WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:04.440 Picture this. You're like sitting in a really comfortable window seat, right, yeah, 2 00:00:04.480 --> 00:00:06.799 twenty three thousand feet above the Mediterranean Sea. 3 00:00:07.000 --> 00:00:08.880 Just a beautiful view out the window. 4 00:00:08.919 --> 00:00:12.119 Oh gorgeous. It's a sun drenched afternoon, August six, two 5 00:00:12.160 --> 00:00:15.519 thousand and five, and you're surrounded by all these excitedly 6 00:00:15.640 --> 00:00:18.719 chatting vacationers. They're on their way down to the Tunisian 7 00:00:18.760 --> 00:00:19.920 resort island of Durba. 8 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:22.039 Everyone's just ready for the beach exactly. 9 00:00:22.160 --> 00:00:24.559 You can feel that cool air from the overhead vent 10 00:00:25.160 --> 00:00:29.920 and you've got this steady, reassuring hum of the turboprop engines. 11 00:00:30.079 --> 00:00:32.000 That's just been the soundtrack of your flight for the 12 00:00:32.039 --> 00:00:33.479 last forty nine minutes, right. 13 00:00:33.320 --> 00:00:35.520 Does that constant background noise you tune out? 14 00:00:35.600 --> 00:00:38.600 Yeah? But then suddenly that hum just stops. 15 00:00:38.759 --> 00:00:39.200 Wow. 16 00:00:39.240 --> 00:00:41.759 Not a sputter, not like a you know, a cough, Yeah, 17 00:00:41.880 --> 00:00:45.759 just terrifying, inexplicable, suffocating silence. 18 00:00:45.960 --> 00:00:47.640 That is just bone chilling. 19 00:00:47.840 --> 00:00:50.960 It really is both engines on this perfectly functioning passenger. 20 00:00:51.079 --> 00:00:55.399 It's that sudden, violent transition from a totally routine holiday 21 00:00:55.399 --> 00:00:58.880 flight into this immediate desperate fight for survival. 22 00:00:59.000 --> 00:01:02.240 It's unthinkable. So welcome to this deep dive. Today we 23 00:01:02.280 --> 00:01:06.159 are unpacking the tragic, multi layered story of tune inter 24 00:01:06.280 --> 00:01:07.760 flight eleven fifty three. 25 00:01:08.040 --> 00:01:09.079 It's a heavy one today. 26 00:01:09.359 --> 00:01:13.079 It is our sources today, the official accident reports, some 27 00:01:13.200 --> 00:01:17.799 incredibly harrowing survivor testimonies, and the recovered flight data. They 28 00:01:17.879 --> 00:01:20.560 uncover exactly what happened in the skies that day, and 29 00:01:20.640 --> 00:01:21.000 we are. 30 00:01:20.879 --> 00:01:24.840 Going to examine those split second life or death decisions 31 00:01:24.879 --> 00:01:28.400 made during a brutal ten minute plunge into the sea. Right, 32 00:01:28.599 --> 00:01:31.480 but beyond just the survival aspect, we have to forensically 33 00:01:31.519 --> 00:01:35.560 examine the shocking, entirely preventable chain of human errors and 34 00:01:35.760 --> 00:01:39.079 well mechanical mismatches that brought a reliable aircraft down from 35 00:01:39.079 --> 00:01:39.920 a clear blue sky. 36 00:01:40.040 --> 00:01:42.680 Okay, let's unpack this. To understand how a plane just 37 00:01:42.760 --> 00:01:44.799 drops out of nowhere, we have to look at who 38 00:01:44.959 --> 00:01:47.120 and what was on board when it took off from 39 00:01:47.159 --> 00:01:48.040 Tunis that morning. 40 00:01:48.200 --> 00:01:49.400 Makes sense. Where do we start? 41 00:01:49.560 --> 00:01:51.760 Well, the aircraft itself was a French made at R 42 00:01:51.840 --> 00:01:55.000 seventy two. It's a twin engine turboprop which is known 43 00:01:55.000 --> 00:01:57.439 in the aviation industry for being a real warhorse. 44 00:01:57.760 --> 00:02:01.799 Oh. Absolutely, they're incredibly relied, biable, they don't need excessive 45 00:02:01.799 --> 00:02:04.239 maintenance and they really don't guzzle fuel at all. 46 00:02:04.439 --> 00:02:07.560 Yeah, so they're perfectly suited for these short island hopping 47 00:02:07.599 --> 00:02:08.919 flights across the Mediterranean. 48 00:02:09.120 --> 00:02:11.960 And in command you have a highly qualified crew. You 49 00:02:12.080 --> 00:02:15.360 got Captain Shaffik Garbi, a forty five year old military 50 00:02:15.400 --> 00:02:19.240 trained pilot. He had a flawless flight record and like 51 00:02:19.479 --> 00:02:21.840 over seven thousand flight hours. 