WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:03.000 So I want you to close your eyes for a 2 00:00:03.040 --> 00:00:05.879 second and put yourself in a very specific place. Picture this. 3 00:00:06.879 --> 00:00:09.439 You are sitting in the cabin of a massive Boeing 4 00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:11.759 seven forty seven, four hundred. 5 00:00:11.880 --> 00:00:13.119 Oh yeah, the Queen of the Skies. 6 00:00:13.240 --> 00:00:15.759 Exactly, the Queen of the skies. You are cruising at 7 00:00:15.759 --> 00:00:18.519 thirty five thousand feet and you know, looking out your 8 00:00:18.559 --> 00:00:22.280 window there is nothing but the pitch black, freezing expanse 9 00:00:22.320 --> 00:00:23.800 of the Bearing Sea below you. 10 00:00:23.879 --> 00:00:25.239 That's a lonely place. 11 00:00:25.000 --> 00:00:27.760 To be, it really is. It's past five pm. The 12 00:00:27.839 --> 00:00:30.239 dinner trays have just been cleared away by the flight attendants, 13 00:00:30.640 --> 00:00:33.039 and all around you, three hundred and eighty six passengers 14 00:00:33.079 --> 00:00:35.799 are settling in, pills are being fluffed, reading lights are 15 00:00:35.799 --> 00:00:36.359 clicking off. 16 00:00:36.479 --> 00:00:39.439 Right. It's just that quiet, comfortable monotony of a long 17 00:00:39.520 --> 00:00:41.920 haul flight Detroit to Japan. 18 00:00:41.679 --> 00:00:45.439 Right, noyep, Detroit to Japan. And it's total serenity. Until 19 00:00:45.560 --> 00:00:48.560 suddenly that serenity is completely shattered out of nowhere. The 20 00:00:48.560 --> 00:00:50.600 plane takes a violent, aggressive lurch. 21 00:00:50.840 --> 00:00:51.320 Wow. 22 00:00:51.399 --> 00:00:53.079 Yeah, the floor just drops out from under you, and 23 00:00:53.079 --> 00:00:55.280 the aircraft snaps into a forty degree bank to the left. 24 00:00:55.439 --> 00:00:57.960 I mean to put that kind of angle into perspective. 25 00:00:58.200 --> 00:01:02.960 Commercial airliners, in normal comfortable flight, they rarely bank more 26 00:01:02.960 --> 00:01:05.680 than twenty five degrees during a standard turn right. 27 00:01:05.879 --> 00:01:07.400 And that's a smooth, controlled motion. 28 00:01:07.599 --> 00:01:10.959 Exactly a sudden forty degree bank in an aircraft that 29 00:01:11.000 --> 00:01:14.760 weighs nearly four hundred tons that is incredibly violent. It's 30 00:01:14.799 --> 00:01:19.040 this terrifying sideways skid that passengers usually only ever feel 31 00:01:19.040 --> 00:01:20.280 in their worst nightmare. 32 00:01:20.040 --> 00:01:22.599 And pilots really only experience when they're running like worst 33 00:01:22.599 --> 00:01:26.519 case disaster simulations. It is the absolute dread of every traveler. 34 00:01:26.560 --> 00:01:27.599 Oh absolutely so. 35 00:01:27.640 --> 00:01:29.560 Today on this deep dive, we are stepping out of 36 00:01:29.599 --> 00:01:33.400 the flight deck and onto the tarmac as aviation accident investigators. 37 00:01:33.760 --> 00:01:37.719 We're exploring the harrowing true story of Northwest Airlines Flight 38 00:01:37.799 --> 00:01:38.359 eighty five. 39 00:01:38.519 --> 00:01:40.280 It's such a wild story. 40 00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:42.879 It really is. Yeah, will uncover how a microscopic and 41 00:01:42.959 --> 00:01:46.439 visible failure nearly doomed over four hundred people and how 42 00:01:46.560 --> 00:01:50.840 sheer raw human ingenuity fought back. Okay, let's unpack this 43 00:01:51.359 --> 00:01:53.920 because to understand the terror of that moment, we have 44 00:01:53.959 --> 00:01:55.560 to look at what was happening up in the cockpit 45 00:01:55.599 --> 00:01:57.560 when the sky suddenly tilted sideways. 46 00:01:57.760 --> 00:01:59.760 Right, Let's set that scene so up on the flight deck, 47 00:01:59.760 --> 00:02:02.239 it's actually a time of transition. On these incredibly long 48 00:02:02.280 --> 00:02:05.760 international flights, airlines use an augmented. 49 00:02:05.319 --> 00:02:06.959 Crew, meaning they have extra pilots to. 50 00:02:07.000 --> 00:02:11.360 Rotate exactly two captains, two first officers flying in shifts 51 00:02:11.360 --> 00:02:15.199 to prevent fatigue. So at this exact moment, the senior crew, 52 00:02:15.400 --> 00:02:18.840 Captain John Hanson and first Officer David Smith are off duty. 53 00:02:19.159 --> 00:02:20.919 They're resting in the private crew cabin. 