WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.120 --> 00:00:04.519 Picture this. You are dropping ten kilometers through the clouds 2 00:00:04.679 --> 00:00:08.519 over the Pacific Ocean. The g forces are so intense 3 00:00:08.519 --> 00:00:10.919 they're physically pinning you to the floor of the cabin. 4 00:00:11.119 --> 00:00:14.480 Right all around you, rivets are just popping off the fuselage. 5 00:00:14.960 --> 00:00:18.160 It literally sounds like machine gun fire hitting the outside. 6 00:00:17.839 --> 00:00:19.719 Of the plane. Oh. Absolutely terrifying. 7 00:00:19.839 --> 00:00:22.960 Yeah, luggage teapots, people who weren't buckled in. They're just 8 00:00:23.039 --> 00:00:25.960 flying through the cabin and up in the cockpit, the 9 00:00:26.120 --> 00:00:30.480 pilots are desperately fighting to regain control of a tumbling 10 00:00:30.559 --> 00:00:33.479 seven forty seven that is essentially falling right out of 11 00:00:33.479 --> 00:00:33.840 the sky. 12 00:00:34.119 --> 00:00:36.880 It's a really visceral scene to reconstruct. Honestly, when you 13 00:00:36.920 --> 00:00:39.799 look at the flight data recorder for that exact moment, 14 00:00:40.560 --> 00:00:44.240 you're seeing an aircraft being pushed far, far beyond its 15 00:00:44.280 --> 00:00:47.679 aerodynamic limits. I mean, the metal is groaning, the engines. 16 00:00:47.359 --> 00:00:50.640 Are screaming, welcome to the deep dive. And that terrifying 17 00:00:50.679 --> 00:00:52.880 scene we just described that wasn't from a movie. That 18 00:00:52.920 --> 00:00:55.880 was a real flight. Today we're exploring the actual cockpit 19 00:00:55.920 --> 00:00:59.799 transcripts and the investigative records from five historic commercial aviation 20 00:00:59.840 --> 00:01:00.600 to disasters. 21 00:01:00.840 --> 00:01:03.000 Yeah, and it's important to Note this isn't just a 22 00:01:03.039 --> 00:01:05.840 list of tragedies. We are really on a mission to 23 00:01:05.840 --> 00:01:09.519 figure out how these million dollar, highly engineered machines are 24 00:01:09.519 --> 00:01:12.000 brought down by the absolute smallest human errors. 25 00:01:12.040 --> 00:01:17.000 Exactly. We're dissecting this incredibly fragile intersection of human psychology, 26 00:01:17.159 --> 00:01:21.680 advanced technology, and survival because, as you know from investigating 27 00:01:21.719 --> 00:01:26.120 these crashes, you rarely find a massive structural failure out 28 00:01:26.159 --> 00:01:27.000 of nowhere, right. 29 00:01:27.040 --> 00:01:29.319 You rarely just lose a wing. You usually find a 30 00:01:29.439 --> 00:01:33.640 tiny mundane anomaly like a single burnt out light bulb 31 00:01:33.719 --> 00:01:36.319 or a misplaced switch, or just a really tired pilot, 32 00:01:36.840 --> 00:01:39.959 and you watch how human nature allows that tiny spark 33 00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:42.879 to cascade into an absolute catastrophe. 34 00:01:42.480 --> 00:01:45.159 And how those terrifying moments fundamentally change the way we 35 00:01:45.200 --> 00:01:48.879 all fly today. Yeah, so let's jump straight into December 36 00:01:49.040 --> 00:01:52.640 nineteen seventy two Eastern Airlines flight four oh one. They're 37 00:01:52.640 --> 00:01:55.719 flying an L ten eleven TriStar, which I mean I 38 00:01:55.840 --> 00:01:57.879 understand was basically a spaceship for its time. 39 00:01:58.040 --> 00:01:59.959 Oh, it really was the dawn of the jumbo jet era. 