WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:03.640 Picture this. You're sitting in the darkened cockpit of a 2 00:00:03.720 --> 00:00:06.839 Boeing seven thirty seven, right, it's New Year's Day, two 3 00:00:06.839 --> 00:00:09.640 thousand and seven. Yeah, and outside the glass there's absolutely 4 00:00:09.679 --> 00:00:10.880 nothing to see but pitch. 5 00:00:10.679 --> 00:00:16.399 Black because you're completely enveloped in this violent, severe storm exactly. 6 00:00:16.480 --> 00:00:18.960 And the noise is just deafening. You've got one hundred 7 00:00:18.960 --> 00:00:22.120 and thirty seven kilometer per hour winds screaming past the hole. 8 00:00:22.600 --> 00:00:25.640 Hail is like physically pounding against the metal. 9 00:00:25.719 --> 00:00:26.719 It's terrifying. 10 00:00:26.920 --> 00:00:30.440 Yeah, And then cutting through all of that atmosphere chaos, 11 00:00:31.039 --> 00:00:35.600 this automated voice starts desertly calling out bank angle, bank Angle. 12 00:00:35.359 --> 00:00:38.960 Which is it's a sound that signals an immedia critical emergency. 13 00:00:39.000 --> 00:00:41.200 I mean, it's a sound every pilot trains to respond to. 14 00:00:41.280 --> 00:00:43.200 But you just hope you never actually hear it in 15 00:00:43.240 --> 00:00:44.399 a real scenario. 16 00:00:44.159 --> 00:00:46.600 Like that, right, because it meant the situation was already 17 00:00:46.600 --> 00:00:50.079 spiraling completely out of control. Yeah, your plane is plummeting. 18 00:00:50.399 --> 00:00:52.920 You're dropping at a descent rate of twenty one thousand 19 00:00:52.960 --> 00:00:53.399 feet per. 20 00:00:53.320 --> 00:00:56.000 Minute, just hurtling toward the dark ocean below at. 21 00:00:56.000 --> 00:00:59.280 Nine hundred kilometers per hour. You're traveling nearly the speed 22 00:00:59.280 --> 00:01:02.679 of sound, entirely at the mercy of gravity right up 23 00:01:02.719 --> 00:01:05.560 until the exact moment your plane just goes completely silent 24 00:01:05.599 --> 00:01:06.159 on the radar. 25 00:01:06.480 --> 00:01:10.319 It is an absolute nightmare scenario. And tragically, we aren't 26 00:01:10.319 --> 00:01:12.519 talking about a hypothetical simulation today. 27 00:01:12.719 --> 00:01:16.319 No, we are not welcome to the deep dive. Today. 28 00:01:16.439 --> 00:01:19.439 Our emission is to step directly into the shoes of 29 00:01:19.599 --> 00:01:23.560 real life aviation accident investigators. We are opening up the 30 00:01:23.680 --> 00:01:27.000 chilling case file of atom airflight five seven four. 31 00:01:27.239 --> 00:01:28.480 A very complex case. 32 00:01:28.640 --> 00:01:31.400 Yeah, this is a commercial flight that simply vanished without 33 00:01:31.439 --> 00:01:35.319 a trace, leaving behind a massive geographical mystery that took 34 00:01:35.439 --> 00:01:39.040 months to unravel. Right but with those investigators eventually found 35 00:01:39.040 --> 00:01:41.239 resting at the bottom of the ocean, it didn't just 36 00:01:41.319 --> 00:01:44.920 explain a tragic crash. It exposed a deadly truth about 37 00:01:44.920 --> 00:01:46.079 an exploding industry. 38 00:01:46.400 --> 00:01:49.280 We're going to look meticulously at how an entirely preventable 39 00:01:49.280 --> 00:01:52.840 disaster unfolded because to truly understand the fate of flight 40 00:01:52.879 --> 00:01:55.040 five seven four, you know, we have to examine a 41 00:01:55.120 --> 00:01:56.840 highly specific chain reaction. 42 00:01:56.959 --> 00:01:58.000 Oh absolutely, It's. 43 00:01:57.920 --> 00:02:01.680 A story where a mechanical failure meets stemic negligence, all 44 00:02:01.719 --> 00:02:06.519 compounded by the profound and really terrifying traps of human psychology. 45 00:02:06.760 --> 00:02:10.080 So to understand how a commercial jet carrying one hundred 46 00:02:10.120 --> 00:02:13.000 and two people just disappears, we need to dial the 47 00:02:13.000 --> 00:02:15.919 clock back a bit. Let's step out of that terrifying 48 00:02:15.919 --> 00:02:18.039 cockpit for a moment and look at the environment that 49 00:02:18.080 --> 00:02:20.360 put that plane in the sky. To begin with good idea, 50 00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:25.000 We're at the bustling Surabayah Airport in Indonesia. It's January first, 51 00:02:25.400 --> 00:02:28.199 the rainy season is just begun, so the weather is 52 00:02:28.360 --> 00:02:30.439 already notoriously unpredictable. 