses just
11:49two years prior to the crash of the Arrow Air flight.
11:53The United States had lost a large number of soldiers in a suicide truck bombing in Beirut.
11:59So the losses, in a sense, were mounting and although the numbers
12:02these days might not strike us as extraordinary,
12:04they certainly were extraordinary at the time.
12:09It wasn't just some assortment of soldiers, a large number of them
12:12from one of the leading American military units in the American army.
12:16You know, all of this raised, if you like, the symbolic stakes,
12:19but apart from the casualty toll of the loss of life that occurred.
12:23Investigators immediately interview the Gander ground crew
12:27and get some intriguing information.
12:29Good morning.
12:31Did you see the flight engineer inspect the aircraft?
12:35But they did not de-ice the wings before taking off.
12:41Yeah, we picked up a little bit of ice coming in.
12:47We're good to go.
12:48OK, thank you.
12:50Well, we were concerned about icing because the refueler witness
12:53indicated that they had picked up some ice on the approach.
12:57They turned to meteorological reports for the early hours of December the 12th.
13:02In early morning, it was very, very icy and it had been severe freezing rain.
13:10It was very, very cold.
13:12Very, very icy and it had been severe freezing rain.
13:18They flew in during the time that the forecast was for icing.
13:22McNair and Bogue wonder if the crew of flight 1285
13:25may have made a serious error by not de-icing.
13:28They check to see what other planes flying out of Gander did that morning.
13:32There were two other takeoffs this morning.
13:34One de-iced, one didn't.
13:37And we noted there was one Boeing 737 that departed that picked up quite a bit of ice,
13:42on its departure.
13:43That was an indicator to us that the probability of icing accretion
13:46or ice gathering on the aircraft was quite high.
13:49But the other aircraft, a British Aerospace VC-10,
13:52had been on the ground for 50 minutes and did not de-ice.
13:57It got off the ground safely.
14:00And they took off within two hours of each other.
14:03Ice cannot have been the only factor in this crash.
14:07Big A 950 wins 2-9-0 at 4 knots.
14:10Takeoff now, runway 22.
14:12In search of other factors, they consider the last-minute runway change.
14:18Copy that, Gander. Runway 22.
14:22Not the runway they were expecting.
14:26But they quickly conclude that the alternate runway
14:28could not have had any bearing on this crash.
14:31Runway 22 is the longest runway at Gander.
14:34So, in fact, it gave them the best margin for performance.
14:37Investigators examine and document the crash site,
14:41trying to determine the trajectory of the plane as it went down.
14:44This was a very heavily wooded area.
14:47And as it got closer to the ground, it started clipping the trees.
15:00And we're going to need pictures of this.
15:02And we're going to need pictures of the treetops as well.
15:05And we're going to need aerial shots.
15:15But what they need most of all is the information from the plane's two black boxes.
15:20They could hold the key to understanding what doomed Flight 1285.
15:26But as soon as they're recovered, McNair sees a potential problem.
15:30We were disappointed to see what such an old recorder, an old foil recorder,
15:34as they really just don't give enough information to the investigators.
15:37Well, send them off to Ottawa and we'll see what we've got.
15:42The older design of FDR engraves data on a slow-moving roll of stainless steel foil.
15:48Though the foil is fire resistant, it can record only four flight parameters,
15:53such as airspeed and altitude.
15:55The newer digital flight recorders can record hundreds of parameters.
15:59All they can do is send the black boxes to the National Research Council's
16:03Flight Recorder Playback Centre and hope for the best.
16:09Then, with the investigation only hours old, it takes a drastic turn.
16:15An overseas US consulate receives word from someone claiming responsibility for the crash.
16:23The caller says it was the work of Islamic Jihad, a branch of Hezbollah.
16:29If you had to think about any one terrorist group operating in the Middle East at this time
16:34which had an intent as well as a capacity to target American military personnel, that was Hezbollah.
16:47The call opens the possibility that a terrorist bomb brought down Flight 1285.
16:52Tensions were really high in the world at that time
16:56when an aircraft fully loaded with American soldiers crashes.
17:04There's always questions that come up.
17:11McNair sends portions of the wreckage to a Royal Canadian Mounted Police forensics lab
17:15to be tested for bomb residue.
