WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:04.200 So picture this. You're flying at maybe thirty seven thousand 2 00:00:04.200 --> 00:00:08.240 feet and it is just pitch black outside. You're out 3 00:00:08.240 --> 00:00:10.679 over the open ocean. Maybe you're dozing off in your seat, 4 00:00:10.960 --> 00:00:15.519 when suddenly you notice something well entirely unnatural outside the window. 5 00:00:15.640 --> 00:00:19.359 Oh yeah, like these eerie sheets of brilliant, dancing white 6 00:00:19.440 --> 00:00:22.640 light just covering the windshield right, clinging tightly to the wings. 7 00:00:23.079 --> 00:00:26.559 And then it hits you this accrid, unmistakable smell of 8 00:00:26.719 --> 00:00:28.920 sulfur filtering into the pressurized cabin. 9 00:00:29.120 --> 00:00:32.799 Yeah, that'd smell like striking a thousand matches all at once, exactly. 10 00:00:32.840 --> 00:00:36.119 And then then comes a sound that just completely defies belief, 11 00:00:36.679 --> 00:00:37.280 or I. 12 00:00:37.240 --> 00:00:40.159 Mean, rather the complete lack of sound, right yeah, the sickening, 13 00:00:40.240 --> 00:00:43.320 impossible silence of all four engines on a massive seven 14 00:00:43.399 --> 00:00:46.759 four to seven shutting down, completely gone right at the 15 00:00:46.799 --> 00:00:50.079 exact same time, leaving you suspended in this this three 16 00:00:50.159 --> 00:00:53.359 hundred and fifty ton metal tube, just quietly gliding toward 17 00:00:53.399 --> 00:00:54.280 the dark ocean below. 18 00:00:54.359 --> 00:00:57.359 It is absolute nightmare fuel and well. Today, our mission 19 00:00:57.399 --> 00:00:59.960 in this deep dives to open up decades of declassified 20 00:01:00.119 --> 00:01:05.319 flight data, cockpit voice transcripts, and these meticulous accident reports. 21 00:01:05.640 --> 00:01:07.359 Right the real greedy details. 22 00:01:07.480 --> 00:01:11.480 Yeah, to explore four harrowing true stories of commercial flights 23 00:01:11.519 --> 00:01:14.959 going head to head with extreme weather. We're going to 24 00:01:15.079 --> 00:01:19.599 unpack the hidden meteorological forces that can just boom swat 25 00:01:19.719 --> 00:01:21.959 massive jets from the sky without any warning. 26 00:01:22.040 --> 00:01:24.920 And we're also going to look really closely at how investigators, 27 00:01:25.799 --> 00:01:29.319 the people who actually sift through the scorch wreckage, uncovered 28 00:01:29.359 --> 00:01:33.560 the invisible forces of play here, because I mean, mother 29 00:01:33.680 --> 00:01:37.120 Nature is this overwhelming, completely indifferent force. 30 00:01:37.239 --> 00:01:38.359 Yeah, she don't care, she. 31 00:01:38.280 --> 00:01:42.120 Doesn't And for decades, aviation safety rules, while they haven't 32 00:01:42.159 --> 00:01:44.680 been drafted in a vacuum, they've been written in the 33 00:01:44.719 --> 00:01:46.719 aftermath of these terrifying. 34 00:01:46.359 --> 00:01:47.799 Encounters, paid for in blood. 35 00:01:47.879 --> 00:01:51.079 Really exactly, every single system protecting you in the air 36 00:01:51.120 --> 00:01:53.840 today was built directly on the lessons of flights that 37 00:01:53.920 --> 00:01:54.920 met the ultimate test. 38 00:01:55.159 --> 00:01:57.640 Right, So, we just saw how terrifying it is to 39 00:01:57.640 --> 00:02:00.439 lose all engines in the dark. But let's start with 40 00:02:00.480 --> 00:02:02.840 a threat that happens in broad daylight, just hiding in 41 00:02:02.920 --> 00:02:05.599 plane sight. Okay, Yeah, Our first case takes us to 42 00:02:05.719 --> 00:02:10.240 a sweltering one hundred and one degree Texas afternoon, August second, 43 00:02:10.479 --> 00:02:14.360 nineteen eighty five. We're looking at Delta flight one ninety one, 44 00:02:14.520 --> 00:02:17.919 which is an L ten eleven TriStar on what should 45 00:02:17.919 --> 00:02:21.639 be just a completely routine approach into Dallas Fort Worth. 46 00:02:21.919 --> 00:02:24.800 Right, but the atmosphere of that day is heavily loaded. 47 00:02:24.879 --> 00:02:27.360 Oh yeah, I mean it's hot, it's humid, and you've 48 00:02:27.360 --> 00:02:31.159 got these scattered summer thunderstorms just popping up violently near 49 00:02:31.199 --> 00:02:33.400 the airport. Now, the crew on the flight deck, they 50 00:02:33.400 --> 00:02:34.360 are highly experienced. 