53 00:02:30.560 --> 00:02:32.479 Yeah, very rough weather that time of year. 54 00:02:32.520 --> 00:02:36.439 But inside the terminal, the atmosphere is incredibly vibrant. You know, 55 00:02:36.520 --> 00:02:38.000 it's just packed with travelers. 56 00:02:38.080 --> 00:02:40.800 And that vibrancy was the direct result of a massive 57 00:02:40.840 --> 00:02:44.120 shift in the country's economy. You have to consider the 58 00:02:44.280 --> 00:02:47.520 geography of Indonesia. It's an archipelago made up of thousands 59 00:02:47.520 --> 00:02:52.360 of islands, right. Historically, getting between those islands meant taking ferries, 60 00:02:52.479 --> 00:02:55.919 which could take days. Air travel was simply out of 61 00:02:55.919 --> 00:02:57.159 reach for the average citizen. 62 00:02:57.240 --> 00:02:58.439 Too expensive exactly. 63 00:02:58.960 --> 00:03:01.680 But in the early two thousands, the country experienced this 64 00:03:01.840 --> 00:03:03.800 massive boom in budget airlines. 65 00:03:04.240 --> 00:03:07.520 Suddenly you had these low cost carriers popping up everywhere, 66 00:03:07.560 --> 00:03:11.039 just fundamentally changing how people lived and traveled. They were 67 00:03:11.039 --> 00:03:14.439 making air travel accessible to an entirely new demographic. 68 00:03:14.520 --> 00:03:16.800 People who could never afford to fly were suddenly buying 69 00:03:16.800 --> 00:03:19.840 tickets to visit family or do business, right. 70 00:03:19.719 --> 00:03:24.319 Reducing these multi day boat trips into just two hour hops. Yeah, 71 00:03:24.360 --> 00:03:29.039 and the flashiest newcomer capitalizing on this booming market was 72 00:03:29.080 --> 00:03:30.479 an airline called adam Air. 73 00:03:30.719 --> 00:03:34.039 Yeah, Adam Air presented this very fresh, modern image to 74 00:03:34.080 --> 00:03:36.479 the industry. They really wanted to stand out, and they. 75 00:03:36.360 --> 00:03:37.840 Did with bright colors right. 76 00:03:37.960 --> 00:03:42.080 Oh yeah, Their planes were painted this fantastic bright orange. 77 00:03:42.479 --> 00:03:46.879 The crew wore these flashy, colorful uniforms. To the public eye, 78 00:03:46.919 --> 00:03:50.439 they looked like the exciting future of affordable modern travel. 79 00:03:50.719 --> 00:03:54.280 So you have this booming, flashy new airline rapidly putting 80 00:03:54.280 --> 00:03:57.039 planes in the sky. Who were the people actually tasked 81 00:03:57.080 --> 00:03:59.080 with flying them. Let's look at the specific crew of 82 00:03:59.080 --> 00:04:00.000 flight five seventy four. 83 00:04:00.159 --> 00:04:02.360 Well, in the cockpit you had Captain Refree with Dodo. 84 00:04:02.479 --> 00:04:05.120 He was an experienced pilot but had actually only been 85 00:04:05.120 --> 00:04:08.000 with Adammere for about six months. And next to him 86 00:04:08.159 --> 00:04:11.759 was his co pilot, Yoga Suzanto who had been flying 87 00:04:11.800 --> 00:04:14.039 for Adamra for almost a year and a half. 88 00:04:14.159 --> 00:04:15.759 So they're paired up for this flight. 89 00:04:16.199 --> 00:04:19.560 Right, and they were tasked with a completely routine domestic 90 00:04:19.680 --> 00:04:22.639 route just a two hour hop from Surabayah on the 91 00:04:22.639 --> 00:04:26.199 island of Java, heading northeast to Monado on the island 92 00:04:26.199 --> 00:04:27.600 of Sulawesi. 93 00:04:27.240 --> 00:04:30.279 Roughly a seventeen hundred kilometer te Yeah, exactly, and the 94 00:04:30.279 --> 00:04:33.639 passenger cabin is nearly full. They have ninety six passengers 95 00:04:33.639 --> 00:04:36.399 and six crew members on board. For the first part 96 00:04:36.399 --> 00:04:40.040 of the flight, everything appears completely standard. They take off, 97 00:04:40.319 --> 00:04:42.720 they climb through the weather to their cruising altitude of 98 00:04:42.720 --> 00:04:45.360 thirty three thousand feet, and the crew turns on the. 99 00:04:45.360 --> 00:04:47.160 Autopilot like they always do. 100 00:04:47.360 --> 00:04:49.959 Yeah, the flight computer's supposed to take over and handle 101 00:04:50.000 --> 00:04:52.240 the navigation along their pre planned route. 