54 00:02:21.159 --> 00:02:22.199 So who's at the controls? 55 00:02:22.360 --> 00:02:25.879 At the controls are the fresh relief crew, Junior Captain 56 00:02:25.879 --> 00:02:28.120 Frank Gibe and first Officer Mike Fagan. 57 00:02:28.439 --> 00:02:32.000 And I mean these are highly seasoned aviators. Fagan is 58 00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:34.960 a Vietnam VET with twenty five years of flying experience. 59 00:02:35.199 --> 00:02:37.719 Guibe has over eleven thousand hours under his belt. 60 00:02:37.759 --> 00:02:39.599 That's a massive amount of experience. 61 00:02:39.719 --> 00:02:43.080 Yeah, but when that plane violently rolls, experience only gets 62 00:02:43.120 --> 00:02:46.199 you so far. The aircraft is shuddering, Guide's an immediate 63 00:02:46.240 --> 00:02:49.919 reaction is pure muscle memory. He disconnects the autopilot, grabs 64 00:02:49.919 --> 00:02:52.319 the control yoke, and physically wrestles the wings. 65 00:02:52.120 --> 00:02:54.080 Level, which is exactly what he's trained to do. 66 00:02:54.319 --> 00:02:57.280 Right, And my first assumption in that scenario, given the 67 00:02:57.400 --> 00:03:01.039 violent pull to the left would be a catastrop engine failure. 68 00:03:01.240 --> 00:03:03.840 Yeah, that is the most logical deduction for a pilot 69 00:03:03.879 --> 00:03:06.639 to make in that split second asymmetrical thrust from a 70 00:03:06.639 --> 00:03:09.879 blown engine or worse, an engine separating from the wing 71 00:03:09.960 --> 00:03:12.120 that will violently pull a plane to one side. 72 00:03:12.280 --> 00:03:15.120 But a rapid scan of the engine instruments tells them 73 00:03:15.120 --> 00:03:18.840 a totally different story. The engines are perfectly fine. They 74 00:03:18.879 --> 00:03:23.520 are delivering full symmetrical power, which is wild right. Yet 75 00:03:23.560 --> 00:03:26.400 Guib and Fagan are still fighting with every ounce of 76 00:03:26.479 --> 00:03:28.719 upper body strength they have just to keep the wings 77 00:03:28.719 --> 00:03:32.400 from rolling over again. And then the central warning system 78 00:03:32.400 --> 00:03:35.400 shines in with a diagnosis. The screen just reads yaw, 79 00:03:35.520 --> 00:03:36.639 damp or lower oof. 80 00:03:37.120 --> 00:03:40.159 That specific warning is shilling. It tells the crew that 81 00:03:40.199 --> 00:03:43.120 the lower rudder of this massive seven forty seven has 82 00:03:43.159 --> 00:03:47.240 suffered a heart over, meaning it's jammed exactly for a 83 00:03:47.280 --> 00:03:50.800 reason they cannot yet fathom. The massive vertical control surface 84 00:03:50.840 --> 00:03:54.159 on the tail has violently deflected seventeen degrees to the 85 00:03:54.240 --> 00:03:56.719 left and it has locked completely in place. 86 00:03:56.879 --> 00:03:59.919 For anyone familiar with aerodynamics, you know, the rudder controls yaw, 87 00:04:00.280 --> 00:04:03.479 the nose pointing left or right. But a seventeen degree 88 00:04:03.479 --> 00:04:06.319 hard over at thirty five thousand feet isn't just a turn. 89 00:04:06.800 --> 00:04:09.159 It induces a massive aerodynamic slip. 90 00:04:09.360 --> 00:04:10.639 It's brutal on the airframe. 91 00:04:10.719 --> 00:04:13.520 Yeah, the aircraft is literally flying slightly sideways through the 92 00:04:13.599 --> 00:04:15.680 jet stream. To put it's simply, it's basically like a 93 00:04:15.759 --> 00:04:18.120 race car driver skidding sideways through a turn. 94 00:04:18.199 --> 00:04:19.680 That's a really good analogy, right. 95 00:04:19.720 --> 00:04:22.600 The nose is pointing one way, but the sheer momentum 96 00:04:22.720 --> 00:04:25.519 of four hundred tons of metal is pushing it in. 97 00:04:25.519 --> 00:04:29.040 Another, and the drag profile is just immense. The plane 98 00:04:29.160 --> 00:04:31.759 is no longer cutting efficiently through the air. It is 99 00:04:31.800 --> 00:04:34.560 acting like a massive air brake on one side, which 100 00:04:34.600 --> 00:04:38.360 creates severe structural stress on the vertical stabilizer. 