40 00:02:00.040 --> 00:02:02.120 The Tristra was the most advanced passenger jet in the 41 00:02:02.120 --> 00:02:04.120 world at the time, equipped with these state of the 42 00:02:04.239 --> 00:02:07.840 art autopilot systems. So they're approaching Miami on a pitch 43 00:02:07.879 --> 00:02:11.159 black night, and as they lower the landing gear, the 44 00:02:11.240 --> 00:02:15.520 crew notices a discrepancy the little green indicator light on 45 00:02:15.560 --> 00:02:18.080 the dashboard, the one that confirms the nose landing gear 46 00:02:18.599 --> 00:02:21.159 is locked in place. It just hasn't lit. 47 00:02:21.080 --> 00:02:23.520 Up, So presumably they just abort the landing to figure 48 00:02:23.560 --> 00:02:24.360 it out, right. 49 00:02:24.199 --> 00:02:27.080 They do. They put the plane on autopilot to circle 50 00:02:27.120 --> 00:02:30.199 over the Florida Everglades while they troubleshoot. And this is 51 00:02:30.199 --> 00:02:34.680 where we witness a classic fatal case of human fixation. 52 00:02:35.199 --> 00:02:38.199 The captain, the first officer, and the flight engineer, they 53 00:02:38.199 --> 00:02:42.800 all become entirely consumed by this single indicator light. Wow, 54 00:02:43.080 --> 00:02:46.319 a light bulb that, by the way, cost exactly twelve cents. 55 00:02:46.360 --> 00:02:48.680 Wait, twelve cents. How does a whole passenger plane go 56 00:02:48.759 --> 00:02:50.919 down over a twelve cent light bulb? I mean, don't 57 00:02:50.919 --> 00:02:52.599 they have other ways to check if the wheels are 58 00:02:52.599 --> 00:02:53.280 actually down? 59 00:02:53.520 --> 00:02:56.240 They do? Yeah, the flight engineer actually climbs down into 60 00:02:56.240 --> 00:02:59.680 this cramped avion X bay beneath the cockpit floor. They 61 00:02:59.680 --> 00:03:01.759 literally called it the hellhole. The hell hole, all right, Yeah, 62 00:03:01.759 --> 00:03:03.759 he goes down there to look through a tiny window 63 00:03:04.080 --> 00:03:08.080 and manually check the gear. But here's the critical failure point. 64 00:03:09.080 --> 00:03:11.680 Up in the cockpit. The captain is trying to pry 65 00:03:11.680 --> 00:03:14.560 the light bulb out of the console. It's stuck. He's 66 00:03:14.560 --> 00:03:18.240 twisting it, he's getting frustrated with it, right, He's distracted completely, 67 00:03:18.639 --> 00:03:22.159 and as he reaches across, he accidentally bumps the control 68 00:03:22.159 --> 00:03:26.400 wheel the yoke just a slight, totally unintentional nudge. 69 00:03:26.520 --> 00:03:28.400 And what does a slight nudge actually do? 70 00:03:29.039 --> 00:03:31.800 Well? That tiny bump applies just enough force to the 71 00:03:31.840 --> 00:03:35.520 control column to disengage the altitude hold on their autopilot. 72 00:03:35.919 --> 00:03:38.919 Because the computer is designed to yield to the human pilot, 73 00:03:39.319 --> 00:03:41.719 it basically assumes the captain wants to fly manually. 74 00:03:41.759 --> 00:03:44.800 Now, oh wow, So it just hands over control exactly. 75 00:03:44.800 --> 00:03:46.080 It quietly switches modes. 76 00:03:46.280 --> 00:03:48.520 But surely they have an alarm for that, right or 77 00:03:48.560 --> 00:03:51.680 wouldn't they physically feel the plane starting to dive? 78 00:03:51.840 --> 00:03:55.039 You would think so. But the descent was incredibly gradual. 