102 00:04:52.279 --> 00:04:55.360 But less than thirty minutes in the air, traffic controllers 103 00:04:55.439 --> 00:04:58.800 on the ground start noticing something highly unusual on their 104 00:04:58.879 --> 00:04:59.720 radar screens. 105 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:00.680 What are they seeing? 106 00:05:01.040 --> 00:05:04.319 Well, Flight five seventy four is veering wildly off its 107 00:05:04.319 --> 00:05:08.279 assigned airway. Instead of heading east northeast toward their destination 108 00:05:08.360 --> 00:05:12.360 in Manado, the plane is drifting directly north. And what's more, 109 00:05:12.399 --> 00:05:15.759 concerning is that it's flying straight into a severe, violent 110 00:05:15.879 --> 00:05:19.399 storm cell that the controllers can clearly see building on 111 00:05:19.439 --> 00:05:20.680 their weather radar. 112 00:05:20.680 --> 00:05:23.000 And the controllers try to reach out right in start 113 00:05:23.079 --> 00:05:26.199 radiating the plane, trying to give them directions to correct 114 00:05:26.199 --> 00:05:28.959 their heading and get them to their next assigned way point. 115 00:05:29.120 --> 00:05:31.759 Yes, but the plane just keeps drifting further and further 116 00:05:31.839 --> 00:05:32.399 off course. 117 00:05:32.519 --> 00:05:35.959 Okay, let's unpack this. Yeah, how does a modern commercial 118 00:05:36.079 --> 00:05:39.800 jet just wander off course while on autopilot? Doesn't the 119 00:05:39.800 --> 00:05:42.040 flight computer know exactly where the plane is supposed to go? 120 00:05:42.279 --> 00:05:45.319 Well, the flight computer only knows what its sensors tell it. 121 00:05:45.399 --> 00:05:49.439 The autopilot is essentially blind without data. Right in this 122 00:05:49.639 --> 00:05:53.480 specific aircraft, that vital positional data is being fed by 123 00:05:53.519 --> 00:05:56.839 a piece of technology called the inertial Reference System or 124 00:05:56.920 --> 00:05:57.720 the IRS. 125 00:05:57.920 --> 00:06:00.439 The IRS. How exactly does that work? 126 00:06:00.480 --> 00:06:04.199 Think of the IRS as the plane's highly sophisticated internal compass. 127 00:06:04.519 --> 00:06:08.199 It calculates the exact position of the aircraft in three 128 00:06:08.240 --> 00:06:12.199 dimensional space by tracking every single movement, like every turn, 129 00:06:12.720 --> 00:06:16.120 every adjustment and heading, every change in speed, every shift 130 00:06:16.120 --> 00:06:19.839 in altitude. It takes all of that continuous movement and 131 00:06:19.920 --> 00:06:24.000 feeds highly specific coordinates directly to the autopilots, so the 132 00:06:24.000 --> 00:06:25.199 computer knows how to steer. 133 00:06:25.439 --> 00:06:28.480 So it's basically like trying to walk through a complex 134 00:06:28.560 --> 00:06:29.800 maze blindfolded. 135 00:06:29.879 --> 00:06:30.879 That's a good way to put it. 136 00:06:31.000 --> 00:06:34.279 Like, if I know my exact starting position at the 137 00:06:34.439 --> 00:06:37.079 entrance of the maze, and I keep perfect track of 138 00:06:37.120 --> 00:06:40.120 every step I take, say two steps forward, one step left, 139 00:06:40.160 --> 00:06:43.519 three steps right, I can navigate the maze without seeing 140 00:06:43.519 --> 00:06:46.399 the walls precisely. But if someone spins me around before 141 00:06:46.399 --> 00:06:49.439 I take my very first step, every subsequent step I take, 142 00:06:49.519 --> 00:06:51.920 even if I count my pacing perfectly, is just going 143 00:06:52.000 --> 00:06:53.560 to take me further and further away from where I 144 00:06:53.600 --> 00:06:54.800 actually am taking. 145 00:06:54.839 --> 00:06:58.120 That may'e analogy a step further. The IRS is essentially 146 00:06:58.160 --> 00:07:00.720 calibrated at the gate before the pilot's ever take their 147 00:07:00.720 --> 00:07:04.360 first step. Oh really yeah, Before takeoff, the pilots manually 148 00:07:04.519 --> 00:07:07.519 entered the exact GPS coordinates of their parking spot at 149 00:07:07.519 --> 00:07:11.480 the airport. From that moment on, the IRS assumes those 150 00:07:11.519 --> 00:07:14.680 initial coordinates are the absolute truth and builds the entire 151 00:07:14.759 --> 00:07:15.759 flight path off them. 152 00:07:15.959 --> 00:07:18.759 Did the pilots of flight five seventy four make a 153 00:07:18.800 --> 00:07:22.199 mistake on the ground, Did they type in the wrong 154 00:07:22.560 --> 00:07:23.519 starting coordinates. 