Speaker 1: More people are flying than ever, and cameras and phones
Speaker 1: are all part of the trip, capturing unbelievable moments of danger.
Speaker 2: The plane.
Speaker 1: For the first time, we unpacked the science of what's
Speaker 1: really going on in these caught on camera crises.
Speaker 3: Grace for Impact, Grace for.
Speaker 1: Impact, revealing in forensic detail how and why flights turned deadly.
Speaker 4: He was literally clinging to the air to stay ab.
Speaker 1: Unraveling secret stories from cockpit error to engine failure.
Speaker 5: We just had an announcements We've got on emergency landing.
Speaker 1: From freak weather to meltdown on the runwaysh discover the
Speaker 1: surprising truth behind planes gone viral. With more aircraft in
Speaker 1: the sky than ever before, pressure on pilots has never
Speaker 1: been higher. Do you want to dispatch the emergency vehicles?
Speaker 1: They need to get us safely where we want to go,
Speaker 1: when we want to get there. But every time we
Speaker 1: take to the air, there's a risk that the pilot
Speaker 1: may make an error.
Speaker 6: Oh my god, it's gonna stand Come on, buddy.
Speaker 1: A sudden lack of concentration.
Speaker 7: It's like time slowed down.
Speaker 1: A miscalculation or a wrong command at thirty five thousand
Speaker 1: feet can end in disaster.
Speaker 4: He was literally clinging to the air to stay airborn.
Speaker 1: But sometimes a cool head can be all a pilot
Speaker 1: needs to save the day.
Speaker 3: I wouldn't be sitting here today if it wasn't for
Speaker 3: his ringers.
Speaker 1: And turn a potential tragedy into triumph. November one, twenty eleven,
Speaker 1: lot for Like to zero sixteen approaches Warsaw, Poland after
Speaker 1: an eight hour flight from Newark, New Jersey, on board
Speaker 1: two hundred and thirty one people.
Speaker 8: This flight was the same as any other flight.
Speaker 1: For the passengers. The initial descent seems normal, but pilot
Speaker 1: Captain Varona and Polish air traffic Control realize they have
Speaker 1: a problem.
Speaker 8: Things started getting a little unusual and there was a
Speaker 8: lot of activity with the flight attendants going back and
Speaker 8: forth to the cockpit area, you know, stopping against sam ray.
Speaker 1: The Polish Air Force scrambles to F sixteen fighters to
Speaker 1: shadow the flight, but they can only confirm what the
Speaker 1: crew already know. This Boeing seven sixty seven is coming
Speaker 1: in with no landing gear.
Speaker 9: I looked out the window and I saw F sixteen
Speaker 9: circling our plane.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this just is not a normal occurrence.
Speaker 9: There were people who were screaming at certain areas of
Speaker 9: the plane and just you know, wanting answers, while't even
Speaker 9: know what was happening.
Speaker 1: What's happening is the seven sixty seven is circling Warsaw
Speaker 1: to burn off excess fuel ready for an emergency landing.
Speaker 9: And as we were circling around, they didn't tell us.
Speaker 3: We didn't know why we were making this emergency in
Speaker 3: the landing. We didn't know what the actual reason was.
Speaker 1: To minimize the risk of an explosion. Captain Rohner wants
Speaker 1: his fuel tanks running on empty wheels or no wheels.
Speaker 1: This plane's coming down.
Speaker 9: We're getting closer and closer to the runway. I see
Speaker 9: the plane lowering, lowering, lowering.
Speaker 1: No one has ever tried to land a seven sixty
Speaker 1: seven without wheels.
Speaker 3: Grace for impact, Grace for impact. I was never so
Speaker 3: fearful in my life.
Speaker 9: The prospect of death being moments away is a darting prospect.
Speaker 1: The aircraft finally screeches to a halt, but the danger
Speaker 1: is far from over.
Speaker 9: Of course, everybody roared with the applause, you know, everybody
Speaker 9: was celebrating, and literally we had the flight attendant scream.
Speaker 3: Get off this plane now, and made everybody get up
Speaker 3: and we're hysterical and in fear that this plane was
Speaker 3: going to blow up. There was smoke.
Speaker 8: Coming into the plane from the engine that was on fire.
Speaker 3: It smelled the smoke and it smelled like burning fuel.
Speaker 9: Those slide rafts came out and everybody is literally in
Speaker 9: a mad dish to get off the plane.
Speaker 1: The evacuation takes just ninety seconds. Amazingly, not one of
Speaker 1: the two hundred and twenty passengers or eleven crew are injured.
Speaker 1: The problem begins as the plane leaves Newark. Just after takeoff.