52 00:02:21.919 --> 00:02:23.599 That's a lot of experience, it is. 53 00:02:23.919 --> 00:02:26.400 And he's flying alongside his twenty eight year old co 54 00:02:26.520 --> 00:02:29.639 pilot Ali Caballer. So they started their day flying from 55 00:02:29.680 --> 00:02:32.000 Tunisia up to Bari, Italy. 56 00:02:31.840 --> 00:02:34.360 Right, and that was specifically to pick up thirty four 57 00:02:34.439 --> 00:02:39.240 Italian passengers heading down to Jerba for vacation exactly. And 58 00:02:39.520 --> 00:02:41.520 as we go through this data, I think it is 59 00:02:41.560 --> 00:02:44.080 so crucial to remember the human steaks here. We're not 60 00:02:44.159 --> 00:02:47.520 just analyzing data points on a digital flight recorder. 61 00:02:47.599 --> 00:02:49.120 Oh, these are real people's lives. 62 00:02:49.280 --> 00:02:51.479 Take Luca for example, he's a thirty one year old 63 00:02:51.479 --> 00:02:54.759 police officer and he's there with his fiance Paola. They 64 00:02:54.800 --> 00:02:57.520 had just met the previous winter and were busy planning 65 00:02:57.560 --> 00:02:59.000 their wedding for the following year. 66 00:02:59.400 --> 00:03:01.080 Oh man, that's heartbreaking. 67 00:03:01.319 --> 00:03:03.680 And what's really chilling is the reason they were sitting 68 00:03:03.719 --> 00:03:06.879 on this specific aircraft. They originally wanted to go to 69 00:03:06.919 --> 00:03:10.520 Cape Verde for their trip, okay, but Paolo was deeply 70 00:03:10.599 --> 00:03:13.319 worried about the risk of terrorism flying out of a 71 00:03:13.360 --> 00:03:14.639 massive international hub. 72 00:03:14.800 --> 00:03:15.479 Oh wow. 73 00:03:15.639 --> 00:03:20.439 Yeah. They specifically chose this smaller regional flight to Jerba 74 00:03:20.520 --> 00:03:23.240 because they genuinely believed it was the safer option. 75 00:03:23.759 --> 00:03:26.800 It is just a devastating irony. I mean, they made 76 00:03:26.800 --> 00:03:30.759 a highly calculated decision to mitigate risk, only to find 77 00:03:30.800 --> 00:03:34.759 themselves at the center of an unprecedented aviation emergency. Right 78 00:03:35.039 --> 00:03:37.240 because for the first forty nine minutes of this flight, 79 00:03:37.439 --> 00:03:42.000 everything is completely routine. The passengers are mingling, there's a 80 00:03:42.039 --> 00:03:45.199 young biology student named Barbara celebrating the end of her 81 00:03:45.199 --> 00:03:48.800 final exams with her fiance. Just a normal flight, totally normal. 82 00:03:49.000 --> 00:03:51.919 The plane is cruising comfortably, just seventy five miles from 83 00:03:51.960 --> 00:03:52.680 the nearest. 84 00:03:52.400 --> 00:03:54.960 Land, and that is the exact moment the right engine 85 00:03:55.000 --> 00:03:57.439 just flames out. M it dies completely. 86 00:03:57.560 --> 00:04:00.560 Now you have to remember commercial planes are strictly designed 87 00:04:00.599 --> 00:04:03.800 to fly on one engine, right, They test for that constantly. 88 00:04:03.960 --> 00:04:07.080 It's a declared emergency, yes, but it is a highly 89 00:04:07.120 --> 00:04:11.560 manageable one. Captain Garby follows standard operating procedure to the letter. 90 00:04:12.240 --> 00:04:16.199 He immediately requests an emergency descent to seventeen thousand feet. 91 00:04:16.279 --> 00:04:20.360 Which aerodynamically speaking, makes perfect sense. Dropping to seventeen thousand 92 00:04:20.399 --> 00:04:24.160 feet gives them denser air, right exactly, it maximizes the 93 00:04:24.199 --> 00:04:27.839 aerodynamic bite of that single remaining propeller to maintain their 94 00:04:27.879 --> 00:04:28.360 air speed. 95 00:04:28.439 --> 00:04:32.199 Precisely, that denser air at lower altitudes gives the aircraft 96 00:04:32.319 --> 00:04:35.680 far better performance on that one engine. So the crew 97 00:04:35.720 --> 00:04:37.439 begins running through the memory. 98 00:04:37.160 --> 00:04:39.120 Checklists trying to get it back online. 99 00:04:39.240 --> 00:04:42.439 Right, they're attempting to restart the right engine using what's 100 00:04:42.439 --> 00:04:45.920 called the flight idle start protocol. They're doing exactly what 101 00:04:45.959 --> 00:04:46.959 they're training dictates. 