17:18The team searches for evidence that Flight 1285 exploded before it hit the ground.
17:24They look for any fallen debris between the runway and the point of impact.
17:29If the aircraft had exploded before it hit the trees,
17:31one would expect something that would come off the aircraft and we would have found it.
17:35We didn't find anything, nothing at all.
17:38So we knew with confidence that the aircraft hit the trees, the first impact, intact.
17:47It's a similar story when the test results from the RCMP come back.
17:54They find no trace of bomb residue.
18:00And both US and Canadian officials suggest Islamic Jihad's claim of responsibility could be false.
18:06One of the things that obviously benefits terrorist organizations
18:10is to spread the claim for operational responsibility very broadly,
18:15to kind of boost the reputation of their organization, again to instill greater fear.
18:20So it's difficult to separate fact from fiction.
18:25With terrorism looking less likely,
18:27investigators continue to focus on the performance of the aircraft.
18:3235 feet, 6 inches, 4.5 degree declination.
18:38The airplane has struck some trees about half a mile from the end of the runway
18:42and we can see a distinct pattern in the trees.
18:46Using photographs from the crash site,
18:48investigators plot the height of 378 trees
18:52to determine the DC-8's exact position as it went down.
18:57The airplane was right-wing low with a nose-high attitude relative to the trees.
19:02Through photogrammetry, we determined that in fact the aircraft
19:05was way above the stall angle of the aircraft.
19:08So the aircraft was clearly stalled in a high rate of descent.
19:12The plane's radical nose-up position prevented it from being able to land.
19:17Prevented it from getting the lift needed to keep it in the air.
19:23Investigators can't explain why the plane was flying at such an extreme angle.
19:28One clue about what the pilots were doing
19:30comes from a piece of cockpit wreckage, the airspeed indicator.
19:34Look here. There's the bug at one point.
19:37It shows that the crew set a take-off speed of 144 knots.
19:41I would say 165.
19:42And that the plane reached an airspeed of at least 165 knots.
19:51Bugs set on the right.
19:55Copy that.
19:58Investigators hope that a much more detailed picture
20:01of the pilots' last moments will emerge from the cockpit voice recorder.
20:06But they're in for a disappointment.
20:13It doesn't sound like it recorded anything from the cockpit.
20:17The cockpit recorder wasn't functioning properly.
20:20It didn't record any of the crew's conversations.
20:24With the absence of cockpit voice recorder,
20:25we don't know exactly what the crew was doing or what they were facing.
20:29Their hopes now rest with a flight data recorder.
20:33Even this rudimentary recorder would have got some indication
20:36to show what speeds they rotated at.
20:38What warning lights, if any, were they seeing?
20:40What was their reaction?
20:42All these things are extremely valuable.
20:46But it turns out to be only marginally more useful than the cockpit voice recorder.
20:51The recorder for the Arrow Air accident was extremely limited.
20:54We were able to determine, first of all, speed,
20:56a little bit of altitude and heading of the aircraft.
21:00There was no indication on there of engine power, bank angle, pitch angle.
21:06The flight data recorder tells investigators that Arrow Air 1285
21:10began its takeoff roll and increased to a speed of 167 knots.
21:16Liftoff occurred 51 seconds from the start of the roll.
21:20Two seconds later, the speed began to decrease.
21:24Come on, airspeed!
21:27Airspeed!
21:36Speed dropped off very quickly.
21:38And so we knew that the aircraft was below normal flying speed.
21:41We got that much from the recorder.
21:44It tells us almost nothing.
21:47But a closer look at the flight data does reveal a potentially valuable clue.
21:53The distance needed to get to takeoff speed was longer than the pilots had planned for.
21:59We looked at the acceleration distances and it took a little bit longer than we'd expected.
22:054,300 feet, 100 knots.
22:146,300 feet, 144 knots.
22:20They should be lifting off now.
22:23Investigators discover that liftoff occurred some four seconds later,
22:27or more than a thousand feet further than it should have.
22:318,000 feet, 167 knots.
22:37Extra thousand feet to get off the ground.
22:43Why'd it take them so long?
22:50Rotate.
22:54They used the full power and we would expect them to rotate a little earlier,
22:58take off a little earlier.