Speaker 1: Captain Varner pulls up the wheels. Immediately, cockpit alarms indicate
Speaker 1: a fault with the hydraulic system powering the undercarriage.
Speaker 4: This lot Polish Airlines aircraft had a hydraulic problem. It
Speaker 4: wasn't affecting the flight, but it affected the way in
Speaker 4: which the undercarriage of the aeroplane the airplane's wheels could
Speaker 4: be lowered.
Speaker 1: Fortunately, modern aircraft have an electrical backup if the undercarriage
Speaker 1: hydraulics fail. Captain Varner flies on to Poland, assuming he
Speaker 1: can use the standby system. When he comes into land
Speaker 1: in Warsaw after a flight of almost eight hours, he's
Speaker 1: making his final approach to Warsaw Airport, knowing full well
Speaker 1: he has no hydraulic system to lower the landing gear.
Speaker 1: It's time to employ the electrical failsafe backup. The only
Speaker 1: problem with the backup is that you can't test it
Speaker 1: in flight. You can only use it once, and then
Speaker 1: only when you really need it.
Speaker 5: As the aircraft approached Warsaw, then the flight crew obviously
Speaker 5: needed to lower the undercarriage before landing.
Speaker 1: As he nears the airport, Captain Vrohner engages the backup
Speaker 1: system and nothing happens.
Speaker 5: They tried lowering it with the standard system and that
Speaker 5: didn't work. They tried to lower with what's called the
Speaker 5: alternate system. That didn't work as well.
Speaker 1: Vrona is high and dry over Warsaw with no hydraulics,
Speaker 1: no electrical backup, and no wheels. Flight zero sixteen is
Speaker 1: in trouble, deep trouble.
Speaker 4: So the crew told the air traffic control and circled.
Speaker 1: The fail safe system has failed.
Speaker 5: It's one of those days where it's a hard day
Speaker 5: at the office, but you're trained for it.
Speaker 1: With no undercarriage and the lives of two hundred and
Speaker 1: thirty one people at stake, Vroner has no option but
Speaker 1: to land the plane with no wheels. In a normal landing,
Speaker 1: he'd lift the nose slightly to reduce the rate of descent,
Speaker 1: landing on the back wheels first before engaging reverse thrust
Speaker 1: and applying the wheel brakes. With no wheels and no brakes,
Speaker 1: Broner's best chance is to touch down resting on the
Speaker 1: two engines and the rear part of the fuselage as
Speaker 1: delicately as possible. It's what pilots call a gear up
Speaker 1: or belly landing.
Speaker 5: Eventually, they had decided that they had to do a
Speaker 5: gear up landing, so no undercarriage legs coming down.
Speaker 1: This will hopefully ensure it lands relatively smoothly on the
Speaker 1: engine casings instead of slamming down on the nose or tail,
Speaker 1: causing the plane to cartwheel and explode.
Speaker 5: For a pilot, it's not really something you want to do.
Speaker 4: I wouldn't like to have to do a bonny landing.
Speaker 10: I wouldn't.
Speaker 4: I'd very much not like to be a passenger. During one.
Speaker 1: One hundred and seventy nine tons of Boeing seven sixty
Speaker 1: seven is about to hit the runway at one hundred
Speaker 1: and eighty miles an hour with minimal directional control and
Speaker 1: no brakes. Emergency services spray foam on the runway in
Speaker 1: a desperate attempt to stop Flight zero sixteen turning into
Speaker 1: a fireball.
Speaker 4: It would feel dreadful, The noise would be frightening. The
Speaker 4: mere fact that you know exactly what's happening that's going
Speaker 4: to be absolutely awful.
Speaker 1: So why didn't this aircraft catch fire when it's smashed
Speaker 1: down on its enngine? Up to eighty percent of the
Speaker 1: material used in a modern aircraft is aluminium. It's both
Speaker 1: light and strong. Crucially, unlike steel, aluminium doesn't produce many
Speaker 1: sparks during friction, and the remaining fuel on this boeing
Speaker 1: is in sealed tanks well away from the engines. So
Speaker 1: if the landing is controlled and smooth, the hope is
Speaker 1: the aircraft is less likely to catch fire, which means,
Speaker 1: thanks to Varna and the emergency services at Warsaw Airport,
Speaker 1: this was one belly landing that didn't go belly up?
Speaker 1: But how had the failsafe system failed?
Speaker 5: Essentially, the undercarriage didn't come down when they were required
Speaker 5: to on approach. What they hadn't detected was the fact
Speaker 5: that a circuit breaker, which is like a fuse that
Speaker 5: had popped now wider pop nobody knows.
Speaker 1: Accident investigators discovered that the supply of electricity powering the
Speaker 1: backup landing gear had cut out.