51 00:02:34.360 --> 00:02:35.120 They know what they're doing. 52 00:02:35.240 --> 00:02:38.639 They do. They're threading the needle, actively steering around the 53 00:02:38.639 --> 00:02:41.919 worst of the weather cells, just bringing this heavy jet 54 00:02:41.960 --> 00:02:43.319 into alignment for the runway. 55 00:02:43.439 --> 00:02:45.439 But then at just about one hundred and fifty meters 56 00:02:45.479 --> 00:02:48.400 off the ground, so they are very low, the suspense 57 00:02:48.439 --> 00:02:51.680 on the flight recorder just builds rapidly. First, the plane 58 00:02:51.759 --> 00:02:55.360 experience is this sudden, completely inexplicable surge and air speed. 59 00:02:55.479 --> 00:02:56.840 Right, They speed up out of nowhere. 60 00:02:56.919 --> 00:02:59.680 Yeah, and the pilot does exactly what he has done 61 00:03:00.000 --> 00:03:02.520 I don't know, ten thousand times before. He pulls back 62 00:03:02.560 --> 00:03:05.039 on the throttles to bleed off that extra speed and 63 00:03:05.120 --> 00:03:06.319 keep their descent rate in. 64 00:03:06.319 --> 00:03:08.560 Check, which makes perfect sense it does. 65 00:03:08.680 --> 00:03:11.639 But mere seconds later the bottom completely falls out. 66 00:03:11.479 --> 00:03:16.080 The plane is just slammed downward by this massive invisible force. 67 00:03:16.280 --> 00:03:19.599 Yeah, and the pilot shoves the throttles to the absolute maximum. 68 00:03:19.639 --> 00:03:21.639 You can actually hear the desperation on the voice recorder. 69 00:03:21.639 --> 00:03:25.080 He's yelling, push it up, way up, terrifying, and inside 70 00:03:25.159 --> 00:03:28.879 the cabin passengers just fall dead, silent. The engines are 71 00:03:28.960 --> 00:03:32.960 screaming at maximum power, but the plane simply cannot climb. 72 00:03:33.240 --> 00:03:36.080 It is violently swatted out of the air. It banks 73 00:03:36.120 --> 00:03:38.759 wildly to the right, and it slams into a highway. 74 00:03:38.759 --> 00:03:41.800 One fourteenth instantly killed a driver on the ground. 75 00:03:41.560 --> 00:03:44.599 Too, Yeah, before just tearing into pieces across the airfield. 76 00:03:44.840 --> 00:03:47.039 One hundred and thirty six lives on board were lost 77 00:03:47.039 --> 00:03:48.199 in a matter of seconds. 78 00:03:48.280 --> 00:03:51.159 It was a catastrophic event that utterly baffled the aviation 79 00:03:51.280 --> 00:03:53.680 world at the time. I mean, on the surface, there 80 00:03:53.719 --> 00:03:56.520 was zero evidence of mechanical. 81 00:03:56.000 --> 00:03:57.639 Failure, no lightning strike either. 82 00:03:57.639 --> 00:04:01.240 No lightning strike nothing. What investigats is eventually discovered by 83 00:04:01.520 --> 00:04:06.000 painstakingly analyzing the flight data recorder was the distinct signature 84 00:04:06.039 --> 00:04:09.800 of a terrifying, unseeing killer a microburst. 85 00:04:10.000 --> 00:04:13.800 Wait, so this massive invisible column of air can just 86 00:04:13.879 --> 00:04:17.360 squash a modern jet and the highly trained pilots with 87 00:04:17.439 --> 00:04:20.000 their state of the art weather radar, they just couldn't 88 00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:20.519 see it coming. 89 00:04:20.560 --> 00:04:22.839 They couldn't. They were totally blind to it because they 90 00:04:22.839 --> 00:04:25.920 were looking for the wrong physical element. What do you mean, Well, 91 00:04:26.279 --> 00:04:29.240 conventional aviation radar at the time only bounced off of 92 00:04:29.680 --> 00:04:33.319 water meeting precipitation. You could see the rain, sure, but 93 00:04:33.399 --> 00:04:35.480 it was completely incapable of seeing wind. 94 00:04:35.639 --> 00:04:36.240 Oh wow. 95 00:04:36.360 --> 00:04:39.920 Yeah. To understand the sheer violence of a microburst, imagine 96 00:04:39.920 --> 00:04:42.920 standing at your kitchen sink and turning the faucet on 97 00:04:43.000 --> 00:04:46.079 full blast. Okay, the water drops straight down in a tight, 98 00:04:46.199 --> 00:04:50.720 concentrated column, strikes the ceramic basin, and then violently splashes 99 00:04:50.759 --> 00:04:52.439 outward in every possible direction. 100 00:04:52.720 --> 00:04:55.560 So if we replace that water with cold, dense air 101 00:04:55.680 --> 00:04:59.439 plummeting out of a hot summer thunderstorm, that tight column 102 00:04:59.439 --> 00:05:02.680 of sinking air hits the tarmac and just explodes outward 103 00:05:02.720 --> 00:05:03.879 at hurricane force. 