23:01The longer-than-normal takeoff supports the original theory
23:04that ice on the wings played a role in the crash.
23:08But investigators know that can't be the whole story.
23:12Icing itself is not necessarily the only thing that happened.
23:17Accidents don't just usually have one item.
23:20They have several items.
23:24Determined to find out what else besides ice on the wings contributed to the crash,
23:28the CASB turns its attention to the plane's flaps.
23:32For the DC-8, the optimal flap setting for takeoff is 18 degrees.
23:43Looks like the flaps were extended.
23:45With detailed work, we could say with some reasonable certainty
23:49of where the flaps were, which we believe were in the normal takeoff position.
23:53They wonder if ice, combined with malfunctioning engines, caused the plane to stall.
24:00The engines are sent to the CASB in Ottawa for a full inspection.
24:06Each engine was recovered on site and immediately you can tell
24:09that there was rotational damage on all the engines.
24:14Wood debris is found deep inside all four of the turbines.
24:18A lot of tree debris means the engine was running when it hit the trees.
24:32Evidence shows the DC-8 was properly configured for takeoff
24:36and that there was nothing wrong with the engines.
24:39So why was flight 1285 slow to get off the ground?
24:43It's 101,000 pounds for fuel, passengers and cargo unchanged.
24:48They had predicted that each passenger and baggage would weigh 170 pounds.
24:55That average weight, 170 pounds, matches the estimated weight
24:59for male passengers set out in the AeroAir guidelines.
25:04The flight was scheduled to take off at around 6.30pm.
25:07As a pilot, having flown many military people around,
25:10this didn't seem to ring true, so we immediately looked at that aspect of the investigation.
25:15Good morning. I have a rec form for some personnel files.
25:20Following his hunch, McNair soon makes a crucial discovery.
25:24Regular commercial flights has a mixture of folks.
25:27It has men, women, children, so then the average does well.
25:31But this was no ordinary commercial flight.
25:34All 256 passengers were adults, almost all of them large men.
25:41We actually looked at the medical records of the passengers
25:45in terms of getting their actual weight during their last medical.
25:49In my own case, I normally weigh 175,
25:52so I'm not sure how much I actually weigh.
25:54I'm not sure how much I actually weigh.
25:56I'm not sure how much I actually weigh.
25:58I normally weigh 175, but when I've got all my gear on,
26:04or I'm bringing it on board an aircraft, I'm bringing on board 200 pounds or more.
26:11We estimated that the more realistic weight would have been 220 pounds per passenger.
26:16That includes the passenger, everything they were carrying, and the equipment they had.
26:23With the new estimates, he calculates the weight of the passengers at more than 54,000 pounds.
26:29That's 12,000 pounds heavier than the weight recorded on the load sheet.
26:37It's not even close.
26:39But this plane had been flying with that weight all night,
26:42taking off from Cairo, then from Cologne without any problems.
26:46The ice picked up in Gander may have made the difference.
26:50You can take off at a heavier than normal weight,
26:52and if there are no other factors at play, you can get away with it.
26:56If you have something else like ice, you have a serious problem.
27:00Investigators now strongly suspect that it was a combination of ice and extra weight
27:05that prevented the DC-8 from staying in the air.
27:09Okay, this has to be it.
27:12Ice and weight.
27:15We had a lot of scientific basis to say that the aircraft should have flown but did not.
27:21Why didn't it fly?
27:22We had two powerful reasons.
27:23One was weight, the other was even probably more powerful,
27:26it was a small amount of ice contamination on the aircraft.
27:29But they can only theorise.
27:31No one in Gander saw ice on the wings.
27:37It's impossible to know how much there was.
27:42That's one problem.
27:43McNair and Bogue must now confront another.
27:47Some of their own colleagues on the CASB are raising doubts about the findings.
27:53One of those with questions is board member and aviation expert Les Falotis.
28:00Well, as soon as I started looking at the draft report,
28:03I skimmed some of it and went to the part that was my technical specialty,
28:07the flight data recorder part,
28:09and as soon as I looked at it, I said there's something really wrong here.
28:13Falotis immediately wonders how the aircraft could lose thrust
28:17and crash so quickly after take-off.