102 00:04:46.959 --> 00:04:50.360 But then less than two minutes later, the unthinkable happens. Yeah, 103 00:04:50.399 --> 00:04:53.680 the left engine dies too. Just total failure, total failure. 104 00:04:53.879 --> 00:04:56.600 Now they are sitting inside a thirty six thousand pound 105 00:04:56.759 --> 00:04:59.879 metal tube falling out of the sky at a terrifying 106 00:05:00.040 --> 00:05:01.720 eight of eight hundred feet per minute. 107 00:05:01.480 --> 00:05:03.560 Which is just an incredibly steep drop. 108 00:05:03.839 --> 00:05:07.000 It is. Imagine you are driving down the highway at 109 00:05:07.040 --> 00:05:11.759 seventy miles an hour and your car's engine completely dies. 110 00:05:11.680 --> 00:05:13.000 The steering goes heavy. 111 00:05:13.120 --> 00:05:15.439 Yeah, the power steering locks up, the brakes go stiff, 112 00:05:15.480 --> 00:05:18.959 the dashboard flickers. It's a totally helpless feeling. But now 113 00:05:19.000 --> 00:05:21.360 imagine that happening when you are miles up in. 114 00:05:21.360 --> 00:05:24.920 The sky plummeting toward the ocean swells below. 115 00:05:25.120 --> 00:05:26.000 It's terrifying. 116 00:05:26.120 --> 00:05:29.519 The psychological shock for both the passengers and the crew 117 00:05:29.680 --> 00:05:33.959 is immediate, and it is overwhelming. Several passengers later testified 118 00:05:34.000 --> 00:05:36.160 they actually thought it might be a terrorist attack or. 119 00:05:36.120 --> 00:05:38.439 A bomb because it was just so sudden. 120 00:05:38.680 --> 00:05:43.160 Right, simply because the silence was so sudden and unnatural. Meanwhile, 121 00:05:43.240 --> 00:05:46.120 up in the cockpit, the pilots are facing an incredibly 122 00:05:46.240 --> 00:05:47.360 baffling situation. 123 00:05:47.759 --> 00:05:50.240 Why would two independent engines fail exactly? 124 00:05:50.480 --> 00:05:55.720 Why would two totally independent, perfectly maintain engines simultaneously fail 125 00:05:55.800 --> 00:05:56.399 in mid air? 126 00:05:56.560 --> 00:06:00.000 And their instruments are feeding them a dangerously misleading narrative, 127 00:06:00.160 --> 00:06:02.439 Yes they are. The only clue they get is a 128 00:06:02.480 --> 00:06:06.000 single warning light indicating low feed pressure. 129 00:06:05.680 --> 00:06:08.040 Which basically just means fuel isn't getting to the engines 130 00:06:08.040 --> 00:06:08.839 with enough force. 131 00:06:09.279 --> 00:06:12.160 Right, But the fuel gauge sitting right in front of 132 00:06:12.199 --> 00:06:16.079 the captain's face clearly stays they have eighteen hundred kilograms 133 00:06:16.120 --> 00:06:17.000 of fuel on board. 134 00:06:17.279 --> 00:06:20.199 That is plenty of fuel to reach their destination. 135 00:06:19.879 --> 00:06:22.560 Exactly, so they think they have a mechanical glitch in 136 00:06:22.560 --> 00:06:26.519 the fuel pumps, meaning their immediate reaction isn't, hey, we're 137 00:06:26.519 --> 00:06:29.120 out of gas. We need to establish a maximum distance 138 00:06:29.160 --> 00:06:30.759 glide to the nearest runway. Right. 139 00:06:30.759 --> 00:06:32.319 They aren't treating it like a glider. 140 00:06:32.519 --> 00:06:36.480 No, their reaction is, we need to aggressively spend our 141 00:06:36.560 --> 00:06:40.839 altitude and speed fighting to force these engines to restart, and. 142 00:06:40.800 --> 00:06:45.000 That conflicting information dictates every single decision that follows. They 143 00:06:45.000 --> 00:06:49.920 are aggressively running the dual engine flame out checklists repeatedly, 144 00:06:49.959 --> 00:06:51.519 trying to crank the engines back to. 145 00:06:51.519 --> 00:06:52.720 Life, trying to force it. 146 00:06:52.920 --> 00:06:55.480 Yeah, But as the ocean rushes closer and the engines 147 00:06:55.519 --> 00:06:58.680 refuse to catch the grim reality starts to set in. 148 00:06:59.120 --> 00:07:03.439 They contact pul approach control, desperate for an emergency runway. 149 00:07:03.120 --> 00:07:05.240 But the answer they get from air traffic Control is 150 00:07:05.279 --> 00:07:08.199 basically a death sentence. Palermo tells them they are forty 151 00:07:08.199 --> 00:07:10.839 eight nautical miles away. It's too far, way too far. 152 00:07:11.720 --> 00:07:15.079 Even with a basic understanding of physics, an airplane without 153 00:07:15.120 --> 00:07:20.240 engines is essentially a very heavy, un aerodynamic glider. They 154 00:07:20.279 --> 00:07:22.920 are losing altitude way too fast. They simply cannot make 155 00:07:22.920 --> 00:07:23.879 it forty eight miles. 