104 00:05:03.759 --> 00:05:07.680 Exactly, and that creates this deadly forty seven second sequence 105 00:05:07.720 --> 00:05:09.560 of doom for any aircraft caught in its path. 106 00:05:09.720 --> 00:05:12.079 Forty seven seconds, that's nothing, it's nothing. 107 00:05:12.720 --> 00:05:16.120 So as Flight one ninety one approached the microburst, it 108 00:05:16.199 --> 00:05:19.360 first hit the outflowing air, rushing directly toward the nose 109 00:05:19.399 --> 00:05:19.720 the plane. 110 00:05:19.800 --> 00:05:22.079 Wait, wait, if that air is rushing toward them first, 111 00:05:22.120 --> 00:05:26.839 they're getting a massive sudden headwind. Aerodynamically, that's gonna artificially 112 00:05:26.879 --> 00:05:29.360 boost their lift. Right. It tricks them into thinking may 113 00:05:29.360 --> 00:05:30.240 have too much air speed. 114 00:05:30.600 --> 00:05:34.639 Precisely, Yeah, it was a trap. The pilot instinctively pulled 115 00:05:34.639 --> 00:05:38.639 the throttles back to compensate for that false lift. He 116 00:05:38.759 --> 00:05:41.279 was tricked by the physics of the storm, oh man. 117 00:05:41.399 --> 00:05:44.600 And then seconds later the plane flew into the exact 118 00:05:44.639 --> 00:05:48.560 center of the microburst, the violent downdraft. It's like a 119 00:05:48.600 --> 00:05:53.040 giant invisible hand pushing the fuselage straight down toward the concrete. 120 00:05:53.199 --> 00:05:56.319 So the pilot immediately maxes out the throttles, desperately trying 121 00:05:56.319 --> 00:05:57.319 to fight the sinking motion. 122 00:05:57.560 --> 00:05:59.959 Right, But heavy jet engines take time to school up. 123 00:06:00.040 --> 00:06:02.600 You don't just get instant power. And before they could 124 00:06:02.639 --> 00:06:05.480 generate full thrust, they crossed into the far side. 125 00:06:05.560 --> 00:06:08.439 Of the microburst, where they hit the tailwind. Yes, because 126 00:06:08.480 --> 00:06:10.920 the air is now exploding away from the center, moving 127 00:06:10.920 --> 00:06:13.720 in the exact same direction the plane is flying, and 128 00:06:13.879 --> 00:06:16.959 a wing needs air rushing over it from front to 129 00:06:17.040 --> 00:06:20.279 back to generate lyft. So when a massive wind suddenly 130 00:06:20.360 --> 00:06:23.199 hits you from behind. It just subtracts your air speed. 131 00:06:23.240 --> 00:06:25.040 Your lift is instantly destroyed. 132 00:06:25.160 --> 00:06:27.160 And at one hundred and fifty meters off the ground, 133 00:06:27.519 --> 00:06:30.480 they had zero altitude to dive and regain that speed. 134 00:06:30.560 --> 00:06:33.240 They were aerodynamically trapped, completely trapped. 135 00:06:33.399 --> 00:06:35.839 But you know, the legacy of Delta one ninety one 136 00:06:36.199 --> 00:06:39.279 triggered one of the most incredible responses in aviation history. 137 00:06:39.560 --> 00:06:42.680 Yeah, the industry realized they urgently needed a way to 138 00:06:42.759 --> 00:06:45.920 see the wind itself, not just the rain hiding it. 139 00:06:46.160 --> 00:06:49.879 Right, So NASA embarked on this incredibly daring mission. It 140 00:06:49.959 --> 00:06:52.959 took a Boeing seven thirty seven, packed the back cabin 141 00:06:53.000 --> 00:06:56.920 with scientists and all these experimental computers, and intentionally hunted 142 00:06:56.959 --> 00:06:59.319 down and flew into the most violent microbursts they could 143 00:06:59.319 --> 00:07:00.639 find across the I. 144 00:07:00.560 --> 00:07:04.399 Mean, purposefully hunting the invisible sledgehammer that just brought down 145 00:07:04.439 --> 00:07:07.759 a tri star is a staggering level of bravery. 146 00:07:07.959 --> 00:07:10.560 It's wild. But they had to gather data to test 147 00:07:10.600 --> 00:07:14.600 a brand new technology, forward looking Doppler radar. Unlike conventional radar, 148 00:07:15.079 --> 00:07:18.519 Doppler measures the frequency shift of returning radio waves. So 149 00:07:18.560 --> 00:07:21.560 if a radio wave bounces off a microscopic dust particle 150 00:07:21.600 --> 00:07:25.680 or a rain droplet moving towards you, the frequency compresses. 