101 00:04:38.639 --> 00:04:41.160 And the crew knows exactly how lethal this is, right 102 00:04:41.199 --> 00:04:44.560 because less than a year prior, an American Airlines airbus 103 00:04:44.560 --> 00:04:47.800 crashed in New York after catastrophic stress on its rudder 104 00:04:47.839 --> 00:04:51.639 system ripped the vertical stabilizer completely off the plane. 105 00:04:51.720 --> 00:04:53.959 Yeah, that was heavily on the minds of every pilot 106 00:04:53.959 --> 00:04:54.800 flying at that time. 107 00:04:54.920 --> 00:04:58.600 So they are wrestling a skidding, massive aircraft that is 108 00:04:58.680 --> 00:05:02.439 actively trying to flip itself over. Now knowing modern aviation, 109 00:05:02.639 --> 00:05:06.720 there is a checklist for every conceivable disaster. Boeing builds 110 00:05:06.800 --> 00:05:08.959 binders thicker than phone books. 111 00:05:08.800 --> 00:05:09.639 Oh for sure. 112 00:05:09.680 --> 00:05:13.199 So they just open the manual to the stuck rudder page. Right, Yeah, 113 00:05:13.519 --> 00:05:16.720 I imagine Fagan immediately flits to the rudder hard overtab 114 00:05:17.040 --> 00:05:19.480 and starts pulling circuit breakers to reset the system. 115 00:05:19.519 --> 00:05:21.959 Well, what's fascinating here is there is no page for this. 116 00:05:22.199 --> 00:05:25.000 Wait, really, there is no procedure none. 117 00:05:25.240 --> 00:05:28.160 You'd assume Boeing has a checklist for everything, but when 118 00:05:28.439 --> 00:05:31.560 Fagan cracks open that manual hoping for a lifeline, he 119 00:05:31.639 --> 00:05:35.399 finds almost nothing. There is no procedure for a rudder 120 00:05:35.439 --> 00:05:39.519 hard over at cruising altitude because mathematically it isn't supposed 121 00:05:39.560 --> 00:05:39.959 to happen. 122 00:05:40.000 --> 00:05:40.879 That is terrifying. 123 00:05:40.959 --> 00:05:45.120 It gets worse. The manual simply offers a single terrifying 124 00:05:45.160 --> 00:05:48.240 piece of advice, do not remove any pressure from the 125 00:05:48.279 --> 00:05:49.160 hydraulic system. 126 00:05:49.240 --> 00:05:51.920 Wait. Wait, it just says keep the hydraulics on and 127 00:05:52.000 --> 00:05:53.480 leaves them to figure out the rest. 128 00:05:53.720 --> 00:05:58.519 That is the extent of the guidance. They are entirely offscript. 129 00:05:58.560 --> 00:06:01.399 The engineering logic is that shutting off the hydraulics might 130 00:06:01.480 --> 00:06:04.519 cause the rudder to flutter wildly in the slipstream, which 131 00:06:04.519 --> 00:06:06.920 would tear the tail apart. Oh I see, yeah, So 132 00:06:06.920 --> 00:06:09.759 they have to leave the system fully pressurized, which means 133 00:06:09.759 --> 00:06:13.680 they are physically fighting the three thousand pounds per square 134 00:06:13.680 --> 00:06:16.360 inch of hydraulic pressure that is keeping that rudder locked 135 00:06:16.360 --> 00:06:17.160 in place. 136 00:06:16.920 --> 00:06:20.759 Which accelerates their next massive problem. Because they are plowing 137 00:06:20.879 --> 00:06:24.040 sideways through the sky, generating incredible drag, they have to 138 00:06:24.079 --> 00:06:27.720 maintain much higher engine thrust just to stay airborne. 139 00:06:27.920 --> 00:06:31.079 Right, they're burning fuel like crazy, exactly. 140 00:06:30.800 --> 00:06:33.720 They're burning through their fuel at an unsustainable rate. They 141 00:06:33.800 --> 00:06:36.600 need a run away, and they need it immediately. But 142 00:06:36.680 --> 00:06:39.079 a quick look at the navigation charts shows they are 143 00:06:39.079 --> 00:06:41.199 in a geographical nightmare. 144 00:06:41.319 --> 00:06:44.199 Yeah, they are deep over the Northern Pacific. They make 145 00:06:44.240 --> 00:06:48.360 the critical decision to turn back toward Anchorage, Alaska, but 146 00:06:48.480 --> 00:06:51.600 that safe harbor is thirteen hundred kilometers. 147 00:06:51.120 --> 00:06:52.920 Away, and they're in a dead zone. Right. 148 00:06:53.199 --> 00:06:56.319 Adding to the nightmare, they are in a communications dead zone. 149 00:06:56.839 --> 00:07:01.480 Standard very high frequency or VHF radios rely on line 150 00:07:01.519 --> 00:07:04.240 of sight. They are far too distant from any land 151 00:07:04.279 --> 00:07:06.560 based antenna to reach air traffic control. 