79 00:03:55.680 --> 00:03:58.199 And because they're flying over the Everglades on a moonless night, 80 00:03:58.639 --> 00:04:02.280 the environment outside is just avoid There are no city lights, 81 00:04:02.479 --> 00:04:04.879 there's no visual horizon to reference. 82 00:04:04.599 --> 00:04:07.360 So it's like if you've ever been driving on a dark, 83 00:04:07.439 --> 00:04:10.319 straight highway at night and your check engine light comes on. 84 00:04:11.039 --> 00:04:14.319 You start staring at the dashboard, maybe tapping the gauge, 85 00:04:14.360 --> 00:04:19.639 getting so distracted that you slowly, imperceptibly drift onto the shoulder. 86 00:04:19.759 --> 00:04:21.199 That is the exact psychology. 87 00:04:21.279 --> 00:04:24.920 Yes, only in the sky, there are no rumble strips 88 00:04:24.959 --> 00:04:25.600 to wake you up. 89 00:04:25.759 --> 00:04:29.800 That captures it perfectly. All three highly trained men in 90 00:04:29.839 --> 00:04:33.319 that cockpit were focused on the twelve cent bulb. Nobody 91 00:04:33.360 --> 00:04:36.120 was watching the altimeter. They had a perfectly functional airplane, 92 00:04:36.480 --> 00:04:38.639 but literally no one was flying. 93 00:04:38.319 --> 00:04:41.000 It, and so they crashed right into the swamp. And 94 00:04:41.079 --> 00:04:44.120 reading through the aftermath, I mean it is just horrifying. 95 00:04:44.600 --> 00:04:48.040 The plane breaks apart and twenty thousand kilograms of jet 96 00:04:48.079 --> 00:04:50.079 fuel leaks into the swamp water. 97 00:04:50.199 --> 00:04:51.279 Yeah, highly flammable. 98 00:04:51.439 --> 00:04:54.000 People are sitting there covered in fuel, terrified that a 99 00:04:54.000 --> 00:04:57.000 single spark is going to ignite the whole swamp. There's 100 00:04:57.040 --> 00:04:59.759 this incredible detail in the source about a local guy, 101 00:05:00.120 --> 00:05:02.800 an airboat driver named Bob Marcus, who was just out 102 00:05:02.839 --> 00:05:04.279 hunting frogs. 103 00:05:03.959 --> 00:05:05.759 Right he was one of the first on the scene. 104 00:05:05.800 --> 00:05:08.920 He rushes in, burning his own legs from the jet 105 00:05:09.000 --> 00:05:11.399 fuel in the water. Just pulling people up so they 106 00:05:11.399 --> 00:05:12.800 don't drown in the mud. 107 00:05:12.560 --> 00:05:16.279 And forensic pathology later revealed that the mud itself actually 108 00:05:16.279 --> 00:05:20.240 posed a secondary, completely unexpected threat to the survivors. 109 00:05:20.360 --> 00:05:22.399 I saw this in the note something about gas gangreen. 110 00:05:22.879 --> 00:05:25.199 How does swamp mud cause gas gangreen? 111 00:05:25.360 --> 00:05:30.120 Well, the evergladze mud is extremely rich in certain anaerobic bacteria. 112 00:05:30.560 --> 00:05:34.240 When passengers suffer deep crush injuries from the impact, those 113 00:05:34.240 --> 00:05:37.720 wounds were packed with this contaminated mud. And because the 114 00:05:37.759 --> 00:05:41.839 bacteria thrive in environments without oxygen like deep crush tissue, 115 00:05:41.959 --> 00:05:43.079 they rapidly multiply. 116 00:05:43.199 --> 00:05:44.279 Oh that sounds awful. 117 00:05:44.600 --> 00:05:48.160 It is, They produce toxins and gas. It causes gas gangreen, 118 00:05:48.199 --> 00:05:50.759 which can destroy a limb or even become fatal in 119 00:05:50.800 --> 00:05:53.399 a matter of days. Doctors had to scramble to find 120 00:05:53.480 --> 00:05:56.639 hyperbaric oxygen chambers all across Florida. 121 00:05:56.199 --> 00:05:57.839 Just to treat the survivors. 