151 00:07:25.279 --> 00:07:27.839 And if it's moving away from you, the frequency stretches out. 152 00:07:27.879 --> 00:07:32.759 Exactly. By rapidly calculating those tiny frequency shifts, the computer 153 00:07:33.000 --> 00:07:36.040 maps the exact velocity and direction of the wind inside 154 00:07:36.040 --> 00:07:39.959 a storm. It takes the invisible microburst and just paints 155 00:07:40.000 --> 00:07:42.360 it in bright red on the pilot screen. 156 00:07:42.680 --> 00:07:46.240 Giving modern pilots the magic number twenty seconds. Yes, if 157 00:07:46.240 --> 00:07:48.600 you can see the wind shear twenty seconds before you 158 00:07:48.720 --> 00:07:51.000 hit it, you don't pull back the throttles, You throttle up, 159 00:07:51.000 --> 00:07:53.920 build kinetic energy, and you escape the trap before its spring. 160 00:07:54.199 --> 00:07:57.920 That one tragic crash, and the fearless research that followed 161 00:07:58.199 --> 00:08:02.079 practically eliminated microburst accidents in commercial aviation overnight. 162 00:08:02.120 --> 00:08:04.920 It's incredible, But we just saw how terrifying it is 163 00:08:04.959 --> 00:08:07.160 when a radar is blind to a threat. But a 164 00:08:07.160 --> 00:08:09.959 blind radar is arguably less dangerous than a radar that 165 00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:12.639 actively lies to you. Oh, absolutely, which brings us to 166 00:08:12.720 --> 00:08:15.519 nineteen seventy seven and Southern Airways Flight two. 167 00:08:15.360 --> 00:08:18.399 Forty two, Right, a completely different type of storm, but 168 00:08:18.519 --> 00:08:20.160 an equally devastating deception. 169 00:08:20.439 --> 00:08:23.279 Yeah. So We're in a DC nine navigating through a massive, 170 00:08:23.519 --> 00:08:27.639 churning thunderstorm system over the American South. The pilots are 171 00:08:27.680 --> 00:08:30.560 staring at their weather radar, hunting for a safe path 172 00:08:30.600 --> 00:08:33.480 through the dark clouds, looking for a way out right, 173 00:08:33.759 --> 00:08:36.639 and they spot it, this dark patch on the screen, 174 00:08:37.120 --> 00:08:40.919 a distinct hole in the storm cell. They seared directly 175 00:08:41.000 --> 00:08:43.679 for it, believing it to be a clear, safe passageway. 176 00:08:44.200 --> 00:08:46.440 But as they fly into the hole, the sky just 177 00:08:46.639 --> 00:08:47.600 unloads on them. 178 00:08:47.960 --> 00:08:50.919 They flew into one of the most violent hailstorms ever 179 00:08:50.960 --> 00:08:52.440 recorded in aviation history. 180 00:08:52.559 --> 00:08:57.559 The cocktit voice recorder captures this deafening sustain roar. Survivors 181 00:08:57.600 --> 00:09:00.720 described the experience as being trapped inside it tin barrel 182 00:09:00.759 --> 00:09:03.799 while someone hurled massive rocks at it from the outside. 183 00:09:03.840 --> 00:09:06.360 I can't even imagine the noise, and the hail was 184 00:09:06.360 --> 00:09:09.720 the size of baseballs. It was so intense and heavy 185 00:09:09.759 --> 00:09:12.559 that it shattered the thick, multi layered glass of the 186 00:09:12.559 --> 00:09:17.240 cockpit windshield, completely blinding the pilots, and then both engines 187 00:09:17.279 --> 00:09:20.879 sputtered and died. The crew was forced to glide a massive, 188 00:09:21.080 --> 00:09:24.240 unpowered jet onto a rural highway in New Hope, Georgia, 189 00:09:24.679 --> 00:09:27.440 and the resulting crash and fire killed seventy two people. 190 00:09:28.279 --> 00:09:32.759 It's horrific, and the investigation immediately focused on a totally 191 00:09:32.759 --> 00:09:37.440 baffling question. Why did their weather radar explicitly show a 192 00:09:37.480 --> 00:09:41.360 clear hole right where the absolute worst, most violent core 193 00:09:41.440 --> 00:09:43.039 of the storm actually was right? 194 00:09:43.320 --> 00:09:45.919 How does the machine designed entirely to see bad weather 195 00:09:46.039 --> 00:09:48.799 point a crew right into the deadliest part of it. 196 00:09:48.799 --> 00:09:51.399 It comes down to a physical limitation of radio waves 197 00:09:51.399 --> 00:09:52.679 called signal attenuation. 