152 00:07:06.800 --> 00:07:09.759 I mean, you are fighting for your life gripping the 153 00:07:09.839 --> 00:07:12.399 yolk with white knuckles, and when you key the microphone 154 00:07:12.439 --> 00:07:14.199 to declare an emergency, you get dead air. 155 00:07:14.399 --> 00:07:16.480 Talk about feeling isolated, right. 156 00:07:16.480 --> 00:07:18.800 So they ultimately had to rely on a relay system. 157 00:07:18.959 --> 00:07:22.240 They found another Northwest flight Flight nineteen that was closer 158 00:07:22.240 --> 00:07:25.560 to the Alaskan coast and started bouncing their distress calls 159 00:07:25.600 --> 00:07:28.120 off that aircraft, just to get word to anchorage that 160 00:07:28.120 --> 00:07:29.600 they are declaring a red emergency. 161 00:07:29.879 --> 00:07:33.600 And while that radio drama unfolds, the physical reality inside 162 00:07:33.600 --> 00:07:38.040 the cockpit is crossing the threshold of human endurance. Senior 163 00:07:38.079 --> 00:07:40.839 Captain John Hanson returns to the flight deck and takes command. 164 00:07:40.959 --> 00:07:41.639 Thank goodness. 165 00:07:41.759 --> 00:07:44.759 Yeah, but because of the plane desperately wants to spiral 166 00:07:44.759 --> 00:07:47.160 out of the sky to the left, the pilots have 167 00:07:47.199 --> 00:07:49.399 to input maximum opposite controls. 168 00:07:49.800 --> 00:07:53.319 This is where the biomechanics of this situation become horrifying. 169 00:07:54.199 --> 00:07:57.439 We aren't talking about holding a steering wheel slightly off center, No, 170 00:07:57.560 --> 00:07:59.600 not at all. They are locking their right leg out 171 00:07:59.680 --> 00:08:03.240 completely straight, driving their full body weight into the right 172 00:08:03.319 --> 00:08:06.360 rudder pedal, and using their backs and shoulders to wrench 173 00:08:06.399 --> 00:08:07.680 the control yoke to the right. 174 00:08:08.000 --> 00:08:11.240 The muscular strain is so severe that lactic acid builds 175 00:08:11.279 --> 00:08:14.959 up almost instantly, muscles begin to violently cramp and shake. 176 00:08:15.600 --> 00:08:18.639 A single pilot can only maintain that immense physical pressure 177 00:08:18.680 --> 00:08:21.279 for about ten to fifteen minutes before their body simply 178 00:08:21.279 --> 00:08:21.720 gives out. 179 00:08:21.800 --> 00:08:23.879 Wow, only ten minutes. 180 00:08:24.240 --> 00:08:27.560 Yeah, So Hanson and Fagan are forced to choreograph this 181 00:08:27.680 --> 00:08:32.200 highly dangerous dance where they swap control. One physically exhausted 182 00:08:32.240 --> 00:08:35.919 pilot carefully hands the immense structural tension over to the other, 183 00:08:36.240 --> 00:08:38.679 shakes out his cramped limbs, and prepares to take the 184 00:08:38.679 --> 00:08:40.159 burning back a few minutes later. 185 00:08:40.279 --> 00:08:43.399 That is just grueling, and meanwhile the atmosphere in the 186 00:08:43.399 --> 00:08:47.480 main cabin is deadly serious. Captain Guive steps out to 187 00:08:47.480 --> 00:08:50.080 brief the lead flight attendants. He looks them in the 188 00:08:50.080 --> 00:08:52.519 eye and tells them it's a red emergency, which. 189 00:08:52.320 --> 00:08:53.879 Means they have to prepare for the worst. 190 00:08:54.279 --> 00:08:58.360 Exactly that means preparing the cabin for a high speed crash, landing, 191 00:08:58.519 --> 00:09:02.480 structural failure, or evacuation. Those flight attendants then have to 192 00:09:02.519 --> 00:09:05.240 walk out into the aisles, look three hundred and eighty 193 00:09:05.279 --> 00:09:09.240 six terrified passengers in the face, and calmly demonstrate how 194 00:09:09.279 --> 00:09:10.320 to brace for impact. 195 00:09:10.519 --> 00:09:14.919 It requires an unbelievable level of compartmentalization. But back in 196 00:09:14.919 --> 00:09:18.039 the cockfit, the flight crew realizes that brute strength isn't 197 00:09:18.039 --> 00:09:19.440 going to get them on the ground safely. 198 00:09:19.600 --> 00:09:21.279 Right. They can't just muscle it all the way down. 199 00:09:21.440 --> 00:09:25.000 No, they're flying blind. Procedurally, they need engineering help to 200 00:09:25.080 --> 00:09:27.679 invent a solution that doesn't exist in any manual. 201 00:09:27.879 --> 00:09:30.080 And here's where it gets really interesting. This is when 202 00:09:30.080 --> 00:09:33.240 they resort to the high frequency or HF radio to 203 00:09:33.240 --> 00:09:36.720 reach the Northwest system's operation center back in Minnesota. 