122 00:05:58.000 --> 00:06:02.120 Yes, placing survivors inside the high pressure oxygen tanks just 123 00:06:02.160 --> 00:06:05.079 to force oxygen deep into their tissues to kill the bacteria. 124 00:06:05.160 --> 00:06:08.319 And as if this story isn't intense enough, there's this 125 00:06:08.439 --> 00:06:13.160 bizarre PostScript. The airline actually salvaged intact parts from this 126 00:06:13.279 --> 00:06:15.560 crashed plane and put them into other jets. 127 00:06:15.759 --> 00:06:19.720 Yes, a very controversial decision, and crew started reporting ghost 128 00:06:19.800 --> 00:06:23.480 sightings like apparitions of the dead Flight four oh one 129 00:06:23.519 --> 00:06:26.120 crew haunting the planes that had the cannibalized parts. 130 00:06:26.240 --> 00:06:29.000 Yeah, the psychological trauma across the airline was so severe 131 00:06:29.079 --> 00:06:32.639 that management eventually just quietly removed all those salvage parts. 132 00:06:33.360 --> 00:06:34.879 But you know, if we pull back to the true 133 00:06:34.920 --> 00:06:38.399 legacy of Flight four oh one, it fundamentally altered aviation 134 00:06:38.519 --> 00:06:42.160 safety by birthing CRM or crew resource management. 135 00:06:42.560 --> 00:06:45.199 So how did this crash actually change things in the cockpit. 136 00:06:45.319 --> 00:06:48.439 Well, before nineteen seventy two, cockpit culture was essentially a 137 00:06:48.480 --> 00:06:52.920 military dictatorship. The captain's word was absolute law. So if 138 00:06:52.920 --> 00:06:55.000 the captain was fixated in a light bulb, everybody else 139 00:06:55.040 --> 00:06:55.879 focused on the light bulb. 140 00:06:55.920 --> 00:06:57.759 Cowbody questions the boss exactly. 141 00:06:58.199 --> 00:07:01.240 But Flight four oh one proved that hierarchy can be fatal. 142 00:07:01.600 --> 00:07:06.800 CRM mandated a collaborative model. Today, tasks must be explicitly delegated. 143 00:07:07.040 --> 00:07:08.959 If a captain wants to troubleshoot an issue, he has 144 00:07:09.000 --> 00:07:11.720 to verbally declare to the copilot you have the aircraft. 145 00:07:11.920 --> 00:07:14.360 So someone is always assigned to monitor the horizon and 146 00:07:14.360 --> 00:07:15.079 actually fly. 147 00:07:14.959 --> 00:07:17.959 The plane precisely. Someone is always flying, okay. 148 00:07:17.680 --> 00:07:19.600 So flight four oh one was a crew that was 149 00:07:19.680 --> 00:07:24.319 physically totally fine but mentally distracted. What happens when the 150 00:07:24.399 --> 00:07:28.120 crew's brains are physically compromised, Which brings us to Helios 151 00:07:28.160 --> 00:07:31.560 Airways flight five twenty two in August two thousand and five. 152 00:07:31.639 --> 00:07:33.879 Oh, this is one of the most chilling investigations in 153 00:07:33.920 --> 00:07:38.279 modern aviation. It became known as the ghost plane. It 154 00:07:38.399 --> 00:07:42.800 circled over Athens Grease in total radia silence for over 155 00:07:42.839 --> 00:07:43.240 an hour. 156 00:07:43.480 --> 00:07:44.199 Over an hour. 157 00:07:44.480 --> 00:07:48.079 Yes, the Greek military actually scrambled two F sixteen finer 158 00:07:48.160 --> 00:07:50.920 jets to intercept it because they feared it was a hijacking. 159 00:07:51.079 --> 00:07:53.720 How does a modern jet just become a ghost ship 160 00:07:53.759 --> 00:07:54.879 with everybody on board. 161 00:07:54.959 --> 00:07:57.519 It all traces back to a very mundane maintenance check. 