155 00:07:23.639 --> 00:07:27.680 Investigators initially suspected a data entry air but when they 156 00:07:27.720 --> 00:07:31.279 eventually recovered the flight data, they saw that the coordinates 157 00:07:31.399 --> 00:07:34.399 entered at the gate in Sera Biah were perfectly accurate. 158 00:07:34.560 --> 00:07:38.160 Oh wow, Yeah, the IRS was calibrated correctly on the ground. 159 00:07:38.519 --> 00:07:41.800 The problem occurred after they were airborne. Almost the second 160 00:07:41.800 --> 00:07:44.879 the plane lifted into the sky, the right side IRS 161 00:07:45.000 --> 00:07:48.800 unit suffered an internal mechanical malfunction, so it broke mid 162 00:07:48.839 --> 00:07:52.639 air exactly. It started generating false data, essentially lying to 163 00:07:52.680 --> 00:07:55.160 the autopilot about the plane's position and heading. 164 00:07:55.240 --> 00:07:57.480 But the pilots had to realize this was happening, right, 165 00:07:57.600 --> 00:07:59.519 I mean, they have instruments right in front of them 166 00:07:59.519 --> 00:08:00.240 showing their head. 167 00:08:00.399 --> 00:08:03.680 They absolutely realized it. The cockpit voice recorder captured them 168 00:08:03.759 --> 00:08:08.120 noticing the navigational discrepancy. But their reaction to that broken 169 00:08:08.199 --> 00:08:11.839 instrument is where the situation transforms from a mechanical annoyance 170 00:08:12.079 --> 00:08:13.240 into a fatal. 171 00:08:12.920 --> 00:08:15.639 Crisis because of what else is going on. 172 00:08:15.959 --> 00:08:19.000 Right. Consider the environment they're in at this exact moment. 173 00:08:19.319 --> 00:08:22.639 They are lost over the open ocean. The weather outside 174 00:08:22.680 --> 00:08:26.800 is deteriorating rapidly. They're getting pounded by hail, and heavy rain. 175 00:08:26.920 --> 00:08:30.720 And there is absolutely zero visibility out the cockpit windows. 176 00:08:31.000 --> 00:08:34.159 It's just a wall of impenetrable gray clouds. They can't 177 00:08:34.200 --> 00:08:35.799 just look out the window to see where they are. 178 00:08:35.879 --> 00:08:38.519 And in that high stress environment, instead of focusing on 179 00:08:38.799 --> 00:08:42.960 the primary fundamental task of aviation, which is to physically 180 00:08:43.000 --> 00:08:45.799 fly the airplane, maintain a safe altitude, and sure the 181 00:08:45.799 --> 00:08:48.519 wings are level, Yeah, both the captain and the co 182 00:08:48.679 --> 00:08:51.480 pilot suffer a phenomenon called task saturation. 183 00:08:51.799 --> 00:08:52.879 Task saturation. 184 00:08:53.039 --> 00:08:57.279 Yes, they become entirely consumed with troubleshooting this malfunctioning IRS system. 185 00:08:57.679 --> 00:08:59.879 They are heads down in the cockpit, pulling out manual 186 00:09:00.480 --> 00:09:03.519 flipping switches, trying to force the computer to reset. 187 00:09:03.320 --> 00:09:06.120 Just completely ignoring the actual flying of the plane, basically, 188 00:09:06.519 --> 00:09:10.320 and that fixation on the broken compass directly triggers the 189 00:09:10.360 --> 00:09:13.440 next critical event. Yeah. Because they are so focused on 190 00:09:13.480 --> 00:09:16.919 getting the navigation system working again, they decide they need 191 00:09:16.960 --> 00:09:21.600 to temporarily bypass the computer's directional control. The captain instructs 192 00:09:21.639 --> 00:09:25.279 the copilot to switch the navigation system from nav mode 193 00:09:25.360 --> 00:09:27.120 to attitude mode, and. 194 00:09:27.120 --> 00:09:30.399 The intent behind that switch makes sense in theory. They 195 00:09:30.399 --> 00:09:33.360 are basically telling the computer stop trying to steer us 196 00:09:33.360 --> 00:09:35.840 along the route. Just hold the plane straight and level 197 00:09:35.919 --> 00:09:37.879 while we manually figure out our coordinates. 198 00:09:38.039 --> 00:09:39.279 Makes sense, But in. 199 00:09:39.279 --> 00:09:43.320 Making that switch, the captain missed a highly critical, non 200 00:09:43.320 --> 00:09:46.799 negotiable rule straight out of the Boeing seven thirty seven 201 00:09:46.840 --> 00:09:47.879 flight manual. 