28:20I did rough calculations and it just showed that to get that kind of deceleration,
28:24you'd have to lose not one, two or three engines, but all four,
28:27and that was just a startling thing to see right away.
28:32What's your altitude? Hold on.
28:34Come on, airspeed.
28:37Airspeed!
28:43They said the aircraft would, I believe,
28:46the exact phrase was destroyed by a fuel-fed fire.
28:53The early reports, everybody who was around there
28:55mentioned the massive explosion and the mushroom cloud.
29:00See this thing come and come across the front of the truck
29:03and there's like a flame on the bottom, eh?
29:05Two truckers on the highway were almost under the flight path
29:09when the aircraft passed over
29:11and they both said they saw fire on the right-hand side.
29:16US Army officials deny there was any unreported or classified cargo
29:20on board Arrow Air 1285.
29:23But Falotis has reason to doubt that claim.
29:28When the troops' equipment was loaded on board,
29:31there were some of these big boxes.
29:33What could have been on there?
29:34We couldn't get any answer.
29:35There was no cargo manifest
29:37and it was another contentious question that was never settled.
29:42Not much attention, clearly, was paid to security procedures
29:45and, you know, this was a different time, admittedly,
29:48but still, I think the lack of security at Cairo, at the airport,
29:52as the soldiers came on board the Arrow Air flight for the return journey,
29:57I think anybody would have to regard it as shocking, even for their time,
30:01and it's the kind of thing that would never be allowed to happen today.
30:05Falotis joins those speculating that Arrow Air flight 1285
30:10was the victim of a terrorist plot.
30:13Was it Hezbollah?
30:15Did it have any kind of European connections?
30:18And the big question that's always in the back of American
30:21governmental and security authorities' minds is,
30:24is there a Cold War dimension to this?
30:26Are the Soviets involved?
30:28The testimony you're about to give will be the truth,
30:31the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,
30:34so help you God, I do.
30:36Some now wonder if Arrow Air 1285 was at the centre
30:40of the biggest global scandal of the time,
30:43the US plot to illicitly provide Iran with arms in exchange for American hostages.
30:48Arrow Air was, indeed, one of the airlines that assisted a covert operation
30:53that was being mounted at the time out of the Reagan White House
30:56by a famous individual by the name of Colonel Ollie North.
31:00And the Iran-Contra business was very tangled in a very peculiar covert operation.
31:05It was not a thin, tiny layer of ice on the wings.
31:10Filotis points to photographic evidence to prove his case.
31:16My colleague made a trip out to Gander and went to the RCMP
31:21photo lab there where they had literally thousands that they took on the crash site.
31:29Many photos that seem to indicate that the aircraft was
31:32that seemed to indicate that there was some kind of an explosion on board.
31:38It's just like if you took a piece of aluminium foil and poked your finger in it,
31:42it would curl out from the inside to the outside
31:45and it would be obvious from which side you put your finger through.
31:49Filotis becomes even more suspicious when he learns that an independent investigator,
31:54hired by Arrow Air, had explored the possibility of an on-board explosion.
31:59He carefully looked at everything and found that on the number three engine,
32:04that's the inboard engine on the right-hand side, some of the inlet guide vanes,
32:08three of them consecutive ones, had sort of a dent in the leading edge
32:12and one of them had some red paint on it.
32:15That investigator concluded that there could have been a mid-air explosion
32:24and that the damage and the paint markings inside the engine
32:27could have been caused by debris exploding outward from the main fuselage.
32:33Another key piece of information for Filotis
32:35comes from the post-mortem examination of some of the 256 victims.
32:41Autopsies indicate that there were extremely high levels of carbon monoxide in their blood.
32:48So if they have combustion products in their lungs,
32:50the natural inference is that they must have breathed it in some other way.
32:58From all this evidence,
33:01Filotis and his colleagues paint their own picture of the crash.
33:05What the hell was that?
33:09Smell! Smoke in the cockpit!
33:19But the lead investigators, McNair and Bogue,
33:22maintain that the sabotage theories are nothing more than a sensationalist distraction.
33:28We had no indication that the crash was a sabotage.
33:31We had no indication that terrorism was a player,
33:35but we did have a lot of indication that there was an aircraft performance problem
33:39and there were icing problems.