162 00:07:58.079 --> 00:08:00.319 A ground engineer had run a routine test on the 163 00:08:00.319 --> 00:08:03.920 aircraft's pressurization system earlier that morning, and to do that, 164 00:08:04.240 --> 00:08:07.959 he flipped the pressurization dial to manual. But when he finished, 165 00:08:08.160 --> 00:08:10.040 he just forgot to flip it back to auto. 166 00:08:09.920 --> 00:08:11.480 And the flight crew just didn't touch it. 167 00:08:11.759 --> 00:08:14.480 They missed it during their pre flight checks. So as 168 00:08:14.480 --> 00:08:17.439 the plane climbed into the sky, the system did exactly 169 00:08:17.519 --> 00:08:21.040 what it was told nothing. The cabin did not pressurize. 170 00:08:21.319 --> 00:08:23.800 The air inside simply got thinner and thinner as they 171 00:08:23.839 --> 00:08:24.399 went higher. 172 00:08:24.480 --> 00:08:26.360 Now Here is where I really have to push back 173 00:08:26.399 --> 00:08:29.120 on the design of this plane. As they're climbing, an 174 00:08:29.120 --> 00:08:32.679 alarm starts blaring, right, But the alarm warning them that 175 00:08:32.720 --> 00:08:36.559 the cabin isn't pressurizing. He sounds exactly the same as 176 00:08:36.600 --> 00:08:39.720 the takeoff configuration warning. That's right, which is an alarm 177 00:08:39.759 --> 00:08:41.639 that tells you your flaps are wrong when you're still 178 00:08:41.679 --> 00:08:44.279 on the ground. Why on earth what an alarm telling 179 00:08:44.279 --> 00:08:47.320 you you're suffocating sound identical to an alarm telling you 180 00:08:47.320 --> 00:08:49.519 you're not ready to drive down the runway. That is 181 00:08:49.600 --> 00:08:50.600 just terrible design. 182 00:08:50.759 --> 00:08:54.159 You're touching on a fundamental flaw in human machine interface 183 00:08:54.200 --> 00:08:58.360 design of that era. From a purely logical engineering standpoint, 184 00:08:58.399 --> 00:09:02.080 it made perfect sense. A takeoff warning only physically triggers 185 00:09:02.080 --> 00:09:05.879 on the ground, a cabin pressure warning only physically triggers 186 00:09:05.879 --> 00:09:08.559 in the air. Okay, Sure, so the machine's computer knows 187 00:09:08.600 --> 00:09:10.279 the context, it knows where. 188 00:09:10.039 --> 00:09:11.600 It is, but the human doesn't. 189 00:09:11.919 --> 00:09:16.279 Exactly to a human brain an alarm is just a loud, 190 00:09:16.360 --> 00:09:20.279 blaring horn, and when you were certainly being starved of oxygen, 191 00:09:20.720 --> 00:09:24.639 your brain completely loses the ability to parse that context. 192 00:09:24.759 --> 00:09:26.960 But if you're running out of air, wouldn't you feel 193 00:09:27.000 --> 00:09:30.440 yourself choking. Wouldn't you gasp for breath and realize, oh wait, 194 00:09:30.519 --> 00:09:31.399 we need oxygen. 195 00:09:31.840 --> 00:09:34.879 You would think so. But that's the insidious nature of hypoxia. 196 00:09:35.000 --> 00:09:37.200 It's not like holding your breath under water. You are 197 00:09:37.240 --> 00:09:40.519 still breathing in gas, but because of the high altitude, 198 00:09:40.559 --> 00:09:43.759 there just isn't enough atmospheric pressure to force the oxygen 199 00:09:43.759 --> 00:09:45.120 into your bloodstream. 