202 00:09:47.759 --> 00:09:51.000 Right, because when you make that specific switch from nav 203 00:09:51.039 --> 00:09:54.559 to attitude mode, the system has to perform a brief reset. 204 00:09:54.720 --> 00:09:58.480 Exactly during that reset, some of the computerized gauges in 205 00:09:58.519 --> 00:10:02.399 front of the pilot's temporarily go blank. Most importantly, the 206 00:10:02.519 --> 00:10:06.159 artificial horizon, the instrument that visually tells you if your 207 00:10:06.159 --> 00:10:08.240 wings are flat, disappears for a moment. 208 00:10:08.399 --> 00:10:09.159 It does so. 209 00:10:09.200 --> 00:10:12.039 The manual explicitly states that the pilot must manually hold 210 00:10:12.080 --> 00:10:15.480 the plane's control column, keeping the aircraft perfectly straight and 211 00:10:15.559 --> 00:10:17.960 level for thirty seconds while the computer. 212 00:10:17.720 --> 00:10:20.960 Reboots, and neither the captain nor the copilot did that. 213 00:10:21.000 --> 00:10:23.360 They were too distracted by the irs manuals and the 214 00:10:23.399 --> 00:10:26.600 heavy weather, and because they failed to maintain that straight 215 00:10:26.600 --> 00:10:30.519 and level flight during the transition. The aircraft's automated systems 216 00:10:30.559 --> 00:10:35.120 acted exactly as programmed, sensing instability during a mode switch, 217 00:10:35.639 --> 00:10:38.799 the autopilot disengaged completely, but a. 218 00:10:38.720 --> 00:10:42.360 Warning bell would sound in the cockpit when the autopilot. 219 00:10:41.759 --> 00:10:44.679 Shuts off, right, a brief chime does sound, but the 220 00:10:44.720 --> 00:10:47.159 pilots are dealing with the deafening noise of the hail, 221 00:10:47.279 --> 00:10:49.559 the stress of being lost, and the frustration of the. 222 00:10:49.480 --> 00:10:51.919 Broken irs, so they just didn't hear it right. 223 00:10:52.279 --> 00:10:55.759 In the cognitive overload, they miss the chime entirely. They 224 00:10:55.759 --> 00:10:58.480 do not realize that the computer has handed control of 225 00:10:58.480 --> 00:11:01.200 the plane back to them no, and that nobody is 226 00:11:01.240 --> 00:11:03.279 actually flying the aircraft, which. 227 00:11:03.159 --> 00:11:06.039 Is terrifying when you consider the physicist of this specific plane. 228 00:11:06.480 --> 00:11:08.759 Like a lot of aircraft that have seen years of service, 229 00:11:09.120 --> 00:11:13.120 this seven thirty seven wasn't perfectly aerodynamically balanced. Very true, 230 00:11:13.200 --> 00:11:15.919 it had a natural mechanical tendency to roll slightly to 231 00:11:15.960 --> 00:11:18.679 the right. When the autopilot was turned on, it was 232 00:11:19.039 --> 00:11:23.440 constantly automatically making these tiny microscopic adjustments to the left 233 00:11:23.440 --> 00:11:27.200 wing flaps to keep the plane perfectly level against that drift. 234 00:11:27.440 --> 00:11:29.879 But the second the autopilot shut off. 235 00:11:29.799 --> 00:11:31.399 Those tiny corrections. 236 00:11:30.919 --> 00:11:35.799 Stopped exactly this tiny automated correction stopped the ailerons. The 237 00:11:35.840 --> 00:11:39.799 control surfaces on the wings that dictate role relaxed into 238 00:11:39.799 --> 00:11:45.480 a neutral position. Unchecked, the plane began an almost imperceptible. 239 00:11:44.679 --> 00:11:46.879 Role to the right, just drifting on its own. 240 00:11:46.919 --> 00:11:49.240 We are talking about a roll of just one single 241 00:11:49.279 --> 00:11:52.279 degree per second. What's fascinating here is how the human 242 00:11:52.320 --> 00:11:56.000 body reacts, or more accurately, fails to react to that 243 00:11:56.080 --> 00:11:58.840 kind of slow movement. We have to dive into the 244 00:11:58.840 --> 00:12:01.600 psychology and physioggy of spatial disorientation. 245 00:12:01.799 --> 00:12:04.840 Okay, here's where it gets really interesting but also confusing 246 00:12:04.879 --> 00:12:07.120 to me. How so, because if you are sitting in 247 00:12:07.159 --> 00:12:09.960 a chair and that chair is slowly rolling you upside down, 248 00:12:10.720 --> 00:12:13.480 gravity is going to pull you sideways. You are going 249 00:12:13.559 --> 00:12:16.200 to slump against the arm rest. Your body is going 250 00:12:16.240 --> 00:12:17.440 to physically feel it. 251 00:12:17.480 --> 00:12:18.399 That's what you would assume. 