Speaker 4: That had been switched off, and they didn't know that,
Speaker 4: and that's why the standby system for lowering the wheels
Speaker 4: wasn't working. There was nothing wrong with it, it was
Speaker 4: just switched off.
Speaker 1: Someone had accidentally knocked the switch and this went unnoticed.
Speaker 1: A simple incident, but one that nearly led to a
Speaker 1: fatal disaster. Six days after pulling off his spectacular landing,
Speaker 1: Captain Varner was awarded the Order of Polonia Restitutor, one
Speaker 1: of Poland's highest decorations, and acclaimed a national hero.
Speaker 3: He knocked it out of the park.
Speaker 8: Captain Rona is a hero and I will be forever
Speaker 8: indebted to him because I wouldn't be sitting here today
Speaker 8: talking to you if it wasn't for his greatness.
Speaker 1: Despite increasing levels of aircraft reliability, pilots still require a
Speaker 1: great deal of training, skill, and crucially calmness under pressure
Speaker 1: to captain a commercial aircraft. In the US, the Federal
Speaker 1: Aviation Authority stipulates you must clock up at least fifteen
Speaker 1: hundred hours in the air. But the man at the
Speaker 1: controls of this light aircraft still has a long way
Speaker 1: to go. Twelve thousand feet above Wisconsin, three skydivers are
Speaker 1: seconds away from their sixth and final jump of the day.
Speaker 1: Two Cessna's are flying in close formation, and just as
Speaker 1: the sky divers they're about to jump.
Speaker 7: They're flying and they're getting ready to go ahead and
Speaker 7: get out. So I was actually the first one out
Speaker 7: the door, and I climbed all the way out to
Speaker 7: the outside of the strut, and I hang on out
Speaker 7: there while everybody else is climbing out of the airplane
Speaker 7: getting ready to jump.
Speaker 10: I felt just jold, and.
Speaker 7: I knew that the airplanes had collided, so I.
Speaker 3: Just let go.
Speaker 1: This is one jump the skydivers will never forget.
Speaker 11: I was getting ready to climb out of a plan
Speaker 11: to get to the Native.
Speaker 9: And then it just exploded.
Speaker 11: The w seared off our pilot, and the cheese queens yelled.
Speaker 3: For us to go.
Speaker 11: So I jumped out and trying to get as far
Speaker 11: away from the debree as possible. Dorm was exploded in
Speaker 11: and it was really really hot, and there were cleans
Speaker 11: and three everywhere.
Speaker 1: Incredibly, all eleven people on board the planes lived to
Speaker 1: tell the tale.
Speaker 7: I just watched this on fold in front of my face,
Speaker 7: and it was like slowed down.
Speaker 11: Ten bodies skydiving through the air, all going in different directions.
Speaker 11: It's absolutely a miracle.
Speaker 3: That no one was hurt for kills.
Speaker 1: So what caused this spectacular mid air collision.
Speaker 10: Well, the two aircraft were information because the jumpers wanted
Speaker 10: to jump simultaneously and close together and probably link up
Speaker 10: in the air before they deployed the shoots.
Speaker 1: When flying in formation, the lead plane should maintain a
Speaker 1: constant speed to keep the formation tight. The trail plane
Speaker 1: must hold its position relative to the lead plane, remaining
Speaker 1: within one hundred feet of the plane up front at
Speaker 1: all times. It's vital good visibility is maintained. The trail
Speaker 1: pilot must react to even the slightest adjustments in speed
Speaker 1: or altitude of the plane in front.
Speaker 7: As soon as they see us lead, they leave. So
Speaker 7: that's generally how it works.
Speaker 9: Does not.
Speaker 1: As the skydivers ready to jump, suddenly they find themselves
Speaker 1: pinned between the two aircraft. It's only sixteen seconds since
Speaker 1: the first jumpers climbed out.
Speaker 5: When you fly in formation, then you generally have the
Speaker 5: least experienced pilot as the lead, and the more experienced
Speaker 5: pilot will follow you off to one side and slightly below.
Speaker 4: The lead aircraft is responsible for lookout, to make sure
Speaker 4: they don't bump into other aeroplanes, for navigation all the rest.
Speaker 4: And this guy, he has no other responsibility except to
Speaker 4: keep the other guy in sight to stay with him.
Speaker 4: That didn't happen.
Speaker 1: What did happen was that the trail plane got in
Speaker 1: front of the lead plane, which was now above and behind.
Speaker 1: The pilots lost sight of each other, with dramatic consequences.
Speaker 1: Inexperience led the two planes onto a catastrophic collision.
Speaker 11: Cause our pilot in the chase plane it was his
Speaker 11: first time whind that position in a formation.