200 00:09:44.720 --> 00:09:46.720 So you don't feel suffocated, not at all. 201 00:09:46.879 --> 00:09:50.080 Instead, hypoxia acts like a subtle intoxican. You might feel 202 00:09:50.080 --> 00:09:53.279 little giddy, your ears pop, and then your cognitive functions 203 00:09:53.399 --> 00:09:56.519 just rapidly and silently degrade, so you just get confused, 204 00:09:56.600 --> 00:10:01.600 severely confused. Hypoxia destroys your ability to reason or think. Laterally, 205 00:10:02.159 --> 00:10:05.039 when the master caution light illuminated on that flight, the 206 00:10:05.080 --> 00:10:08.360 captain assumed it was an equipment cooling issue. We actually 207 00:10:08.399 --> 00:10:10.799 have transcripts of him on the radio, slurring his words, 208 00:10:10.840 --> 00:10:14.039 asking ground control about circuit breakers located behind his seat. 209 00:10:14.120 --> 00:10:17.879 Oh my god, he is hyperfixating on a non existent 210 00:10:17.919 --> 00:10:20.840 electrical problem while he is actively running out of air. 211 00:10:21.600 --> 00:10:23.960 Within minutes, the pilots simply passed out at. 212 00:10:23.919 --> 00:10:27.600 The controls, but the passenger oxygen masks drop right. I 213 00:10:27.639 --> 00:10:30.519 read those only supply chemical oxygen for about twelve minutes. 214 00:10:30.759 --> 00:10:33.759 Right. Twelve minutes which is just long enough for a 215 00:10:33.799 --> 00:10:36.759 conscious pilot to dive the plane to a breathable altitude. 216 00:10:37.159 --> 00:10:39.840 But there was no pilot flying, so the plane just 217 00:10:39.919 --> 00:10:43.600 kept cruising on autopilot until those F sixteens pulled alongside it. 218 00:10:44.039 --> 00:10:46.600 And when the fighter pilots look into the windows of 219 00:10:46.639 --> 00:10:51.159 this silent, frozen jet, they see one conscious person moving 220 00:10:51.159 --> 00:10:53.159 in the cockpit. Who was that? 221 00:10:53.159 --> 00:10:55.440 That was Andreas Perdromo. He was a twenty five year 222 00:10:55.440 --> 00:10:56.360 old flight attendant. 223 00:10:56.480 --> 00:10:57.960 How is he the only one awake? 224 00:10:58.480 --> 00:11:01.799 The investigation suggests his background played a role. He was 225 00:11:01.799 --> 00:11:04.559 a scuba diver and had some military experience, so his 226 00:11:04.600 --> 00:11:08.279 body may have been slightly more resilient to the physiological stress. 227 00:11:08.840 --> 00:11:12.000 But more importantly, he used portable oxygen bottles from the 228 00:11:12.000 --> 00:11:15.039 cabin to stay conscious. Wow. He fought his way to 229 00:11:15.080 --> 00:11:17.960 the cockpit, punched in the emergency code, and tried to 230 00:11:17.960 --> 00:11:18.759 take the controls. 231 00:11:19.000 --> 00:11:21.279 That is heroic, but he couldn't save it. 232 00:11:21.279 --> 00:11:25.360 It's agonizing to study. Really. Prodroma actually held a commercial 233 00:11:25.360 --> 00:11:28.039 pilot's license, but by the time he got into the 234 00:11:28.080 --> 00:11:32.600 captain's seat he was severely hypoxic himself, struggling to comprehend 235 00:11:32.600 --> 00:11:34.960 a massive jet he wasn't rated to fly right. 236 00:11:35.000 --> 00:11:37.039 A seven point thirty seven is a lot different than 237 00:11:37.080 --> 00:11:37.720 a small. 238 00:11:37.480 --> 00:11:41.840 Sestinat exactly and worse, the plane's left engine had already 239 00:11:41.879 --> 00:11:45.840 flamed out from fuel starvation. He called Mayda over the radio, 240 00:11:46.200 --> 00:11:48.600 but the dial was still tuned to the departure airport 241 00:11:48.600 --> 00:11:51.960 in Cyprus, completely out of range. The second engine died 242 00:11:52.039 --> 00:11:53.080 and the plane crashed. 