204 00:09:36.879 --> 00:09:41.200 Now, HF radio is an archaic, frustrating technology. It works 205 00:09:41.200 --> 00:09:44.360 by bouncing signals off the Earth's ion a sphere. It 206 00:09:44.440 --> 00:09:47.799 is notoriously weak, drifting, and staticky. 207 00:09:48.320 --> 00:09:51.000 It sounds basically like two Campbell's soup cans connected by 208 00:09:51.000 --> 00:09:51.360 a string. 209 00:09:51.440 --> 00:09:55.279 Right, Yeah, pretty much. But through this crackling wall of 210 00:09:55.360 --> 00:09:58.159 noise they manage to get a hold of John Doherty, 211 00:09:58.480 --> 00:10:02.000 a lead seven four seven one four hundred expert at Northwest. 212 00:10:02.480 --> 00:10:05.320 Doherty was actually at home relaxing when his pager went off, 213 00:10:05.639 --> 00:10:07.720 thrusting him into this high altitude puzzle. 214 00:10:07.840 --> 00:10:10.759 So Doherty is on this awful radio connection trying to 215 00:10:10.799 --> 00:10:13.200 troubleshoot a plane he can't even see, and because the 216 00:10:13.200 --> 00:10:16.279 aircraft is violently shaking from the aerodynamic stress of the slip, 217 00:10:16.559 --> 00:10:19.519 Captain Hansen decides to descend to fourteen. 218 00:10:19.159 --> 00:10:21.039 Thousand feet, which makes sense on paper. 219 00:10:21.200 --> 00:10:23.919 The logic seems perfectly sound. Right drop to a lower 220 00:10:23.960 --> 00:10:26.639 altitude where the air is denser, providing more lift and 221 00:10:26.720 --> 00:10:30.960 theoretically better control surface authority. But instead they walk right 222 00:10:31.000 --> 00:10:32.840 into a bizarre physics trap. 223 00:10:32.639 --> 00:10:36.639 A trap built entirely by the plane's automated systems. As 224 00:10:36.679 --> 00:10:39.759 they descend, they naturally begin to slow down their air speed, 225 00:10:40.200 --> 00:10:43.000 but the rudder's hydraulic system on A seven forty seven 226 00:10:43.159 --> 00:10:46.440 features a mechanism designed to protect the tail at high speeds. 227 00:10:46.519 --> 00:10:48.399 Okay, I think I see the mechanism here. It's an 228 00:10:48.399 --> 00:10:50.639 aerodynamic blowdown limit exactly. 229 00:10:50.960 --> 00:10:54.080 It limits how far the rudder can physically move when 230 00:10:54.120 --> 00:10:56.960 the plane is flying fast like mock point eighty five, 231 00:10:57.279 --> 00:10:59.559 because a full deflection at that speed would rip the 232 00:10:59.600 --> 00:11:00.320 tail off right. 233 00:11:00.519 --> 00:11:03.879 So, when they are flying fast, the sheer physical force 234 00:11:03.879 --> 00:11:06.399 of the air hitting the rudder is stronger than the 235 00:11:06.480 --> 00:11:10.519 hydraulic pump. The air pushes back against the jam, but 236 00:11:10.600 --> 00:11:11.960 as they slow down. 237 00:11:11.840 --> 00:11:14.879 The aerodynamic pressure decreases, the force of the air pushing 238 00:11:14.919 --> 00:11:17.919 back against the rudder weakens, but the hydraulic pump is 239 00:11:17.960 --> 00:11:20.840 still pushing at an unrelenting three thousand psi. 240 00:11:21.080 --> 00:11:23.720 Oh no, so as the plane slows, the hydraulics win 241 00:11:23.759 --> 00:11:24.320 the tug of war. 242 00:11:24.440 --> 00:11:27.679 They do, the jammed piston extends even further to its 243 00:11:27.720 --> 00:11:30.360 new limit. The slower they fly, the further left the 244 00:11:30.399 --> 00:11:34.120 rudder forces itself. It actively makes the aircraft harder to control. 245 00:11:34.159 --> 00:11:35.480 The closer they get to the ground. 246 00:11:35.720 --> 00:11:38.840 That is a terrifying feedback loop, which means they can't 247 00:11:38.879 --> 00:11:41.320 just deer with the wings anymore. The drag is two 248 00:11:41.399 --> 00:11:43.639 immense So what do they do. They have to rely 249 00:11:43.759 --> 00:11:46.840 on asymmetrical thrust. They push the throttles up on the 250 00:11:46.879 --> 00:11:49.279 left wings engines and pull the throttles back on the 251 00:11:49.320 --> 00:11:52.639 right wings engines. It's essentially using the massive power of 252 00:11:52.679 --> 00:11:57.039 those Pratt and Whitney engines to overpower the aerodynamic drag 253 00:11:57.080 --> 00:11:57.919 of the tail. 254 00:11:57.840 --> 00:12:00.679 Steering the plane through raw thrust vectors. 