156 00:07:23.959 --> 00:07:27.040 The mathematical reality is just relentless. They aren't going to 157 00:07:27.120 --> 00:07:29.519 make it, and the realization sets in they're going to 158 00:07:29.560 --> 00:07:31.519 have to ditch the aircraft in the open sea. 159 00:07:31.680 --> 00:07:32.040 Wow. 160 00:07:32.120 --> 00:07:35.079 And the atmosphere inside that cabin is a study in 161 00:07:35.199 --> 00:07:38.759 horrific contrasts. How so, well, outside your window you have 162 00:07:38.839 --> 00:07:43.279 this eerie, almost peaceful silence of a heavy glider slipping 163 00:07:43.319 --> 00:07:47.000 through the air, but inside it is sheer panic. Oh go, 164 00:07:47.279 --> 00:07:50.720 children are crying. One passenger remembered trying to ask a 165 00:07:50.759 --> 00:07:53.040 flight attendant what to brace for, but the attendant was 166 00:07:53.040 --> 00:07:55.800 in such severe psychological shocks she couldn't even speak. She 167 00:07:55.839 --> 00:07:56.600 was just weeping. 168 00:07:57.040 --> 00:08:00.399 And you have these incredibly visceral, desperate moments happening in 169 00:08:00.439 --> 00:08:04.160 real time. Like the flight engineer chok Yabooby. He normally 170 00:08:04.279 --> 00:08:06.319 rides in the passenger cabin on the size of plane, 171 00:08:06.920 --> 00:08:10.120 but he rushes forward into the cockpit. He is frantically 172 00:08:10.160 --> 00:08:12.879 helping the pilots run through every single restart. 173 00:08:12.560 --> 00:08:14.800 Checklist they have, doing everything he can. 174 00:08:15.160 --> 00:08:18.600 Everything, and eventually a passenger watches him step out of 175 00:08:18.639 --> 00:08:21.839 the toppit, look at a flight attendant and just shake his. 176 00:08:21.720 --> 00:08:23.160 Head, just admitting defeat. 177 00:08:23.240 --> 00:08:25.800 Yeah, it's a moment of absolute crushing defeat. 178 00:08:26.240 --> 00:08:29.439 He knows it's over, and in that escalating panic, a 179 00:08:29.480 --> 00:08:33.679 fatal mistake occurs in the cabin. Terrified passengers begin inflating 180 00:08:33.679 --> 00:08:36.159 their life jackets while they are still strapped into their 181 00:08:36.200 --> 00:08:38.799 seats bracing for the impact, which is. 182 00:08:38.720 --> 00:08:41.600 The one thing you are never ever supposed to do 183 00:08:41.840 --> 00:08:42.720 in a water landing. 184 00:08:43.039 --> 00:08:45.879 Never, because when a commercial plane hits the water at 185 00:08:45.960 --> 00:08:49.600 high speed, the fuselage is very likely to breach and flood. 186 00:08:50.279 --> 00:08:52.960 If you are wearing a fully inflated life jacket inside 187 00:08:52.960 --> 00:08:56.200 a sinking metal tube, the incoming water will violently pin 188 00:08:56.240 --> 00:08:59.240 you against the ceiling. You trapped, you physically won't be 189 00:08:59.279 --> 00:09:01.480 able to swim down against the buoyancy to reach the 190 00:09:01.519 --> 00:09:04.840 emergency exits. It becomes an inescapable. 191 00:09:04.200 --> 00:09:06.840 Death trap, like what happened with the Ethiopian Airlines. 192 00:09:06.960 --> 00:09:11.480 Yes, this exact tragic scenario trapped and killed dozens of 193 00:09:11.519 --> 00:09:14.399 people in the famous nineteen ninety six water landing of 194 00:09:14.440 --> 00:09:18.240 Ethiopian Airlines Flight nine sixty one. You must wait until 195 00:09:18.240 --> 00:09:21.120 you are physically passing through the exit door to inflate 196 00:09:21.159 --> 00:09:21.679 that vest. 197 00:09:21.960 --> 00:09:24.240 But you have to put yourself in their shoes. I 198 00:09:24.279 --> 00:09:26.919 mean they are terrified. They aren't thinking about buoyancy physics. 199 00:09:27.200 --> 00:09:29.799 They are acting on pure survival instincts. 200 00:09:29.840 --> 00:09:31.399 Oh absolutely, it's human nature. 