Speaker 5: In this particular situation, everything is reversed. We end up
Speaker 5: with the more experienced pilot flying in front, and he
Speaker 5: ends up on top of the other airplane rather than
Speaker 5: behind to the side and below.
Speaker 4: In the Cessna one eighty series aeroplanes, these both were
Speaker 4: they've got high wings. When you're like that, you can't
Speaker 4: neither can see the other.
Speaker 10: See and avoid is the rule in this situation. If
Speaker 10: you don't see, you can't avoid. And I think it's
Speaker 10: as simple as that.
Speaker 4: This guy, who should have been following and keeping inside
Speaker 4: the lead aircraft at all times, lost sight of him,
Speaker 4: didn't know where he was. And the drill at that
Speaker 4: point is to break off and get clear and then
Speaker 4: established level flight, look around and then find out where
Speaker 4: he is and then rejoined safely. Okay, that's the drill.
Speaker 4: But no, he lost sight of him and thinks, oh,
Speaker 4: what's going on here?
Speaker 1: So on top of having the most inexperienced pilot leading
Speaker 1: the formation, the Cessna design with the overwing restricting vision
Speaker 1: caused the trail pilot to lose sight of the lead
Speaker 1: But why in this catalog of errors wasn't either pilot
Speaker 1: able to take evasive action sooner.
Speaker 5: One of the problems with amid air collision is the
Speaker 5: fact that there's no relative movement to the aeroplane. The
Speaker 5: airplane looks the same angle out of the window as
Speaker 5: you approach the collision.
Speaker 1: According to the FAA, while looking for other planes in
Speaker 1: a largely featureless sky, pilots may suffer from a phenomenon
Speaker 1: called eyemiopia. When our eyes scan blank sky, there is
Speaker 1: little to focus on. Our focal length remains short. We're
Speaker 1: not likely to see another airplane closing in, even if
Speaker 1: it's in plane sight, and by then it's often too late.
Speaker 5: So all you have is a dot that gets bigger
Speaker 5: and bigger and bigger. And our eyes are built to
Speaker 5: detect movement, but there's no relative movement in this case. Actually,
Speaker 5: it can be very difficult to see an aeroplane that
Speaker 5: you're going to collide with.
Speaker 7: Well, I never saw the other airplane comings cordus. What
Speaker 7: I felt was I felt the other airplane hit us,
Speaker 7: and I just decided time to go.
Speaker 10: So I let go.
Speaker 7: We skydive because we want action, we want things to happen.
Speaker 3: Well, that was about of action.
Speaker 1: Miraculously, everyone survives and without serious injury. Almost as incredibly,
Speaker 1: no one is struck by falling debris from the exploding planes.
Speaker 4: They were damned lucky that somebody didn't either directly get
Speaker 4: hit by wreckage or didn't get their parachutes snagged in
Speaker 4: some way while they were trying to get clear of
Speaker 4: the damaged aeroplanes. The wing that detached, and then the
Speaker 4: aeroplane tumbling through the sky, the remainder of the airplane
Speaker 4: to through the sky.
Speaker 11: We're falling than the debris, but once the opener, parachute
Speaker 11: is actually going to be quite opposite, and the degree
Speaker 11: is going to be calling faster than us. So I
Speaker 11: wanted to make sure I had it as a pair
Speaker 11: of airspace as possible to pull my parents deeply and
Speaker 11: make it back to the ground.
Speaker 4: The potential for having your parachute wrecked or your parachute
Speaker 4: rigging snagged in something. And the pilot of the terminally
Speaker 4: damaged aeroplane managed to extricate himself and use his emergency
Speaker 4: chute and he landed safely. Ah, that's a nightmarish to have.
Speaker 11: Both feet on the ground and to know that I'm
Speaker 11: going to see my son, and I'm going to see
Speaker 11: my family, and I get to continue to live, not
Speaker 11: to survive life, but live life. That was a very
Speaker 11: powerful experience that absolutely changed my life and changed my
Speaker 11: life for the better.
Speaker 1: Mid Air collisions are extremely rare, and accidents at altitude
Speaker 1: account for only about ten percent of all aircraft disasters.
Speaker 1: Over two thirds of all airplane incidents occur during takeoff
Speaker 1: or landing, which makes these by far the most dangerous
Speaker 1: phases of flying. Twenty third July twenty sixteen, a Royal
Speaker 1: Air Moroc Boeing seven three seven is preparing for takeoff
Speaker 1: at Frankfurt Airport, Runway eighteen, destination Casablanca. It seems like
Speaker 1: a standard takeoff, but the plane has barely left the
Speaker 1: ground when it quickly touched down again. The pilot attempts
Speaker 1: a second takeoff, but again it can't get off the ground.