255 00:12:00.759 --> 00:12:03.399 Yeah, it's like paddling a canoe on only one side 256 00:12:03.440 --> 00:12:04.559 to force it to go straight. 257 00:12:04.679 --> 00:12:08.960 That's spot on, But it requires incredible anticipation. Because jet 258 00:12:09.039 --> 00:12:11.879 engines have spool up and spool down lag. You can't 259 00:12:11.919 --> 00:12:14.240 just snap them into power like a car engine. 260 00:12:14.240 --> 00:12:16.720 No, it takes a few seconds for the engines to react. Right. 261 00:12:16.919 --> 00:12:20.759 It is brilliant improvised airmanship, but it leads them to 262 00:12:20.799 --> 00:12:23.960 the most dangerous phase of the entire ordeal. They are 263 00:12:24.000 --> 00:12:28.279 finally approaching anchorage, surrounded by the towering, snow capped Alaskan 264 00:12:28.320 --> 00:12:31.039 mountains and the freezing waters of cook Inlet. 265 00:12:31.399 --> 00:12:34.000 Right, So they're threading a needle with a four hundred 266 00:12:34.000 --> 00:12:36.840 ton aircraft that wants to fly sideways, and the margin 267 00:12:36.879 --> 00:12:38.320 for error is absolute zero. 268 00:12:38.600 --> 00:12:43.240 It's literally zero. In a normal aviation scenario, if a 269 00:12:43.320 --> 00:12:46.200 landing looks unstable, if a gust of wind catches them, 270 00:12:46.480 --> 00:12:49.399 or they aren't lined up perfectly, a pilot will simply 271 00:12:49.440 --> 00:12:52.799 push the throttles forward, execute a go around, and circle 272 00:12:52.840 --> 00:12:53.679 back to try again. 273 00:12:54.200 --> 00:12:58.279 But with locked rudder applying maximum takeoff thrust to execute 274 00:12:58.279 --> 00:13:00.840 a go around would be a death end sentence, wouldn't it. 275 00:13:00.960 --> 00:13:04.919 Absolutely The asymmetrical power needed, combined with the extreme drag 276 00:13:05.200 --> 00:13:08.159 would likely roll the aircraft completely over. 277 00:13:08.360 --> 00:13:12.159 It would induce an uncontrollable spin. They have exactly one 278 00:13:12.200 --> 00:13:15.480 shot to put this crippled jet squarely on the runway 279 00:13:15.559 --> 00:13:19.399 numbers wow. So to maintain control authority over that aggressively 280 00:13:19.399 --> 00:13:23.159 deflected rudder, Dougherty on the ground suggests they carry extra speed. 281 00:13:23.440 --> 00:13:26.279 They add twenty knots to their approach speed. They're coming 282 00:13:26.320 --> 00:13:29.679 in extremely hot, burning up precious runway distance. 283 00:13:29.799 --> 00:13:32.039 I want to paint the picture of these final seconds. 284 00:13:32.159 --> 00:13:34.039 You are in the cabin. You've been in the brace 285 00:13:34.080 --> 00:13:36.919 position for twenty minutes. You were staring at your knees, 286 00:13:37.279 --> 00:13:40.399 listening to the deafening roar of the engines constantly spooling 287 00:13:40.480 --> 00:13:42.200 up and down as the pilots fight the yaw. 288 00:13:42.440 --> 00:13:44.440 It must have been horrifying back there. 289 00:13:44.399 --> 00:13:47.799 Right and upfront. The concrete of the runway is rushing 290 00:13:47.799 --> 00:13:50.399 at the cockpit at over three hundred kilometers per hour, 291 00:13:51.320 --> 00:13:54.759 and there is a deadly mechanical booby trap waiting for 292 00:13:54.799 --> 00:13:57.120 them the millisecond the wheels. 293 00:13:56.759 --> 00:14:00.000 Touched the tarmac, and that trap is the mechanical linkage 294 00:14:00.039 --> 00:14:03.200 between the rudder pedals and the nosewheel steering to help 295 00:14:03.240 --> 00:14:06.720 pilots steer on the ground. The systems are connected, oh. 296 00:14:06.480 --> 00:14:09.480 Man, So that seventeen degree rudder deflection locked into the 297 00:14:09.480 --> 00:14:12.120 pedals is going to instantly command the nose wheel to 298 00:14:12.240 --> 00:14:14.720 yank the plane violently off the runway the moment it 299 00:14:14.720 --> 00:14:15.679 makes contact. 300 00:14:15.440 --> 00:14:18.120 YEP at three hundred kilometers an hour, veering into the 301 00:14:18.159 --> 00:14:21.360 grass would shear the landing gear off, rupture the fuel tanks, 302 00:14:21.559 --> 00:14:22.960 and destroy the aircraft. 