201 00:09:31.919 --> 00:09:35.759 Meanwhile, in the cockpit, Captain Garbi is actually demonstrating some 202 00:09:35.879 --> 00:09:40.679 incredibly sharp situational awareness. He spots two boats down on 203 00:09:40.720 --> 00:09:43.759 the surface of the water, and he actively steers the 204 00:09:43.759 --> 00:09:45.480 gliding dead plane toward them. 205 00:09:45.960 --> 00:09:47.519 That's incredibly smart. 206 00:09:47.639 --> 00:09:50.720 Yeah, he knows that if they crash near vessels, rescue 207 00:09:50.720 --> 00:09:54.279 operations can commence immediately, rather than waiting hours for the 208 00:09:54.279 --> 00:09:56.039 coastguard to find them in the open ocean. 209 00:09:56.080 --> 00:09:58.440 It's not a procedure written in any manual. It's just 210 00:09:58.559 --> 00:10:02.000 exceptional airmanship under the most extreme dress imaginable. 211 00:10:02.320 --> 00:10:04.840 So it's seven hundred feet, the warning systems are blaring, 212 00:10:04.919 --> 00:10:07.480 they brace at a speed of one hundred and forty 213 00:10:07.519 --> 00:10:11.000 five miles per hour. The plane smashes into the Mediterranean Sea, 214 00:10:11.120 --> 00:10:11.360 and it. 215 00:10:11.320 --> 00:10:14.279 Hits with such immense force that the aircraft violently tears 216 00:10:14.320 --> 00:10:15.600 into three separate pieces. 217 00:10:15.720 --> 00:10:19.440 What was the I mean, ditching an aircraft is notoriously difficult, right. 218 00:10:19.279 --> 00:10:23.399 Oh, incredibly. What's fascinating here is just how aerodynamically and 219 00:10:23.440 --> 00:10:27.480 physically difficult it is to ditch an aircraft. Water isn't 220 00:10:27.519 --> 00:10:29.320 soft when you hit it at one hundred and forty 221 00:10:29.320 --> 00:10:32.399 five miles per hour. Right, took a wall exactly. A 222 00:10:32.440 --> 00:10:36.200 pilot has to monitor the swells, the wave direction, the wind. 223 00:10:36.720 --> 00:10:40.159 If you hit a wave perpendicularly, meaning you crash nose 224 00:10:40.360 --> 00:10:44.080 first directly into the rising face of a swell, the 225 00:10:44.120 --> 00:10:46.840 water acts exactly like solid concrete. 226 00:10:46.919 --> 00:10:47.960 The plane just shatters. 227 00:10:48.039 --> 00:10:50.440 The plane will instantly shatter. You have to maneuver to 228 00:10:50.519 --> 00:10:52.919 land a parallel to the swell, skipping along the top, 229 00:10:53.080 --> 00:10:55.120 keeping the plane as streamlined as possible. 230 00:10:55.279 --> 00:10:58.879 But even with preparation, it is a catastrophic impact. Twenty 231 00:10:58.919 --> 00:11:01.720 three people survive the initial crash. They wake up floating 232 00:11:01.720 --> 00:11:04.960 in the water, coughing up blood, surrounded by jagged debris 233 00:11:04.960 --> 00:11:06.720 and the overpowering smell of jet. 234 00:11:06.480 --> 00:11:09.039 Fuel, just clinging to pieces of the wreckage. 235 00:11:09.159 --> 00:11:13.240 Yeah, but sixteen people perish, including the flight engineer, Chokri 236 00:11:13.480 --> 00:11:16.559 and Paola, the young woman who had specifically chosen this 237 00:11:16.639 --> 00:11:17.799 flight to avoid danger. 238 00:11:18.080 --> 00:11:22.320 It's so tragic. Now, rescue teams did arrive relatively swiftly, 239 00:11:22.600 --> 00:11:25.480 entirely thanks to the captain aiming for those boats and 240 00:11:25.519 --> 00:11:29.360 his immediate distress calls to Palermo. Helicopters and Coastguard vessels 241 00:11:29.399 --> 00:11:32.200 were on the scene within the hour, pulling the survivors 242 00:11:32.200 --> 00:11:33.200 from the heavy seas. 243 00:11:33.360 --> 00:11:36.600 But as those survivors are brought ashore to hospitals in Sicily, 244 00:11:37.039 --> 00:11:40.799 the crash investigators arrive and are left staring at a massive, 245 00:11:41.320 --> 00:11:42.919 seemingly impossible puzzle. 246 00:11:43.000 --> 00:11:43.840 How does this happen? 247 00:11:44.120 --> 00:11:48.360 Right? Exactly? How did two independent engines fail on a 248 00:11:48.399 --> 00:11:51.639 modern aircraft that supposedly had plenty of clean fuel. 249 00:11:51.840 --> 00:11:52.799 Yeah. 250 00:11:52.879 --> 00:11:55.799 To solve that mystery, the investigators had to looked very 251 00:11:55.840 --> 00:11:58.320 closely at the parts of the plane that actually didn't 252 00:11:58.360 --> 00:11:59.840 sink to the bottom of the sea. 253 00:12:00.039 --> 00:12:02.120 And this brings us to the core of the investigation. 