252 00:12:18.480 --> 00:12:22.440 Yeah, how on earth do two highly trained professional pilots 253 00:12:22.840 --> 00:12:26.159 sit in a cockpit and not realize their entire airplane 254 00:12:26.159 --> 00:12:27.720 is tipping over onto its side. 255 00:12:27.960 --> 00:12:31.080 It is entirely counterintuitive until you understand how our inner 256 00:12:31.120 --> 00:12:34.600 ear works. On the ground. We rely on a combination 257 00:12:34.840 --> 00:12:38.840 of visual cues like seeing the horizon or the floor 258 00:12:39.200 --> 00:12:41.279 and the fluid moving in our inner ear to tell 259 00:12:41.320 --> 00:12:42.480 our brain which way is. 260 00:12:42.480 --> 00:12:44.159 Up right, visual and physical. 261 00:12:44.440 --> 00:12:48.080 But when you remove those visual cues, entirely, like when 262 00:12:48.120 --> 00:12:50.519 you are flying at night through a featureless void of 263 00:12:50.600 --> 00:12:54.200 thicked storm clouds. Your brain has to rely solely on 264 00:12:54.240 --> 00:12:55.240 the inner ear. 265 00:12:55.399 --> 00:12:57.559 And the inner ear isn't built for aviation, it's. 266 00:12:57.399 --> 00:12:59.759 Built for walking on the ground. If a movement is 267 00:12:59.799 --> 00:13:02.320 slow and smooth enough, like a roll of just one 268 00:13:02.320 --> 00:13:05.559 degree per second, the fluid inside the canals of your 269 00:13:05.559 --> 00:13:08.240 ear doesn't slosh enough to trigger the sensory hairs. 270 00:13:08.399 --> 00:13:09.360 That is wild. 271 00:13:09.519 --> 00:13:13.240 Your brain literally does not register the motion. Furthermore, as 272 00:13:13.240 --> 00:13:16.039 an airplane banks, it's not like tilting a chair. The 273 00:13:16.120 --> 00:13:20.039 aircraft is moving through space. The aerodynamic forces pushed the 274 00:13:20.080 --> 00:13:23.360 occupants straight down into their seats. Oh see to the 275 00:13:23.360 --> 00:13:26.799 pilots sitting in that dark cockpit, feeling the normal pressure 276 00:13:26.840 --> 00:13:29.720 against their seat bottoms, their bodies were screaming at them 277 00:13:29.720 --> 00:13:31.559 that they were flying perfectly straight and level. 278 00:13:31.879 --> 00:13:34.440 Even as the plane is slowly turning on its side. 279 00:13:34.639 --> 00:13:40.200 It's chilling, and this slow, silent roll continues completely unnoticed 280 00:13:40.320 --> 00:13:41.440 while they argue over the. 281 00:13:41.399 --> 00:13:43.879 Irs, unnoticed until it's almost too late. 282 00:13:43.799 --> 00:13:46.679 Right, It continues until the plane hits a critical safety threshold. 283 00:13:46.960 --> 00:13:49.919 It banks past thirty five degrees, and that is when 284 00:13:49.919 --> 00:13:53.519 the plane's automated defense systems finally realize the pilots aren't 285 00:13:53.519 --> 00:13:55.799 paying attention and screen for intervention. 286 00:13:56.039 --> 00:13:59.600 The cockpit is suddenly filled with that blaring automated warning 287 00:14:00.279 --> 00:14:01.759 bank angle, bank angle. 288 00:14:01.840 --> 00:14:04.879 It instantly shatters their tunnel vision. The captain finally looks 289 00:14:04.960 --> 00:14:07.960 up at his instruments, realizes the plane is severely banked 290 00:14:07.960 --> 00:14:10.159 to the right, and he acts. He does, but his 291 00:14:10.240 --> 00:14:12.080 startled reaction seals their fate. 292 00:14:12.279 --> 00:14:15.399 Yes, when an aircraft is banked at a steep angle, 293 00:14:15.480 --> 00:14:18.159 the lift generated by the wings, which normally keeps the 294 00:14:18.159 --> 00:14:20.679 plane up in the air, is now pulling the plane 295 00:14:20.720 --> 00:14:21.480 sideways right. 296 00:14:21.519 --> 00:14:23.399 The lift is sideways now, so to. 297 00:14:23.399 --> 00:14:26.320 Recover from a steep bank, the absolute first step is 298 00:14:26.360 --> 00:14:28.759 to level the wings, getting the plane flat with the 299 00:14:28.759 --> 00:14:31.720 horizon again. Only then do you gently pull back on 300 00:14:31.759 --> 00:14:34.080 the control column to bring the nose up and arrest 301 00:14:34.159 --> 00:14:34.600 the descent. 