303 00:14:23.039 --> 00:14:26.399 To survive this, Fagan and Hans and orchestrate a terrifying 304 00:14:26.440 --> 00:14:30.360 split second handover right. At the moment of touchdown, Fagan 305 00:14:30.399 --> 00:14:33.519 takes sole control of a yoke, focusing entirely on fighting 306 00:14:33.519 --> 00:14:35.799 the crosswinds and keeping the massive wings level. 307 00:14:36.000 --> 00:14:38.039 It's all about timing here, exactly. 308 00:14:38.639 --> 00:14:41.240 Because the instant the main landing gear hits the concrete, 309 00:14:41.360 --> 00:14:44.080 Hanson aggressively grabs the nose tiller, which is the small 310 00:14:44.120 --> 00:14:47.120 steering wheel next to his left hip, and physically overpowers 311 00:14:47.120 --> 00:14:50.120 the hydraulic urge to veer left, slamming on the brakes. 312 00:14:50.399 --> 00:14:54.440 The coordination required is superhuman, and against all the physical 313 00:14:54.519 --> 00:14:58.039 variables fighting them, it works, thank goodness. The heavy anti 314 00:14:58.039 --> 00:15:01.320 skid breaking, the violent screech of the tires, the sheer 315 00:15:01.360 --> 00:15:05.120 physical willpower of those two men keeps the massive jet 316 00:15:05.159 --> 00:15:07.759 on the center line until it finally grinds to a halt. 317 00:15:08.360 --> 00:15:11.639 All four hundred and four people on board are entirely safe. 318 00:15:11.879 --> 00:15:14.639 The silence in that cockpit after the engine spun down 319 00:15:14.759 --> 00:15:19.120 must have been deafening. A guaranteed catastrophe completely averted. But 320 00:15:19.200 --> 00:15:22.159 while the passengers slide down the emergency choots and eventually 321 00:15:22.159 --> 00:15:25.480 get to go home, the NTSB investigators are just waking up. 322 00:15:25.600 --> 00:15:27.399 Yeah, their job is just starting right. 323 00:15:27.679 --> 00:15:30.440 They have a four hundred ton engineering mystery sitting on 324 00:15:30.480 --> 00:15:34.120 a runway in Alaska. What invisible flaw nearly brought the 325 00:15:34.200 --> 00:15:35.240 Queen of this Guy's down? 326 00:15:35.639 --> 00:15:39.320 While the NTSB dispatches a specialized team led by investigators 327 00:15:39.360 --> 00:15:42.000 Carolyn de Forge and Sylvie Dion. When they finally get 328 00:15:42.039 --> 00:15:44.519 a lift up to examine the towering tail section of 329 00:15:44.559 --> 00:15:47.639 the aircraft, the first clue is glaringly obvious. 330 00:15:47.759 --> 00:15:48.440 What did they find? 331 00:15:48.720 --> 00:15:51.639 A massive trail of red hydraulic fluid leaking down the 332 00:15:51.720 --> 00:15:55.080 internal bulkheads. They trace that leak directly to a component 333 00:15:55.159 --> 00:15:58.240 called the power control module or PCM. 334 00:15:58.000 --> 00:16:00.200 Which is the hydraulic cart that takes the pilot its 335 00:16:00.200 --> 00:16:03.919 input and physically moves the rudder exactly And the source 336 00:16:03.919 --> 00:16:08.200 of the failure is almost absurdly small. On this massive module, 337 00:16:08.240 --> 00:16:10.759 there is an end cap. It's just a circular piece 338 00:16:10.799 --> 00:16:13.559 of machined aluminum about two point five inches in diameter, 339 00:16:14.080 --> 00:16:15.480 and it had completely sheared off. 340 00:16:15.519 --> 00:16:18.519 It fractured right at the threads, and when that cat 341 00:16:18.559 --> 00:16:22.879 blew off under immense pressure, the hydraulic piston inside the 342 00:16:22.919 --> 00:16:27.320 module shot out completely past its design limits, firmly jamming 343 00:16:27.320 --> 00:16:29.360 the rudder at seventeen degrees, and. 344 00:16:29.279 --> 00:16:33.320 The metallurgical analysis revealed the culprit was pure unadulterated metal. 345 00:16:33.039 --> 00:16:37.080 Fatigue, which is an explanation that sent absolute shockways through 346 00:16:37.120 --> 00:16:38.080 the engineering world. 347 00:16:38.159 --> 00:16:41.240 Because aviation parts aren't just built to look sturdy, they 348 00:16:41.279 --> 00:16:45.879 are governed by incredibly strict mathematical models. This specific aluminum 349 00:16:45.919 --> 00:16:49.360 alloy module was engineered with a meantime before failure and 350 00:16:49.600 --> 00:16:51.360 MTBF of thirty thousand years. 