254 00:12:02.799 --> 00:12:05.759 The team was led by Vincenzo Panetta from the Italian 255 00:12:05.799 --> 00:12:10.879 Flight Safety Agency, working alongside Gioseeppecirelli, a lead representative from ATR, 256 00:12:11.039 --> 00:12:14.200 the planes manufacturer. Okay, their first job is purely a 257 00:12:14.240 --> 00:12:16.120 scientific process of elimination. 258 00:12:16.440 --> 00:12:18.879 They have to start testing hypotheses right like was it 259 00:12:18.960 --> 00:12:19.919 a massive fuel leak? 260 00:12:20.120 --> 00:12:21.320 That's the first thought yeah. 261 00:12:21.360 --> 00:12:23.440 They immediately look back to the famous air trans at 262 00:12:23.480 --> 00:12:26.240 flight two thirty six a few years prior, where a 263 00:12:26.279 --> 00:12:30.039 severed fuel line drained the tanks completely dry in mid air. 264 00:12:30.440 --> 00:12:33.159 A very similar scenario on paper, right, But. 265 00:12:33.159 --> 00:12:36.720 When the recovery teams haul the engine fuel lines from 266 00:12:36.759 --> 00:12:40.639 flight eleven fifty three out of the water, investigators examine 267 00:12:40.679 --> 00:12:45.000 them closely, they are perfectly intact, no ruptures, no leaks. 268 00:12:45.159 --> 00:12:47.559 So then they pivot to the contamination theory. You see, 269 00:12:47.639 --> 00:12:50.360 jet fuel is actually quite a delicate chemical mixture. 270 00:12:50.440 --> 00:12:52.720 Really, I always thought it was just you know, superpowered gas. 271 00:12:52.960 --> 00:12:56.039 It is, but if it gets contaminated with water, sand, 272 00:12:56.200 --> 00:12:59.559 or even microscopic fungus growing inside the airport storage tanks 273 00:12:59.840 --> 00:13:03.679 can clog the aircraft's filters or completely failed to ignite, 274 00:13:03.840 --> 00:13:05.360 shutting down the engines in flight. 275 00:13:05.600 --> 00:13:08.360 So Panetta's team travels all the way back to Bari, Italy, 276 00:13:08.720 --> 00:13:12.159 where the plane last fueled up, to check the source exactly. 277 00:13:12.399 --> 00:13:15.080 They swave the interior of the airport fuel trucks, They 278 00:13:15.159 --> 00:13:19.480 dismantle and test the pumping hoses. They look for sticky residue, sediment, 279 00:13:19.840 --> 00:13:20.919 biological growth. 280 00:13:20.960 --> 00:13:21.720 And what do they find. 281 00:13:21.759 --> 00:13:24.279 They run extensive laboratory tests on the fuel reserves from 282 00:13:24.279 --> 00:13:28.080 that exact day nothing. The fuel was completely pristine. 283 00:13:28.279 --> 00:13:31.960 This raises an incredibly important question. The lines are fine, 284 00:13:32.080 --> 00:13:34.879 the fuel is clean, and the pilots swore their gage 285 00:13:34.879 --> 00:13:37.679 stated they had eighteen hundred kilograms of fuel at the 286 00:13:37.720 --> 00:13:40.919 moment of the crash. Right, the investigation is hitting a 287 00:13:40.960 --> 00:13:45.360 complete wall until Panetta notices something peculiar about the wreckage. 288 00:13:45.360 --> 00:13:49.200 They recovered the central fuselage in the wings were floating 289 00:13:49.279 --> 00:13:52.279 relatively high in the water. They were acting like a 290 00:13:52.399 --> 00:13:55.440 giant makeshift life raft for the survivors. 291 00:13:55.799 --> 00:13:58.600 Put yourself in Panetta's shoes. You're looking at these wings 292 00:13:58.600 --> 00:14:00.960 floating on the surface, and that the light bulb. 293 00:14:00.679 --> 00:14:05.159 Moment exactly because from a physics standpoint, it didn't make sense. 294 00:14:05.759 --> 00:14:09.080 The fuel tanks on an ATR aircraft are located entirely 295 00:14:09.200 --> 00:14:13.039 inside the wings. If those wings actually contained eighteen hundred 296 00:14:13.120 --> 00:14:16.600 kilograms of heavy liquid jet fuel, as the pilot's gauge claimed, 297 00:14:17.200 --> 00:14:19.240 they should not have been floating high up in the waves. 298 00:14:19.320 --> 00:14:20.240 It'd be way too heavy. 299 00:14:20.320 --> 00:14:23.000 The sheer weight should have dragged them deep underwater or 300 00:14:23.039 --> 00:14:24.120 sunk them entirely. 