Speaker 1: Something is clearly wrong. This time, the aircraft's tail is
Speaker 1: perilously close to the tarmac. This plane is running out
Speaker 1: of runway and the pilot is running out of options. Finally,
Speaker 1: on the third attempt, the seven three seven lifts off,
Speaker 1: its passengers, unaware of how close they came to disaster.
Speaker 1: So what caused this near catastrophe.
Speaker 10: In the case of the Air Moroc it looks as
Speaker 10: though the pilots were trying to get the aircraft into
Speaker 10: the air before it was ready to go.
Speaker 5: As you take off down a runway, you set the
Speaker 5: engine power steal the aeroplane straight down the runway, and
Speaker 5: as the speed builds up, you need to lift the nose.
Speaker 5: This is called rotation. So one of the pilots will
Speaker 5: say this is the speed to rotate the aeroplane out
Speaker 5: and then you start to pull the control column or
Speaker 5: the stick towards the back. The nose lifts up and
Speaker 5: then the aeroplane should climb away.
Speaker 1: At take off speed. The pilot pulls back the control column,
Speaker 1: lifting the aircraft's nose until it rises to an angle
Speaker 1: of about twelve degrees and the plane lifts up.
Speaker 10: If you observe an aircraft taking off, it's almost seamless,
Speaker 10: so as the pilot rotates, the aircraft starts to lift
Speaker 10: off almost immediately. What happens in the case of that
Speaker 10: clip is that the aircraft rotates into the flying attitude,
Speaker 10: but it's sort of almost bouncing along very light, but
Speaker 10: it's not climbing away.
Speaker 1: So it appears the crew on the Royal air Morock
Speaker 1: flight a rotating at too low a speed, lifting the
Speaker 1: nose of the plane too early, which could have caused
Speaker 1: the tail to hit the runway. Fortunately, they managed to
Speaker 1: control the pitch of the aircraft enough to avoid a
Speaker 1: tail strike before increasing their speed to achieve a successful takeoff.
Speaker 10: The other possibility is that the correct thrust was not set.
Speaker 10: The aircraft does appear to be reluctant to fly, but
Speaker 10: eventually it does and after that it seemed to climb
Speaker 10: away quite normally, which might be an indication that they
Speaker 10: suddenly went oh, not enough power more and the aircraft
Speaker 10: accelerated and climbs away normally.
Speaker 1: So, although it seems like pilot error is to blame,
Speaker 1: a Raal Airmerock statement claims the landing of a Turkish
Speaker 1: air flight just moments earlier caused the problem. They point
Speaker 1: out that the Frankfort tower advised the Morocc captain of
Speaker 1: the presence of wake turbulence over the runway. Wake turbulence
Speaker 1: is a disturbance in the atmosphere that forms behind an
Speaker 1: aircraft as it passes through the air. A wing tip
Speaker 1: vortex is the most dangerous component of this churning air.
Speaker 1: It occurs when a wing is generating lift, thereby causing
Speaker 1: a vortex to trail from each tip.
Speaker 10: So you've got high pressure air underneath, you've got low
Speaker 10: pressure air, which is the lift sucking, or two of
Speaker 10: them will act together to produce what we call lift.
Speaker 10: What happens to the wingtip when those the high pressure
Speaker 10: underneath meets the low pressure up dear starts to spin
Speaker 10: what's know as a vortex.
Speaker 1: Wingtip vortices spread laterally away from the plane. Their strength
Speaker 1: determined primarily by the and air speed of the aircraft.
Speaker 1: During takeoff and landing, aircraft operate at a high angle
Speaker 1: of attack, which maximizes the formation of strong vortices. This
Speaker 1: makes wake turbulence most dangerous during takeoff and landing, when
Speaker 1: there's little altitude for recovery. If the onset of wake
Speaker 1: is occurring, immediate invasive action is vital.
Speaker 10: And that's why there are minimum separation distances for times
Speaker 10: between aircraft arriving on the same flight path.
Speaker 1: As a result of the alleged wake turbulence, air Morocs
Speaker 1: said that their captain performed a maneuver to accelerate in
Speaker 1: order to achieve speeds permitting a safe takeoff. However, an
Speaker 1: accident investigation said it wasn't possible to establish whether this
Speaker 1: was the cause and decided to refrain from initiating an investigation.
Speaker 5: Certainly, the way that the aeroplane was flying doesn't necessarily
Speaker 5: look as if it was encountering awake turbance.
Speaker 10: There was some explanation proffered about wake turbulence from the
Speaker 10: flight bef ire. No, I don't give that much credence
Speaker 10: at all.