198 00:09:52.960 --> 00:09:54.200 Okay, break that down for us. 199 00:09:54.279 --> 00:09:57.039 So the outer edge of this particular storm celf was 200 00:09:57.080 --> 00:09:59.840 so incredibly dense with heavy sheets of rain and hail 201 00:10:00.240 --> 00:10:02.679 that it acted like a solid brick wall. Wow. When 202 00:10:02.679 --> 00:10:05.279 the plane's radar sent out its radio waves, that outer 203 00:10:05.360 --> 00:10:08.559 wall of water completely absorbed and scattered them. No ways 204 00:10:08.600 --> 00:10:10.919 penetrated deep enough into the core of the storm to 205 00:10:11.000 --> 00:10:12.600 bounce back to the receiver, So. 206 00:10:12.559 --> 00:10:16.159 The radar screen simply drew a blank space the machine 207 00:10:16.200 --> 00:10:19.799 lied to them by omission, because its signal was essentially 208 00:10:19.840 --> 00:10:22.759 swallowed by the edge of the storm. They thought they 209 00:10:22.759 --> 00:10:25.039 were threading the needle, but they were aiming at the 210 00:10:25.080 --> 00:10:26.080 bulls eye. 211 00:10:25.799 --> 00:10:29.279 And once they were inside that core, the mechanical nightmare 212 00:10:29.399 --> 00:10:30.039 really began. 213 00:10:30.360 --> 00:10:34.039 Right, Because the hail battered the front of the engine cowlings, 214 00:10:34.360 --> 00:10:38.279 it physically dented the metal rims around the intakes. I mean, 215 00:10:38.320 --> 00:10:40.799 if we think about how an engine breathes, it's like 216 00:10:41.320 --> 00:10:43.960 it's like pressing the gas pedal on a car whose 217 00:10:43.960 --> 00:10:46.759 exhaust pipe is entirely plugged with thick mud. 218 00:10:47.039 --> 00:10:49.039 Right, That is a perfect way to describe it. 219 00:10:49.159 --> 00:10:51.240 The engine can't expel the air, so it's going to 220 00:10:51.399 --> 00:10:54.440 choke and literally tear itself apart from the inside out. 221 00:10:54.600 --> 00:10:58.159 Exactly when you plug that exhaust the high pressure has 222 00:10:58.200 --> 00:11:01.480 nowhere to go but backward. Inside a jet engine, you 223 00:11:01.559 --> 00:11:05.159 have spinning compressor blades at the front that violently packed 224 00:11:05.200 --> 00:11:07.879 the incoming air in tightly before it gets mixed with 225 00:11:07.919 --> 00:11:11.159 fuel and ignited. Right when the hail dented those cowlings 226 00:11:11.159 --> 00:11:13.559 and blocked the bleed valves, which are designed to vent 227 00:11:13.679 --> 00:11:16.519 excess pressure, the airflow fundamentally. 228 00:11:15.960 --> 00:11:18.679 Reversed, creating a violent compressor stall. 229 00:11:18.559 --> 00:11:22.000 A devastating one. The high pressure from the combustion chamber 230 00:11:22.320 --> 00:11:26.519 blasted forward against the incoming air every single time it surged. 231 00:11:27.080 --> 00:11:29.600 It violently bent the metal compressor. 232 00:11:29.159 --> 00:11:32.720 Blades, and to make matters worse, air traffic control who 233 00:11:32.799 --> 00:11:36.000 was completely unaware of the apocalyptic severity of what the 234 00:11:36.000 --> 00:11:38.840 plane was enduring, ordered the pilots to climb to a 235 00:11:38.879 --> 00:11:41.000 higher altitude to clear another flight. 236 00:11:40.840 --> 00:11:45.120 Path, which is the absolute worst possible action during a 237 00:11:45.159 --> 00:11:46.519 compressor stall. 238 00:11:46.159 --> 00:11:49.440 Right because to climb a heavy jet needs more thrust. 239 00:11:49.679 --> 00:11:53.200 Exactly, the pilots had to push the throttles forward, demanding 240 00:11:53.320 --> 00:11:56.320 vastly more air and fuel from engines that couldn't even 241 00:11:56.399 --> 00:11:58.759 process the disrupted airflow they already had. 242 00:11:58.679 --> 00:12:01.960 So they were unknowingly accelerating their own engines destruction. 243 00:12:02.200 --> 00:12:05.600 There were the repetitive, violent surging finally snapped those bend 244 00:12:05.600 --> 00:12:09.759 compressor blades clean off. When investigators later hoisted the ruined 245 00:12:09.759 --> 00:12:12.799 engines up in a hangar in Atlanta, the shattered pieces 246 00:12:12.799 --> 00:12:15.960 of steel blading literally tinkled out onto the concrete floor, 247 00:12:16.159 --> 00:12:19.200 just fell right out. Yeah, the engines had physically consumed themselves. 248 00:12:19.360 --> 00:12:22.399 Hail battered Flight two forty two from the outside, destroying 249 00:12:22.440 --> 00:12:25.679 it with brute force and water. But what happens when 250 00:12:25.679 --> 00:12:29.159 the killer is completely dry, invisible to even modern radar, 251 00:12:29.639 --> 00:12:32.039 and destroys a plane by melting inside it. 252 00:12:32.799 --> 00:12:36.440 Now that brings us directly back to the terrifying scenario. 