301 00:14:24.480 --> 00:14:27.279 The wings are floating beautifully because they are bone dry. 302 00:14:27.759 --> 00:14:30.279 They are empty, completely empty. But if they are empty, 303 00:14:30.519 --> 00:14:33.080 why on Earth did the cockpit gauge insist they had 304 00:14:33.159 --> 00:14:34.480 eighteen hundred kilograms? 305 00:14:34.519 --> 00:14:36.679 That is the big question To answer this. 306 00:14:37.159 --> 00:14:40.240 Investigators start digging into the maintenance logs from the night 307 00:14:40.279 --> 00:14:43.600 before the crash back at the hangar in Tunisia, and 308 00:14:43.639 --> 00:14:46.799 they uncovered that Captain Garvey had reported a broken. 309 00:14:46.519 --> 00:14:50.799 Fuel gauge, the fuel quantity Indicator or SQI. 310 00:14:50.320 --> 00:14:54.080 Right the LCD digits on his screen were glitching out 311 00:14:54.120 --> 00:14:55.480 and becoming unreadable. 312 00:14:55.559 --> 00:14:58.000 So the mechanics in Tunisia worked the night shift to 313 00:14:58.039 --> 00:15:01.919 replace that broken gauge. To prove what happened during that repair, 314 00:15:02.320 --> 00:15:06.720 investigators desperately needed the actual physical gauge from the cockpit. 315 00:15:06.440 --> 00:15:08.399 Which is at the bottom of the ocean exactly. 316 00:15:08.519 --> 00:15:11.000 The problem is the cockpit had broken off during the 317 00:15:11.000 --> 00:15:14.720 crash and sunk fifteen hundred meters down to the absolute 318 00:15:14.720 --> 00:15:16.159 bottom of the Mediterranean Sea. 319 00:15:16.360 --> 00:15:21.080 MMM. It takes the Italian Navy three grueling weeks using 320 00:15:21.120 --> 00:15:24.679 specialized ships in deep sea remotely operated vehicles to haul 321 00:15:24.759 --> 00:15:27.360 that crushed cockpit up from the crushing pressure. 322 00:15:27.000 --> 00:15:29.960 Of the deep That is a massive undertaking, but. 323 00:15:29.960 --> 00:15:32.279 The moment it hits the deck of the recovery ship. 324 00:15:32.480 --> 00:15:35.440 Panetta is waiting. He goes straight for the instrument panel 325 00:15:36.240 --> 00:15:39.600 and he finds the smoking gun. The mechanics in Tunisia, 326 00:15:39.919 --> 00:15:43.320 working in the dark, had accidentally installed a fuel gauge 327 00:15:43.480 --> 00:15:46.360 meant for a smaller plane, the ATR forty two, onto 328 00:15:46.399 --> 00:15:48.240 this much larger ATR seventy two. 329 00:15:48.480 --> 00:15:50.080 Just a devastating mix up. 330 00:15:50.120 --> 00:15:52.799 Wait, so they just popped the wrong gauge in. But 331 00:15:52.840 --> 00:15:56.039 wouldn't the pilot physically check the fuel or look at 332 00:15:56.039 --> 00:15:58.840 a receipt? I mean, how do you just take off 333 00:15:58.879 --> 00:16:01.799 without actually fact knowing what is inside your tanks? 334 00:16:01.960 --> 00:16:04.919 That is the tragic cascade of errors, what we call 335 00:16:04.960 --> 00:16:07.840 the Swiss Cheese model of catastrophic failure, where all the 336 00:16:07.879 --> 00:16:10.840 individual holes line up perfectly right. When you install an 337 00:16:10.840 --> 00:16:13.159 ATR forty two gauge onto the larger fuel tanks of 338 00:16:13.200 --> 00:16:16.080 an ATR seventy two, it doesn't just go blank or 339 00:16:16.120 --> 00:16:19.240 flash an error code. It actively confidently lies to you. 340 00:16:19.399 --> 00:16:20.320 How so well. 341 00:16:20.360 --> 00:16:23.799 The fuel probes inside the tank measure electrical capacitance based 342 00:16:23.799 --> 00:16:25.879 on the height of the fuel, but the ATR seventy 343 00:16:25.919 --> 00:16:29.679 two tanks are much wider, so an entirely empty ATR 344 00:16:29.799 --> 00:16:33.919 seventy two tank sends a baseline electrical signal that the 345 00:16:33.960 --> 00:16:38.559 ATR forty two gauge mathematically misinterprets. It reads that baseline 346 00:16:38.639 --> 00:16:43.639 signal and confidently displays roughly eighteen hundred kilograms of phantom fuel. 347 00:16:44.080 --> 00:16:46.480 That is insane, So let's walk through the math. The 348 00:16:46.480 --> 00:16:49.919 pilot was looking at the night before, the broken gauge 349 00:16:49.919 --> 00:16:52.200 said he had about seven hundred and ninety kilograms the 350 00:16:52.240 --> 00:16:55.039 fuel left right, he goes to a hotel. He comes 351 00:16:55.080 --> 00:16:57.600 back the next morning, steps into the cockpit, and this 352 00:16:57.679 --> 00:17:00.960 newly installed gauge suddenly says he he has three thy 353 00:17:01.080 --> 00:17:02.240 one hundred kilograms. 