Speaker 1: Whatever the reason, and despite a very shaky start, the
Speaker 1: aircraft continued safely on to Casablanca. Although flying is safer
Speaker 1: than ever, flight deck confusion is by far the leading
Speaker 1: cause of commercial airline accidents, with close to eighty percent
Speaker 1: of all incidents caused by pilot error, and when it
Speaker 1: comes to light aircraft, the skill the limit. June thirtieth,
Speaker 1: twenty twelve, a group of family and friends are returning
Speaker 1: from a hiking trip in the aptly named frank Church
Speaker 1: River of No Return wilderness in Idaho. The aircraft, an
Speaker 1: aged Stinson one oh eight, is at Bruce Meadow's High
Speaker 1: Altitude Airfield, taxiing down the five thousand foot dirt airstrip
Speaker 1: with full fuel tanks and four people on board. The
Speaker 1: plane is close to its maximum takeoff weight.
Speaker 10: It's a four seater with four people in it. A
Speaker 10: lot of light aircraft, you can't have full passenger load
Speaker 10: and full fuel.
Speaker 1: The plane struggles to get lift and about three quarters
Speaker 1: of the way down the strip it's still not airborne.
Speaker 1: Rapidly running out of runway, the pilot is about to
Speaker 1: abort the takeoff when a gust of wind lifts the
Speaker 1: plane into the air.
Speaker 5: This is the time where you just land the aeroplane
Speaker 5: back again, or you get a taxi home.
Speaker 1: The plane may be airborne, but the pilot still can't
Speaker 1: get the Stinson to climb as expected.
Speaker 10: He seemed to have a minute or two where he
Speaker 10: could have just landed it on the grass, But to.
Speaker 1: Do that, the Stinson is now getting perilously close to
Speaker 1: the trees. But how did this seemingly simple take off
Speaker 1: end in disaster. To minimize the risk at high altitude,
Speaker 1: all pilots are required to use charts to calculate their
Speaker 1: density altitude before takeoff.
Speaker 4: To work out what the engine performance will do. Aviators
Speaker 4: use a system known as density altitude. It's an equation
Speaker 4: where you bring together two factors, the temperature and the
Speaker 4: thickness of the air, or the thinness of the air
Speaker 4: at altitude.
Speaker 1: Bruce Meadows Airfield is six three hundred and seventy feet
Speaker 1: above sea level and the outside air temperature is twenty
Speaker 1: seven degrees centigrade.
Speaker 4: It was not only at high altitude that day the
Speaker 4: temperature was higher than it normally was.
Speaker 1: Before takeoff, the pilot checked his performance charts and calculated
Speaker 1: that the density altitude was approximately nine two hundred feet.
Speaker 5: And the certification of the aeroplane only allows it to
Speaker 5: take off from airports up to six thousand feet.
Speaker 1: So even though the air strip is above the maximum
Speaker 1: takeoff height for this plane, the high temperature and much
Speaker 1: thinner air make it feel even higher.
Speaker 5: As you go up in terms of altitude, then the
Speaker 5: air gets thinner. This has two separate effects. Firstly, the
Speaker 5: amount of lift that you can generate reduces for a
Speaker 5: fixed forward speed across the ground. And secondly, the engine
Speaker 5: actually takes less oxygen into the cylinder each time is
Speaker 5: cycled through, and that gives you less power, so you
Speaker 5: end up in a nasty situation where you have to
Speaker 5: fly faster and faster in order to generate enough lift
Speaker 5: and the engine power is reduced.
Speaker 1: Lift is the force that holds an aircraft in the air.
Speaker 1: Most lift on an aircraft is generated by the wings.
Speaker 1: Airplane wings are shaped to make the air move faster
Speaker 1: over the top of the wing. When air moves faster,
Speaker 1: the pressure of the air decreases, so the pressure on
Speaker 1: the top is less than the pressure on the bottom.
Speaker 1: The difference in pressure creates a force on the wing
Speaker 1: that lifts the plane into the air despite a lack
Speaker 1: of lift. And engine power. The plane still manages to
Speaker 1: get airborne, but why does it struggle to gain height?
Speaker 5: As the aircraft takes off and flies at very low altitude,
Speaker 5: it flies in something called ground effect. This is like
Speaker 5: a cushion of air underneath from the wings being there,
Speaker 5: so the aircraft isn't really flying in free air. It's
Speaker 5: dependent on this cushion of air that it's flying along with.
Speaker 1: At high altitude, ground effect can fall a pilot into
Speaker 1: believing his aircraft can fly, but although airborne, he can
Speaker 1: find himself without enough lift to climb to escape potential obstacles.
Speaker 4: He was literally clinging to the air to stay airborne.