253 00:12:36.000 --> 00:12:40.200 From our introduction Yes June nineteen eighty two British Airways 254 00:12:40.240 --> 00:12:44.200 flight nine cruising smoothly at thirty seven thousand feet high 255 00:12:44.200 --> 00:12:47.000 above the Indian Ocean, just south of Jakarta. 256 00:12:47.080 --> 00:12:49.720 The flight deck is totally relaxed, passengers are. 257 00:12:49.679 --> 00:12:53.480 Sleeping, and then the saint almost fire begins. The windshield 258 00:12:53.519 --> 00:12:56.960 is suddenly covered in the shimmering, brilliant white light. The 259 00:12:57.000 --> 00:12:59.440 cabin fills with that sulfur smell which some of the 260 00:12:59.480 --> 00:13:02.799 crew actually noted smelled strongly of Perkish cigarettes. Such a 261 00:13:02.799 --> 00:13:05.600 specific detail I know. And passengers look up the windows 262 00:13:05.600 --> 00:13:07.600 into the pitch black night, and they see jets of 263 00:13:07.679 --> 00:13:11.240 sheer luminescent flame forty feet long shooting out the back 264 00:13:11.279 --> 00:13:12.759 of all four engines, and. 265 00:13:12.679 --> 00:13:16.720 The crew flawlessly executes their shut down procedures. Within a 266 00:13:16.759 --> 00:13:19.559 minute and a half, all four massive rolls Royce engines 267 00:13:19.840 --> 00:13:23.200 spool down to a halt, total silence, total silence. They 268 00:13:23.200 --> 00:13:25.919 are now flying a three hundred and fifty ton glider 269 00:13:26.679 --> 00:13:31.080 descending in total eerie silence toward the jagged, unforgiving peaks 270 00:13:31.120 --> 00:13:32.320 of the Java Mountains, and. 271 00:13:32.279 --> 00:13:35.600 The captain makes us agonizing calculation, right if they cannot 272 00:13:35.600 --> 00:13:38.279 get the engines restarted, he will ditch the plane in 273 00:13:38.360 --> 00:13:41.840 the pitch black ocean rather than risks smashing into the mountains. 274 00:13:41.919 --> 00:13:46.000 Yeah. And the craziest part the weather radar showed absolutely nothing. 275 00:13:46.440 --> 00:13:49.240 The sky appeared completely clear because they. 276 00:13:49.200 --> 00:13:52.080 Had flown straight into the plume of Mount Gollongung, a 277 00:13:52.159 --> 00:13:55.879 volcano one hundred miles away, had violently erupted, blasting a 278 00:13:55.960 --> 00:13:59.519 massive cloud of ash fifteen thousand meters into the night sky. 279 00:14:00.000 --> 00:14:02.639 PILs Dude winds carried it directly into the flight path 280 00:14:02.679 --> 00:14:03.320 of flight nine. 281 00:14:03.480 --> 00:14:06.519 Right, And volcanic ash isn't smoke, and it isn't wet. 282 00:14:06.679 --> 00:14:10.639 No, it is incredibly fine pulverized dry rock and mineral 283 00:14:11.440 --> 00:14:15.279 microscopic shards of glass and stone. Because there is no moisture, 284 00:14:15.559 --> 00:14:17.399 weather radar simply looks right through it. 285 00:14:17.440 --> 00:14:19.279 So they were flying at five hundred miles an hour 286 00:14:19.399 --> 00:14:22.879 through a microscopic sand blaster exactly. That explains the sane 287 00:14:22.879 --> 00:14:27.240 Elmo's fire. The intense friction of trillions of dry rock 288 00:14:27.279 --> 00:14:32.080 particles hitting the metal fuselage generated massive static electricity. It 289 00:14:32.200 --> 00:14:35.240 literally sand blasted the paint off the nose and frosted 290 00:14:35.279 --> 00:14:37.799 the windshield so badly it became totally opaque. 291 00:14:38.000 --> 00:14:40.840 But the true danger was happening deep inside those Rolls 292 00:14:40.960 --> 00:14:42.000 Royce engines. 293 00:14:41.799 --> 00:14:44.720 Right, Because the combustion chamber of a jet engine operates 294 00:14:44.720 --> 00:14:48.080 at an inferno of around two thousand degrees celsius. 295 00:14:47.679 --> 00:14:52.480 And volcanic rock melts at roughly thirteen hundred degrees. Oh boy, Yeah, 296 00:14:52.519 --> 00:14:55.279 as the engine sucked in millions at cubic feet of 297 00:14:55.320 --> 00:14:58.960 this abrasive rock, it instantly melted. It turned into this 298 00:14:59.159 --> 00:15:02.879 sticky to two two thousand degree molten goo that coated 299 00:15:02.919 --> 00:15:06.039 the turbine blades, the combustion chambers, and the guide vanes, 300 00:15:06.240 --> 00:15:07.679 basically suffocating the airflow. 