33:43McNair and Bogue decide the only way to end all the speculation
33:47is to scientifically prove their theory that ice combined with extra weight
33:51is what brought down Flight 1285.
33:53OK, you want to give her the once-over?
33:57Before the mid-1980s,
34:00little was known about the aerodynamic impact of very thin ice accumulation.
34:06The flight engineer who inspected the aircraft
34:08was likely only looking for large build-ups of ice
34:10that would make the plane significantly heavier,
34:12not thin coatings on top of the wings.
34:18As part of the investigation,
34:20we did a lot of research on the effects of ice on aircraft.
34:22Aerodynamic tests carried out in a wind tunnel
34:24reveal that even a small amount of ice contamination
34:26can significantly reduce wing lift.
34:30Just a small amount to say the size of some sandpaper,
34:32if that's the type of surface you have,
34:34it can seriously degrade a large aircraft.
34:36That was a surprise to me.
34:42The team carries out further tests in a flight simulator.
34:48We basically had to reprogram the simulator
34:50to degrade the performance to simulate ice.
34:53V1.
34:55Rotor.
34:59Every attempt to fly the simulator
35:01with the exact same parameters as Flight 1285
35:03ends the same way,
35:05with a stall and a crash.
35:09OK.
35:11Let's run it again
35:13with 10,000 less pounds.
35:17From the start,
35:19we were able to see
35:21from the simulator trials,
35:23we realised with icing on board
35:25what degraded the lift characteristics
35:27of the aircraft,
35:29it was difficult to fly a normal profile
35:31and you could easily lose control of the aircraft.
35:37Just flying like a pig.
35:39Positive rate.
35:41Negative.
35:45Full power.
35:47The pilots would have been able to see
35:49that their plane wasn't climbing fast enough.
35:53Watch your altitude. Pull up.
35:55Come on. Airspeed.
35:57Airspeed.
35:59Watch the trees.
36:05First officer Connolly pulled the nose back,
36:07trying to get the plane in the air.
36:11What he didn't realise is that he was sealing their fate.
36:15The DC-8 was already on the verge of a stall.
36:19Pulling the nose up only made things worse.
36:23The aircraft's weight had been underestimated.
36:27Its lift compromised by ice on the wings.
36:31A fatal combination.
36:43If you take one of the factors out,
36:45if you take the ice out and have the same weight,
36:48and still have the icing,
36:50maybe you won't have the accident.
36:52But if you have them combined together,
36:54you have the accident.
36:56As for the suspicious paint markings
36:58found inside the engine,
37:00McNair determines they came from a front-end loader
37:02used to clear debris at the crash site.
37:06As well, the extreme intensity of the fire
37:08could have caused the abnormally high level
37:10of carbon monoxide in the victim's blood.
37:14Even the trucker's accounts
37:16of pre-impact flames can be explained.
37:18If you have an airplane flying
37:20at high angle of attack,
37:22where it's in a stalled regime,
37:24typically or often you will have
37:26flame coming from the engine
37:28because of a compressor stall.
37:30As for the terrorists' capability
37:32to pull off such a complex, brazen attack,
37:34there is significant doubt.
37:36Could they have done it?
37:38In terms of intent, yes.
37:40In terms of actually pulling
37:42that operation off,
37:45given the circumstances,
37:47that seems to be low probability
37:49but just at the edges
37:51of the margins of the possible.
37:53There was a lot of controversy
37:55which we just basically
37:57had to deal with
37:59in terms of keeping on with our job
38:01because the investigation
38:03is not an emotional issue,
38:05it's a scientific issue.
38:07So we basically had to stick with science.
38:09We didn't see any evidence
38:11of any other kind of explosion.
38:13We saw the evidence of an explosion
38:15caused by impact
38:17and the aircraft breaking up.
38:19McNair believes his conclusion
38:21carries an urgent warning
38:23for the entire airline industry.
38:25A lot of people have a hard time believing
38:27that a little tiny bit of ice
38:29on a large wing will have a big effect,
38:31but it does.
38:33After nearly three years
38:35of painstaking research
38:37and investigation,
38:39the Canadian Aviation Safety Board
38:41has released its report.
38:43But what is supposed
38:45to provide answers
38:47and prevent similar accidents
38:49instead ignites a storm of controversy.