302 00:14:34.960 --> 00:14:38.240 But the captain acts purely on panic instead of leveling 303 00:14:38.320 --> 00:14:42.440 the wings first. His startled reflex takes over. He immediately 304 00:14:42.480 --> 00:14:46.000 grabs the control column and pulls straight back, instinctively trying 305 00:14:46.039 --> 00:14:47.559 to pull the plane away from the ground. 306 00:14:47.679 --> 00:14:51.039 It's a disastrous aero dynamic error because the plane is 307 00:14:51.039 --> 00:14:53.519 still banked heavily on its side. Pulling back on the 308 00:14:53.559 --> 00:14:56.519 controls doesn't bring the nose up into the sky. It 309 00:14:56.679 --> 00:15:00.200 forces the nose tightly into the turn. Oh Man, he 310 00:15:00.320 --> 00:15:05.120 essentially commanded the airplane into a terrifyingly tight downward spiral dive. 311 00:15:05.519 --> 00:15:09.279 The forces at this point become incomprehensible once he forces 312 00:15:09.320 --> 00:15:11.639 the plane into that dive. What kind of speeds are 313 00:15:11.679 --> 00:15:12.480 we talking about? 314 00:15:12.639 --> 00:15:15.320 The telemetry data is staggering. The plane hits a descent 315 00:15:15.399 --> 00:15:18.000 rate of twenty one thousand feet per minute. They are 316 00:15:18.120 --> 00:15:20.639 hurtling downward at nine hundred kilometers per hour. 317 00:15:20.919 --> 00:15:21.600 Unbelievable. 318 00:15:21.679 --> 00:15:23.919 To put that in perspective. That is actually one hundred 319 00:15:23.919 --> 00:15:27.559 and fifty kilometers per hour faster than the physical structural 320 00:15:27.559 --> 00:15:30.879 limits a Boeing seven thirty seven was designed to withstand. 321 00:15:30.559 --> 00:15:33.399 So it's basically flying faster than it was ever built 322 00:15:33.399 --> 00:15:37.519 to go. The investigators later listened to the horrific sounds 323 00:15:37.559 --> 00:15:41.080 captured on the cockpit voice recorder before the plane even 324 00:15:41.120 --> 00:15:44.919 reached the water. The aerodynamic forces were simply two immense. 325 00:15:45.039 --> 00:15:47.840 The plane physically began tearing itself apart mid air. 326 00:15:48.240 --> 00:15:52.720 The sheer velocity ripped the metal to shreds and then 327 00:15:53.080 --> 00:15:57.799 sudden silence. The wreckage plummets into the Mecassar Strait, and 328 00:15:57.919 --> 00:16:02.120 immediately investigators on the ground handed a geographical mystery of 329 00:16:02.279 --> 00:16:03.279 massive proportions. 330 00:16:03.480 --> 00:16:05.720 They had a plane that vanished off radar at a 331 00:16:05.919 --> 00:16:08.480 very high altitude, and because it was moving so fast 332 00:16:08.519 --> 00:16:11.080 and drifting off course, they didn't know exactly when or 333 00:16:11.159 --> 00:16:14.279 where it went down. Right, Calculating the search grid based 334 00:16:14.279 --> 00:16:17.240 on the plane's remaining fuel yielded a staggering area. 335 00:16:17.360 --> 00:16:19.720 They were looking at a search area roughly the size 336 00:16:19.720 --> 00:16:22.559 of the entire country of Ireland. You have over three 337 00:16:22.600 --> 00:16:26.200 thousand searchers, the Indonesian government, the military, international ad all 338 00:16:26.799 --> 00:16:29.919 scrambling across this massive expanse of ocean in jungle. 339 00:16:30.000 --> 00:16:31.799 It was a massive undertaking. 340 00:16:31.600 --> 00:16:35.600 And in the middle of this frantic, desperate hunt, there 341 00:16:35.679 --> 00:16:39.759 is this utterly devastating moment of false hope. News actually 342 00:16:39.799 --> 00:16:43.200 breaks across the media that twelve survivors have been found. 343 00:16:43.759 --> 00:16:46.440 The immediate relief among the families gathered at the airport 344 00:16:46.519 --> 00:16:50.399 must have been overwhelming, but it was entirely incorrect. When 345 00:16:50.480 --> 00:16:53.799 rescue officials actually reached the location of those survivors, they 346 00:16:53.840 --> 00:16:56.960 realized these people weren't from the airplane at all. Oh No, 347 00:16:57.519 --> 00:17:01.480 they were survivors from a completely unrelated passenger ferry that 348 00:17:01.559 --> 00:17:05.319 had tragically capsized and sunk in the exact same violent storm. 