301 00:15:07.759 --> 00:15:09.879 And those forty foot flames shooting out the back. 302 00:15:09.799 --> 00:15:13.080 Those were massive backfires, the engines violently rejecting the jet 303 00:15:13.080 --> 00:15:15.200 fuel they could no longer burn because they were choked 304 00:15:15.200 --> 00:15:15.960 by liquid rock. 305 00:15:16.200 --> 00:15:20.159 Wait, okay, if the engines ingested molten volcanic goo that 306 00:15:20.240 --> 00:15:23.679 plastered the turbines and physically choked them to death, how 307 00:15:23.720 --> 00:15:26.200 in the world did they manage to restart them just 308 00:15:26.320 --> 00:15:28.600 minutes before they hit the ocean? Because I know the 309 00:15:28.639 --> 00:15:31.399 crew kept trying the restart sequence over and over as 310 00:15:31.440 --> 00:15:31.919 they fell. 311 00:15:32.120 --> 00:15:36.519 It's honestly an incredible stroke of thermodynamics. Really yeah, When 312 00:15:36.519 --> 00:15:39.240 the engines shut down, the fire went out without the 313 00:15:39.279 --> 00:15:43.559 continuous two thousand degree heat of combustion. The frigid, high 314 00:15:43.600 --> 00:15:47.080 altitude air rushing through the dead engine rapidly dropped the 315 00:15:47.080 --> 00:15:48.000 internal temperature. 316 00:15:48.080 --> 00:15:52.200 Oh so the molten volcanic goo must have solidified again, exactly. 317 00:15:52.639 --> 00:15:56.200 It rapidly cooled and hardened back into a brittle glass 318 00:15:56.320 --> 00:15:59.320 like crust coating the metal blades, and as the engines 319 00:15:59.320 --> 00:16:02.440 continued to mill and the oncoming air during their glide, 320 00:16:02.639 --> 00:16:06.399 the mechanical vibration caused that brittle glass crust to shatter 321 00:16:06.519 --> 00:16:07.279 and flake off. 322 00:16:07.480 --> 00:16:10.600 Are you kidding? The engine literally shed its own cast 323 00:16:10.759 --> 00:16:13.120 it did. The cold air that shut down the combustion 324 00:16:13.320 --> 00:16:16.000 is exactly what caused the glass to shatter and save them. 325 00:16:16.159 --> 00:16:19.960 The airflow cleared just enough so when the crew frantically 326 00:16:20.000 --> 00:16:22.519 ran the restart drill for what felt like the fiftieth time, 327 00:16:22.799 --> 00:16:26.759 the fuel could finally ignite cleanly. Wow. The engines roared 328 00:16:26.759 --> 00:16:29.039 back to life, and they managed to climb out of danger, 329 00:16:29.120 --> 00:16:33.279 landing safely despite having a completely frosted, opaque windshield. 330 00:16:33.440 --> 00:16:36.759 That is just unbelievable. So we've seen how aviation adapted 331 00:16:36.799 --> 00:16:40.519 to the invisible wind shear of microbursts, the radar deception 332 00:16:40.759 --> 00:16:44.600 of massive hail, and the molten rock of volcanic ash. 333 00:16:44.759 --> 00:16:47.320 But let's bring it into the modern era. Okay, Yeah, 334 00:16:47.360 --> 00:16:51.159 what happens today when a highly engineered fly by wire 335 00:16:51.279 --> 00:16:55.159 modern jet still falls victim to extreme weather combined with 336 00:16:55.200 --> 00:16:57.120 the slightest fraction of human error. 337 00:16:57.279 --> 00:16:59.799 We traveled to August two thousand and five air France 338 00:16:59.799 --> 00:17:01.000 flour Light three fifty eight. 339 00:17:01.080 --> 00:17:03.159 Right. The scene is Toronto, and the atmosphere on the 340 00:17:03.159 --> 00:17:06.400 ground is incredibly tense. A brutal summer storm is parked 341 00:17:06.480 --> 00:17:07.000 right over. 342 00:17:06.880 --> 00:17:10.319 The airport, and lightning is striking so frequently that authorities 343 00:17:10.359 --> 00:17:12.799 have declared a red alert. Ground crews aren't even a 344 00:17:12.799 --> 00:17:14.559 lot outside on the tarmac. 345 00:17:14.359 --> 00:17:17.720 And the plane is an Airbus A three forty. We're 346 00:17:17.720 --> 00:17:21.839 talking about modern fly by wire jets now, where computers 347 00:17:22.000 --> 00:17:25.640 constantly translate the pilot's inputs to the control surfaces to 348 00:17:25.720 --> 00:17:29.680 maintain stability. It's big, it's heavy, and it's packed with 349 00:17:29.720 --> 00:17:31.519 two hundred and ninety seven passengers, and. 350 00:17:31.480 --> 00:17:34.119 They're coming in to land on runway two four left, 351 00:17:34.359 --> 00:17:36.519 which happens to be the shortest runway at the airport. 