Speaker 5: And then as it enters the air around the trees,
Speaker 5: then it doesn't have any of this ground effect and
Speaker 5: starts to sink back again. The pilot's obviously trying to
Speaker 5: steer around the trees, but the problem being that every
Speaker 5: time you steer the aeroplane, you're actually reducing the amount
Speaker 5: of lift that's available to keep the aeroplane up, and
Speaker 5: you're using some of the lift to turn you. So
Speaker 5: it was pretty much a one way course to the forest.
Speaker 1: For all his bad planning, this pilot had one piece
Speaker 1: of luck coming down in the forest. Each impact slows
Speaker 1: the plane and reduces its energy, softening the final crash
Speaker 1: as it hits the ground. If they'd cleared the trees,
Speaker 1: there was little he could have done. Faced with low
Speaker 1: air speed and a rising terrain, A turn was out
Speaker 1: of the question, and the impact would probably have been
Speaker 1: far more severe.
Speaker 5: It's a fairly typical light aircraft accident in terms of
Speaker 5: the pilot pressing on. Rather than rejecting the takeoff.
Speaker 4: He should have realized that the aircraft's performance was simply
Speaker 4: not good enough to fly safely. He should have abandoned
Speaker 4: his takeoff.
Speaker 1: Despite some injuries to the pilot, all four men were
Speaker 1: lucky to be able to walk away from this wreckage
Speaker 1: with their lives. One of the basics for pilots is
Speaker 1: knowing what your plane is capable of, whatever the weather.
Speaker 1: High tech cockpit equipment assists flight crews like never before,
Speaker 1: but there are still many things computers can't do. Over
Speaker 1: ninety nine percent of all landings a manual, and as
Speaker 1: yet there's no such thing as an automated takeoff. One
Speaker 1: hundred percent of all takeoffs must be carried out by
Speaker 1: the pilot, and sometimes they have to trust their instincts.
Speaker 4: Oh my god, my god, Oh my god, my plane,
Speaker 4: my point is crushed.
Speaker 1: Thirteenth of March twenty fourteen, eighteen year old Hannah Udran
Speaker 1: is one of one hundred and forty nine passengers on
Speaker 1: a US air flight from Philadelphia to Fort Lauderdale.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, the plane is on. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1: Using CCTV footage taken from Philadelphia International Airport in the distance,
Speaker 1: we can see Hannah's plane US Airways flight seventeen oh
Speaker 1: two preparing for takeoff. Hannah's plane has crashed on takeoff.
Speaker 3: You're evacuating the plane.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, seventeen We're going to dispatch the emergency vehicles.
Speaker 4: Okay, all right, it seems to be everything's okay.
Speaker 2: This is the first time I was ever flying alone.
Speaker 2: And we take off the runway and then all of
Speaker 2: a sudden, the plane skidd it and hit the ground
Speaker 2: very very roughly. We were all jerked in our seats.
Speaker 2: Of course, everyone on the plane is screaming and yelling
Speaker 2: and evacuate. No one's really sure what just happened. What's
Speaker 2: going on.
Speaker 1: When the pilot aboarts take off, the front wheel gear crumples,
Speaker 1: causing the plane to crash.
Speaker 2: Once we went in the air, it sort of sounded
Speaker 2: like like a tired path doing.
Speaker 3: Some like loud noise had happened.
Speaker 2: There's just screaming happening, and the pilots and consay things.
Speaker 3: Everything happened, so fairst.
Speaker 1: But wide does Hannah's plane nosedive on the tarmac mechanical
Speaker 1: failure or pilot error. Before leaving the gate, the copilot
Speaker 1: enters the data into the flight computer, which then calculates
Speaker 1: the speed and thrust needed for takeoff. But there's a problem.
Speaker 1: Flight seventeen oh two is cleared for takeoff on runway
Speaker 1: twenty seven L. The co pilot enters twenty seven R
Speaker 1: into the flight computer, and that runway is one thousand
Speaker 1: feet shorter. After backing away from the gate, the captain
Speaker 1: spots the error, but the co pilot fail to update
Speaker 1: the information. The pilot speeds down the correct runway twenty
Speaker 1: seven L, but at ninety two miles an hour, a
Speaker 1: cockpit alert Triggersdane. The computer is warning the pilots to
Speaker 1: slow down as far as it's concerned, they're rapidly approaching
Speaker 1: the end of the shorter runway twenty seven RAN. Neither
Speaker 1: pilot understands what the retard alarm means during a takeoff situation,
Speaker 1: as they more often hear it on landing, but the
Speaker 1: pilot suddenly decides the plane is unsafe to fly and
Speaker 1: aborts the takeoff, smashing the aircraft down on the nose gear.