349 00:17:05.599 --> 00:17:08.519 The emotional whiplash for the families waiting for news is 350 00:17:08.599 --> 00:17:11.119 just horrific to think about. The search goes back to 351 00:17:11.160 --> 00:17:14.960 square one. It takes nine agonizing days before a local 352 00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:18.039 fisherman spots a piece of metal floating three hundred meters 353 00:17:18.039 --> 00:17:19.640 off the coast of Sulawesi, and. 354 00:17:19.559 --> 00:17:20.839 That was a crucial find. 355 00:17:21.000 --> 00:17:24.599 It's quickly identified as the right elevator, a crucial movable 356 00:17:24.640 --> 00:17:27.279 flap on the tail section of the aircraft that controls 357 00:17:27.319 --> 00:17:31.000 the plane's pitch. Finding that specific heavy piece of the 358 00:17:31.039 --> 00:17:34.240 tail confirmed without a doubt that the plane had violently 359 00:17:34.240 --> 00:17:35.480 broken apart at sea. 360 00:17:35.559 --> 00:17:38.440 But the nightmare is an over because the main wreckage 361 00:17:38.480 --> 00:17:41.119 is sitting at the bottom of the ocean sixty five 362 00:17:41.200 --> 00:17:42.039 hundred feet deep. 363 00:17:42.200 --> 00:17:43.759 That is so deep that. 364 00:17:43.759 --> 00:17:48.839 Depth introduces extreme logistical hurdles. You cannot send human divers 365 00:17:48.839 --> 00:17:52.279 down sixty five hundred feet. You need highly specialized, incredibly 366 00:17:52.359 --> 00:17:57.240 expensive deep sea salvage equipment, typically military grade remote submarines. 367 00:17:57.359 --> 00:17:59.000 And getting that equipment isn't easy. 368 00:17:59.279 --> 00:18:03.359 Securing that equipment sparked a bitter seven month standoff. 369 00:18:03.440 --> 00:18:06.880 Yeah, the standoff was entirely over money. The Indonesian government 370 00:18:06.960 --> 00:18:10.000 demanded that Adamair foot the bill for the salvage operation, 371 00:18:10.599 --> 00:18:13.599 arguing it was their aircraft and their responsibility to retrieve 372 00:18:13.640 --> 00:18:14.799 the black boxes. 373 00:18:14.480 --> 00:18:16.279 And Adamair flat out refused right. 374 00:18:16.319 --> 00:18:19.720 They claimed their financial responsibility had limits and the government 375 00:18:19.759 --> 00:18:20.240 should pay. 376 00:18:20.799 --> 00:18:24.119 For seven months, the families get no answers while lawyers 377 00:18:24.119 --> 00:18:28.240 and airline executives argue over the invoice. Finally, the public 378 00:18:28.240 --> 00:18:31.839 and international pressure becomes too much and a compromises reached. 379 00:18:32.000 --> 00:18:35.960 Right An American salvage company, Phoenix International, is contracted, but 380 00:18:36.039 --> 00:18:39.000 because Adamair is so resistant to the cost, they only 381 00:18:39.000 --> 00:18:41.640 provide enough funding for exactly one week of searching. 382 00:18:42.000 --> 00:18:44.279 Talk about a ticking cost seven days. 383 00:18:44.759 --> 00:18:46.920 If they don't find it in seven days, the funding 384 00:18:47.000 --> 00:18:49.279 is pulled and the mystery stays at the bottom of 385 00:18:49.319 --> 00:18:50.039 the ocean forever. 386 00:18:50.160 --> 00:18:52.680 And to make the task even harder, because seven months 387 00:18:52.720 --> 00:18:56.480 have passed during this legal bickering, the battery powered locator 388 00:18:56.519 --> 00:18:59.920 beacons attached to the black boxes have completely died. 389 00:19:00.119 --> 00:19:02.079 Wow, so no signal at all, they. 390 00:19:01.920 --> 00:19:05.119 Are searching for two tiny metal boxes in a debris 391 00:19:05.160 --> 00:19:10.319 field six five hundred feet underwater, entirely by sight using 392 00:19:10.359 --> 00:19:12.519 cameras on a remote controlled submarine. 393 00:19:12.680 --> 00:19:13.319 Unbelievable. 394 00:19:13.319 --> 00:19:17.039 They methodically scanned the ocean floor. Days slipped by with 395 00:19:17.160 --> 00:19:20.480 nothing to show for it. Then they started finding small, 396 00:19:20.640 --> 00:19:23.640 heartbreaking pieces of debris, life vests. 397 00:19:23.119 --> 00:19:24.640 Seat trays, getting closer. 398 00:19:24.960 --> 00:19:27.640 Finally, with just two days of funding left on the contract, 399 00:19:27.880 --> 00:19:30.640 the camera on the submarine spotted a glimpse of bright 400 00:19:30.720 --> 00:19:33.000 orange in the mud. Oh wow, it was the flight 401 00:19:33.079 --> 00:19:37.519