352 00:17:36.799 --> 00:17:40.039 Just a terrible combination. They are fighting a massive shifting 353 00:17:40.160 --> 00:17:44.240 thirty three not crosswind, the rain is absolutely blinding. 354 00:17:44.000 --> 00:17:46.519 And they touch down hard. They land nearly halfway down 355 00:17:46.559 --> 00:17:48.960 this already incredibly short runway, and. 356 00:17:48.880 --> 00:17:52.599 The tires hydroplane basically skimming on top of a microscopic 357 00:17:52.680 --> 00:17:55.880 layer of standing water instead of actually gripping the tarmac right. 358 00:17:55.759 --> 00:17:58.480 Which turns this two hundred ton jet into a helpless 359 00:17:58.559 --> 00:17:59.359 high speed sled. 360 00:17:59.599 --> 00:18:02.240 Yeah, they run entirely out of real estate, plunge off 361 00:18:02.240 --> 00:18:04.160 the end of the runway, and nose dive into a 362 00:18:04.240 --> 00:18:06.839 fifty foot deep mud ravine bordering one of the busiest 363 00:18:06.880 --> 00:18:08.440 highways in North America, and the. 364 00:18:08.359 --> 00:18:12.039 Plane is shattered by the impact. Aviation fuel immediately begins 365 00:18:12.079 --> 00:18:13.640 pouring out of the ruptured wing tanks. 366 00:18:13.799 --> 00:18:18.039 Passengers describe this terrifying orange aura glowing outside the windows 367 00:18:18.079 --> 00:18:21.400 as the spilled fuel ignites in the rain. Panic just 368 00:18:21.519 --> 00:18:22.920 erupts in the cabin, and. 369 00:18:22.839 --> 00:18:26.200 The investigation into this overrun revealed a perfect storm of 370 00:18:26.240 --> 00:18:30.240 compounding factors. The brutal weather set the trap sure, but 371 00:18:30.400 --> 00:18:33.960 critical seconds were lost during the landing role. How so well, 372 00:18:33.960 --> 00:18:37.799 when the plane finally touched down the reverse thrusters, the 373 00:18:37.839 --> 00:18:40.960 critical systems that redirect the engine blast forward to act 374 00:18:41.000 --> 00:18:44.240 as brakes weren't deployed for a full seventeen second. 375 00:18:44.440 --> 00:18:48.119 Seventeen seconds that is an absolute eternity when you're traveling 376 00:18:48.119 --> 00:18:50.240 at one hundred and forty miles an hour toward a cliff. 377 00:18:50.359 --> 00:18:52.880 It is the exact difference between stopping safely on the 378 00:18:52.920 --> 00:18:56.279 pavement and plunging into the ravine. Why the delay, The 379 00:18:56.319 --> 00:18:59.519 strong crosswind was forcing the plane laterally off the runway 380 00:18:59.559 --> 00:19:02.519 center line. The co pilot was at the controls, and 381 00:19:02.559 --> 00:19:05.119 he was struggling so violently to keep the plane straight 382 00:19:05.119 --> 00:19:07.839 on the wet runway that his hand was clamped down 383 00:19:07.920 --> 00:19:10.559 with an unbreakable death grip on the throttle lever. 384 00:19:10.880 --> 00:19:13.119 Oh wow. So he was fighting the fly by wire 385 00:19:13.160 --> 00:19:16.000 system and the wind so hard that the captain literally 386 00:19:16.000 --> 00:19:19.440 couldn't pry his handoff to engage those reversers Exactly. 387 00:19:19.519 --> 00:19:22.440 By the time they finally deployed the reversers, they were 388 00:19:22.519 --> 00:19:23.759 already running out of pavement. 389 00:19:23.960 --> 00:19:26.920 But the absolute miracle of this story is what happens next. 390 00:19:27.279 --> 00:19:28.880 You know, the next time you're sitting on a plane 391 00:19:28.880 --> 00:19:30.799 and you hear a flight attendant tell you to locate 392 00:19:30.839 --> 00:19:33.079 your nearest exit. Remember Air France three of E eight. 393 00:19:33.160 --> 00:19:37.039 Oh yeah, every single person survived. All two hundred and 394 00:19:37.119 --> 00:19:40.480 ninety seven people made it out of that burning wreckage, and. 395 00:19:40.400 --> 00:19:43.440 That survival rate is a testament to the rigid ninety 396 00:19:43.480 --> 00:19:47.720 second rule. Aviation safety engineers know that in a severe 397 00:19:47.880 --> 00:19:51.039 postcrash fire, the real killer isn't always. 398 00:19:50.839 --> 00:19:52.359 The flames, it's the smoke. 399 00:19:52.720 --> 00:19:56.240 It's the chemistry of the smoke. Burning modern plastics, seat 400 00:19:56.279 --> 00:20:01.119 phones polyurethane, they produce highly toxic gases like hydrogen, cyanide 401 00:20:01.160 --> 00:20:04.720