351 00:16:51.440 --> 00:16:52.720 Yeah, that number is wild. 352 00:16:52.840 --> 00:16:55.679 I mean, human civilization was painting caves thirty thousand years ago. 353 00:16:56.080 --> 00:16:58.840 How do you even calculate a lifespan that outlasts the 354 00:16:58.879 --> 00:17:01.240 next ice age for a plane that just wants to 355 00:17:01.240 --> 00:17:02.679 fly from Detroit to Japan. 356 00:17:03.000 --> 00:17:06.799 Well, it's based on mathematical fatigue cycles. They calculate the 357 00:17:06.839 --> 00:17:09.960 maximum structural load of part will experience on an average 358 00:17:09.960 --> 00:17:14.000 flight and build a safety margin so massive that the 359 00:17:14.039 --> 00:17:17.400 metal should technically never yield, right. It was designed to 360 00:17:17.480 --> 00:17:20.400 outlast the physical air bout hundreds of times over. 361 00:17:21.319 --> 00:17:24.279 So wait, if a part mathematically modeled to last thirty 362 00:17:24.319 --> 00:17:27.680 millennia suddenly shatters midflight in a fraction of that time, 363 00:17:27.960 --> 00:17:31.440 my mind immediately goes to external damage. Did a mechanic 364 00:17:31.519 --> 00:17:34.240 drop a wrench on it? Did it get scored during installation? 365 00:17:34.559 --> 00:17:37.640 The investigators hunted for exactly that kind of anomaly. They 366 00:17:37.720 --> 00:17:40.920 dug into the intricate maintenance logs of this specific tail 367 00:17:41.000 --> 00:17:44.079 number and discovered a massive revelation, which was this was 368 00:17:44.119 --> 00:17:47.200 not a standard seven four to seven four hundred. Northwest 369 00:17:47.279 --> 00:17:50.319 was the launch customer for this variant. This exact aircraft 370 00:17:50.400 --> 00:17:53.400 was line number one, the very first seven forty seven 371 00:17:53.480 --> 00:17:54.880 four hundred ever built. 372 00:17:54.920 --> 00:17:57.119 Wait, really the prototype. 373 00:17:56.519 --> 00:17:59.000 Exactly I mean to be precise, Before it ever carried 374 00:17:59.000 --> 00:18:01.440 a single pay passenger. It was utilized by Boeing as 375 00:18:01.480 --> 00:18:05.319 the primary flight test aircraft WOW. During certification, test pilots 376 00:18:05.400 --> 00:18:10.319 intentionally subject the airframe to extreme structural stress, high G maneuvers, 377 00:18:10.599 --> 00:18:15.400 extreme rudder inputs, maximum pressurization cycles, things the commercial jet 378 00:18:15.440 --> 00:18:17.440 will never experience in normal service. 379 00:18:17.640 --> 00:18:20.000 So this plane had seen some things definitely. 380 00:18:20.440 --> 00:18:23.920 By the time of the Anchorage incident, this specific plane 381 00:18:24.000 --> 00:18:27.319 had endured over fifty five thousand hours of flight and 382 00:18:27.400 --> 00:18:30.599 more than seven thousand grueling takeoffs and landings. 383 00:18:30.799 --> 00:18:33.920 It had essentially lived multiple lifetimes in dog years compared 384 00:18:33.920 --> 00:18:36.599 to the rest of the fleet. The metal was exhausted. 385 00:18:36.839 --> 00:18:37.200 It was. 386 00:18:37.880 --> 00:18:40.680 But here is the deeply frustrating part for the NTSB, 387 00:18:41.400 --> 00:18:45.160 even knowing its violent test history. Extensive metallurgical testing could 388 00:18:45.200 --> 00:18:47.519 not pinpoint the exact root cause of the fracture. 389 00:18:47.680 --> 00:18:48.519 Really, none of it. 390 00:18:48.680 --> 00:18:53.279 None fluorescent dyes, ultraviolet lights, electron microscopic analysis, none of 391 00:18:53.279 --> 00:18:55.720 it could definitively explain why the metal cracked in that 392 00:18:55.839 --> 00:18:59.880 exact thread at that exact moment. They ordered rigorous ultrasound 393 00:18:59.880 --> 00:19:02.400 and inspections for the entire global fleet, but the core 394 00:19:02.519 --> 00:19:03.519 mystery lingered in the. 395 00:19:03.519 --> 00:19:06.400 Archives until lightning struck twice in the exact same place. 396 00:19:06.680 --> 00:19:09.839 Four years later, an Air France cargo plane, which was 397 00:19:09.880 --> 00:19:12.960 also a seven forty seven four hundred, suffered the exact 398 00:19:13.000 --> 00:19:15.400 same terrifying lower rudder hard over. 399 00:19:15.640 --> 00:19:18.680 The NTSB investigators must have fill a cold sweat getting 400 00:19:18.680 --> 00:19:19.319 that phone call. 401 00:19:19.480 --> 00:19:22.880