38:51The ice theory is flat out wrong.
38:55CASB investigators
38:57believe they have a convincing report
38:59that explains the complex cause
39:01of the crash of Flight 1285.
39:03I was hoping that
39:05as all investigators do,
39:07when the final report came out
39:10the safety message would be out there
39:12and would be accepted.
39:14But four of the nine members of the board
39:16disagree with the report's conclusion.
39:18This investigation appears
39:20to involve a cover-up.
39:22It's impossible that ice
39:24would have been a factor.
39:26Crash investigators
39:28are always under pressure
39:30to come up with an answer
39:32sooner than they would like
39:34and sometimes,
39:36depending on the intensity
39:38The dissenters take the unprecedented step
39:40of releasing their own minority report
39:42citing an on-board explosion
39:44as the cause.
39:46We had an extremely difficult time
39:48in putting out our dissenting report.
39:50We were given a very restricted time
39:52and then there was an attempt to suppress it.
39:54I was asked the question outright
39:56well, what do you want to do?
39:58Do you want to try to save your job
40:00or do you want to get the truth
40:02about this accident?
40:04My answer was, well, I want to save my job
40:07It was quite unusual
40:09to have a dissenting report
40:11written with photographs.
40:13I don't see merit in it.
40:15I totally don't understand
40:17why it was issued in the first place.
40:19Why would you come up with this?
40:21What's the scientific basis for it?
40:23There is no science.
40:25Hey, look.
40:27Paint transfer means nothing.
40:29The crew blood samples means nothing.
40:31The peddling is meaningless.
40:33Therefore, you have no evidence of terrorism.
40:35In this particular case,
40:37of course, what we had was an extraordinary outcome
40:39where you have a majority
40:41and a minority report
40:43which are deeply divergent
40:45and which raise very different kinds of pictures
40:47about what the outcome
40:49of this crash would be.
40:51I think it's very tough
40:53for families and friends
40:55not to have final closure on something.
40:57There was really
40:59no definitive answer
41:01to what caused that crash.
41:05If I was a family member,
41:07I'd have questions too.
41:09But on March 10, 1989,
41:11while the controversy
41:13continues to swirl,
41:15there's tragic evidence
41:17that McNair and Bogue's message
41:19has not been heard.
41:21In Dryden, Ontario,
41:23in wintry conditions,
41:25the crew of a Fokker F28
41:27elects not to de-ice.
41:31Just seconds after take-off,
41:33the plane cannot achieve sufficient lift
41:35to stay airborne.
41:37The accident was almost identical
41:39to Arrow Air 1285.
41:43The airplane hit the tree canopy intact.
41:45After that,
41:47it exploded because, in fact,
41:49it hit the ground
41:51with a lot of fuel on board.
41:55The crash kills 24
41:57of the 69 people on board.
41:59It was pretty clear from Dryden
42:02that icing or snow
42:04may have been a factor
42:06in this as well.
42:08If only the investigators'
42:10warning had been heard,
42:12the tragedy in Dryden
42:14may never have happened.
42:16The fact that there was
42:18a lot of controversy
42:20around this investigation
42:22was very unfortunate
42:24because basically it took
42:26away from the safety message.
42:28Aircraft like the DC-8
42:30that message was lost
42:32because of the controversy
42:34in the bomb theory.
42:36But those who held firm
42:38to the bomb theory
42:40stand by their actions.
42:42It does not advance safety
42:44to get the wrong cause
42:46of an accident.
42:48The real safety message
42:50is that you have to get
42:52at the truth,
42:54and the truth and the facts
42:56of this accident
42:59The investigation spelled the end
43:01of the Canadian Aviation Safety Board.
43:03It was scrapped
43:05and later replaced with a new,
43:07better regulated agency.
43:09We learned a lesson
43:11that cost a lot of people
43:13their lives,
43:15and that lesson didn't get passed
43:17on to other people,
43:19and other people lost their lives.
43:21That's the sad part for me.
43:23I know in my own case
43:25if I really didn't know
43:27that terrible crash
43:29I wouldn't be
43:31satisfied.
43:37It's tough when you don't know
43:39and you've lost someone
43:41that's near and dear to you.
43:43I think we all want to know.