354 00:17:02.320 --> 00:17:05.960 The captain notices the massive jump. He logically assumes the 355 00:17:06.000 --> 00:17:07.759 ground crew came out in the middle of the night 356 00:17:07.799 --> 00:17:11.079 and pumped roughly two three hundred kilograms of fuel into 357 00:17:11.079 --> 00:17:13.640 his plane while he was sleeping. Which happens, really, it does, 358 00:17:14.039 --> 00:17:17.920 but aviation regulations mandate that anytime fule is added, a 359 00:17:17.960 --> 00:17:21.079 physical refueling slip must be handed directly to the pilot 360 00:17:21.119 --> 00:17:21.599 for sign off. 361 00:17:21.720 --> 00:17:23.119 There's a paper troll exactly. 362 00:17:23.519 --> 00:17:26.279 Captain Garby asks his flight dispatcher for the slip, and. 363 00:17:26.200 --> 00:17:28.519 The dispatcher can't find it yea, because the plane was 364 00:17:28.559 --> 00:17:29.240 never refueled. 365 00:17:29.319 --> 00:17:29.599 Nope. 366 00:17:29.640 --> 00:17:32.920 But instead of stopping the entire boarding process and demanding 367 00:17:32.920 --> 00:17:35.960 a physical dipstick check of the tanks, the dispatcher just 368 00:17:36.000 --> 00:17:38.440 casually says, Hey, I can't find the paperwork. I'll get 369 00:17:38.440 --> 00:17:39.920 it to you when you get back from Jerbi, just 370 00:17:39.960 --> 00:17:43.720 waving it off, and Captain Garby says, Roger, that breaks 371 00:17:43.720 --> 00:17:47.240 the regulations and takes off anyway. He chooses to trust 372 00:17:47.240 --> 00:17:52.000 the bright, confident digital screen over the missing physical paperwork. 373 00:17:51.880 --> 00:17:55.279 So he flies the first leg to Bari, Italy, burning 374 00:17:55.279 --> 00:17:58.359 about four hundred kilograms of the seven to ninety. 375 00:17:58.039 --> 00:17:59.880 He actually has, so he's running really low. 376 00:18:00.119 --> 00:18:02.359 He lands in Italy with barely three hundred and ninety 377 00:18:02.400 --> 00:18:05.279 kilograms in the tanks, but his gauge is still showing 378 00:18:05.319 --> 00:18:08.319 that phantom fuel, so he thinks he has plenty. Unbelievable, 379 00:18:08.400 --> 00:18:10.880 He orders the fuel truck in Bari to add just 380 00:18:10.960 --> 00:18:14.160 two hundred and sixty five kilograms a tiny top off, 381 00:18:14.200 --> 00:18:16.839 assuming he's adding to a massive reserve. 382 00:18:17.039 --> 00:18:17.440 Wow. 383 00:18:17.559 --> 00:18:20.119 In reality, he now has roughly six hundred and fifty 384 00:18:20.160 --> 00:18:23.039 five kilograms of fuel total. He needs at least twelve 385 00:18:23.119 --> 00:18:26.960 hundred to safely Reachterba. He takes off and exactly forty 386 00:18:27.039 --> 00:18:29.039 nine minutes later, right over the middle of the sea, 387 00:18:29.200 --> 00:18:31.400 those six hundred and fifty five kilograms run out. 388 00:18:31.519 --> 00:18:32.799 It's just devastating. 389 00:18:32.880 --> 00:18:36.079 The engines didn't fail due to a mechanical flaw. They 390 00:18:36.160 --> 00:18:39.640 function perfectly until they literally drank the last drop of gas. 391 00:18:39.920 --> 00:18:43.599 The investigation definitively proves the plane ran dry because of 392 00:18:43.640 --> 00:18:46.799 a mismatched part. But the story doesn't end there, does it. 393 00:18:47.039 --> 00:18:48.559 No, it doesn't, because. 394 00:18:48.359 --> 00:18:52.839 The investigators had one final, highly controversial question. They wanted 395 00:18:52.880 --> 00:18:55.519 to know, even without the engines, if the crew had 396 00:18:55.559 --> 00:18:57.920 known they were out of fuel, could the pilots have 397 00:18:58.000 --> 00:19:01.400 safely glided that seventy miles discs stance to the Palermo Airport. 398 00:19:01.759 --> 00:19:04.839 To find out, the investigation team travels to the ATR 399 00:19:04.920 --> 00:19:10.039 flight simulator facility and to lose France, they meticulously recreate 400 00:19:10.119 --> 00:19:13.640 the exact conditions of August six. The altitude, the weight 401 00:19:13.680 --> 00:19:15.799