243 00:11:53.200 --> 00:11:57.200 It's devastating. Hypoxias starves the brain of oxygen and ruins 244 00:11:57.240 --> 00:11:59.759 its ability to reason. But it turns out you don't 245 00:11:59.759 --> 00:12:01.320 even you need to starve the brain of bear to 246 00:12:01.320 --> 00:12:03.879 make it fail. You just need to starve it of sleep, 247 00:12:04.440 --> 00:12:07.600 which brings us to the terrifying phenomenon of trusting computers 248 00:12:07.639 --> 00:12:08.720 when we are exhausted. 249 00:12:08.879 --> 00:12:11.360 This leads us directly back to the falling seven four 250 00:12:11.399 --> 00:12:14.799 to seven from the introduction China Airlines Flight zero zero 251 00:12:14.840 --> 00:12:16.399 six in nineteen eighty five. 252 00:12:16.559 --> 00:12:19.200 Okay, so they're cruising over the Pacific and engine number 253 00:12:19.200 --> 00:12:22.919 four flames out. It just dies. What actually starts that 254 00:12:23.000 --> 00:12:24.039 incredible dive. 255 00:12:24.080 --> 00:12:27.320 The captain's response. When you lose an engine on one 256 00:12:27.360 --> 00:12:30.960 side of an aircraft, you develop what's called asymmetrical thrust. 257 00:12:31.840 --> 00:12:34.600 The working engines are pushing hard and the dead engine 258 00:12:34.639 --> 00:12:38.320 is just dragging right, So the plane naturally wants to 259 00:12:38.440 --> 00:12:42.120 yaw or twist toward the dead engine. To counter this, 260 00:12:42.480 --> 00:12:45.519 a pilot must manually press the rudder pedals to keep 261 00:12:45.519 --> 00:12:48.879 the nose straight. But this captain didn't. He left the 262 00:12:48.919 --> 00:12:50.120 autopilot engaged. 263 00:12:50.519 --> 00:12:53.360 Why is that a problem? Though? Isn't the autopilot designed 264 00:12:53.360 --> 00:12:54.360 to fly the plane. 265 00:12:54.399 --> 00:12:57.399 It is, but the autopilot on that specific generation of 266 00:12:57.440 --> 00:13:01.240 seven forty seven could only control the aile. Those are 267 00:13:01.240 --> 00:13:03.120 the flaps on the wings that roll the plane left 268 00:13:03.159 --> 00:13:06.480 and right. It had no physical connection to the rudder. 269 00:13:06.759 --> 00:13:09.559 It simply wasn't built to compensate for asymmetrical thrust on 270 00:13:09.600 --> 00:13:10.000 its own. 271 00:13:10.080 --> 00:13:11.519 So it's like trying to row a canoe in a 272 00:13:11.519 --> 00:13:14.879 perfectly straight line using only one paddle while a massive 273 00:13:14.960 --> 00:13:17.799 current pushes you from the other side. Eventually, no matter 274 00:13:17.840 --> 00:13:19.480 how hard, you paddle, You're gonna spin. 275 00:13:19.639 --> 00:13:23.159 Precisely, the autopilot was fighting a losing battle. Eventually it 276 00:13:23.240 --> 00:13:25.879 ran out of aerodynamic authority and the mass of seven 277 00:13:25.960 --> 00:13:28.919 forty seven slowly gradually rolled over onto his back. 278 00:13:29.159 --> 00:13:31.639 I have to stop you there. How do three train 279 00:13:31.720 --> 00:13:35.080 pilots sit in a cockpit and not feel gravity flipping 280 00:13:35.120 --> 00:13:38.120 them upside down? Doesn't your inner ear scream at you 281 00:13:38.159 --> 00:13:38.879 that you were falling. 282 00:13:39.759 --> 00:13:44.399 You are describing the exact trap of spatial disorientation. Your 283 00:13:44.440 --> 00:13:48.759 inner ear detects acceleration and gravity using fluid in small canals. 