Speaker 1: The plane could have taken off safely, but the pilots
Speaker 1: didn't understand what the computer was telling them.
Speaker 2: My family is a bit of a jokester family. We
Speaker 2: kind of joke about everything. So the first thing I
Speaker 2: did was just send a video of me running from
Speaker 2: the plane, because I knew if I didn't have video proof,
Speaker 2: my parents wouldn't even believe me.
Speaker 3: I got no queen.
Speaker 1: Analysis from the National Transportation Safety Board shows that statistically,
Speaker 1: most airline accidents have survival rates of over eighty percent.
Speaker 1: Constant improvements in safety an aircraft. Technology plays a massive role,
Speaker 1: but sometimes luck has a part too. Amelia, Virginia, this
Speaker 1: aircraft is being flown by no ordinary pilot. In fact,
Speaker 1: this is no pilot. The man in this plane has
Speaker 1: never flown before in his life.
Speaker 6: This dude's gonna, oh my god, come on, buddy, get
Speaker 6: it together.
Speaker 1: After persuading the airport manager to let him taxi his
Speaker 1: new plane down the runway. He soon finds himself airborne
Speaker 1: with zero hours flight time.
Speaker 12: So this poor guy who thought he was going to
Speaker 12: have a drive along the runway now realizes he's flying
Speaker 12: an aeroplane and wonders what to do about it.
Speaker 6: There you go, there you go.
Speaker 1: He may have managed somehow to get it off the ground,
Speaker 1: but it's becoming clear that he has absolutely no idea
Speaker 1: how to land it. Miraculously, this first time flyer manages
Speaker 1: to get down with his new and now battered plane
Speaker 1: and more importantly, himself in one piece.
Speaker 6: Wow, he is lucky to be alive.
Speaker 1: But how did this total novice manage to get airborne?
Speaker 12: Really, it's very simple to make an aeroplane fly. You
Speaker 12: apply some thrust with the engine while he was taxing.
Speaker 12: You apply a little bit more thrust than the airplane
Speaker 12: starts to accelerate him. If it gets to beyond the
Speaker 12: point which is called V one. This is the point
Speaker 12: at which the aeroplane doesn't have enough space to stop
Speaker 12: before it reaches the end of the runway, then you
Speaker 12: might say, well, what I do? And if you pull
Speaker 12: the nose up by pulling the yoke backwards. The airplane
Speaker 12: will then lift the nose and before you know where
Speaker 12: you are, this machine that's designed to be a bird
Speaker 12: will start flying.
Speaker 6: Oh my god, it's gonna star and die.
Speaker 12: So we've got a situation here that this person who's
Speaker 12: found is now a pilot rather than a driver is
Speaker 12: in the air.
Speaker 6: Come on, buddy, get it together now.
Speaker 12: The yoke that he's holding is a little bit like
Speaker 12: a steering wheel.
Speaker 1: If you turn it to.
Speaker 12: The left, you actually actuate the ailerons at the end
Speaker 12: of the wings so that they will make the aircraft
Speaker 12: bank a little bit, and that makes the aircraft turn.
Speaker 10: So you can drive it like a car.
Speaker 12: You can steer the steering wheel and make it go
Speaker 12: around so you can see the runway beneath him and
Speaker 12: realize that you can actually go back. The big issue
Speaker 12: is how is he going to make it go down
Speaker 12: safely and stop on the runway.
Speaker 1: To land a light aircraft, the pilot should stabilize the
Speaker 1: plane with the help of the control wheel before using
Speaker 1: it to line up the plane with the airstrip. Then,
Speaker 1: when the plane is just off the ground, the throttle
Speaker 1: is pushed in and the control wheel is pushed forward,
Speaker 1: which allows the plane to gently touch down back wheels first.
Speaker 12: As we're approaching, we should be putting our flats out
Speaker 12: to make this flying machine have at a slow speed
Speaker 12: aircraft that we'll still have enough lift to cruise down
Speaker 12: that final approach. This guy is lucky to get the
Speaker 12: airplane back on the ground, but as they say in
Speaker 12: all the best movies, don't do this at hone.
Speaker 6: Folks, Wow, he is lucky to be alive.
Speaker 1: Every time we fly, we put our lives in the
Speaker 1: pilot's hands, but flight crew mistakes are rare and valuable
Speaker 1: lessons are learned every time. The odds of dying in
Speaker 1: a plane crash are around one in eleven million. You're
Speaker 1: much more likely to be struck by lightning or attacked
Speaker 1: by a shark. Since the first commercial flight in nineteen fourteen,
Speaker 1: airlines have improved safety beyond all recognition, and flying has
Speaker 1: simply never been safer.