284 00:13:49.360 --> 00:13:52.799 But if an aircraft rolls very very slowly, that fluid 285 00:13:52.799 --> 00:13:56.960 stabilizes and your body doesn't register the rotation. That is wild. 286 00:13:57.120 --> 00:13:59.720 And once they were upside down and dropping, the massive 287 00:13:59.759 --> 00:14:02.639 g forces pined them firmly down into their seats. To 288 00:14:02.720 --> 00:14:06.799 their inner ears, that pressure felt exactly like normal upright gravity. 289 00:14:06.879 --> 00:14:09.360 So when they looked at the attitude indicator, the digital 290 00:14:09.360 --> 00:14:12.080 screen telling them they were inverted, what did they think? 291 00:14:12.360 --> 00:14:15.320 They assumed the screen was broken. Their physical sensations were 292 00:14:15.360 --> 00:14:18.039 lying to them so convincingly that their brains rejected the 293 00:14:18.039 --> 00:14:19.639 instrument readings entirely. 294 00:14:19.559 --> 00:14:22.759 And they fall thirty thousand feet g forces pinning the 295 00:14:22.759 --> 00:14:25.440 flight engineer so hard he literally can't lift his head 296 00:14:25.519 --> 00:14:28.080 to check the dials. They are tearing the landing gear 297 00:14:28.159 --> 00:14:30.000 doors off just from the sheer speed of the dive, 298 00:14:30.279 --> 00:14:32.399 and they only survive because they break through the bottom 299 00:14:32.399 --> 00:14:34.240 of the clouds at ninety five hundred feet, see the 300 00:14:34.240 --> 00:14:36.919 physical ocean and realize, oh, the instrument's were right. 301 00:14:37.080 --> 00:14:40.639 Yeah, they managed a miraculous recovery and landed safely. But 302 00:14:40.720 --> 00:14:44.559 the investigative question remains, why were they so reliant on 303 00:14:44.600 --> 00:14:47.840 the autopilot and so slow to process the instrument failure 304 00:14:47.840 --> 00:14:52.440 in the first place. Fatigue, severe desynchronosis or jet lag. 305 00:14:53.200 --> 00:14:56.240 The captain had crossed eighteen time zones in six days. 306 00:14:56.720 --> 00:14:59.480 His biological clock was screaming that it was two point 307 00:14:59.559 --> 00:15:03.879 zero z. When your brain is that fatigued, your reaction 308 00:15:04.000 --> 00:15:07.559 time plummets and your reliance on automation skyrockets. 309 00:15:06.879 --> 00:15:09.200 Which brings up the other fatigue case. We looked at 310 00:15:09.320 --> 00:15:11.879 Korean Air flight eight h one in Guam in nineteen 311 00:15:11.960 --> 00:15:15.600 ninety seven, another exhausted pilot on a rainy night, and 312 00:15:15.679 --> 00:15:18.399 here the airport's glide slope beacon, the electronic beam that 313 00:15:18.480 --> 00:15:20.519 guides planes down to the runway was broken. 314 00:15:20.879 --> 00:15:24.480 Yes, so the crew had to fly a non precision approach, 315 00:15:25.039 --> 00:15:28.159 relying on a distance measuring beacon that was actually located 316 00:15:28.200 --> 00:15:31.120 five kilometers away from the runway rather than at the 317 00:15:31.200 --> 00:15:32.440 runway threshold itself. 318 00:15:32.480 --> 00:15:35.759 So they're flying tired, trusting instruments. You rid the phrase 319 00:15:35.919 --> 00:15:37.360 backside of the clock flying. 320 00:15:37.679 --> 00:15:40.120 Yeah, it refers to flying during the deep hours of 321 00:15:40.159 --> 00:15:43.799 the night when the human circadian rhythm just demands sleep. 322 00:15:44.399 --> 00:15:49.440 In that state, your visual processing and situational awareness heavily. 323 00:15:49.080 --> 00:15:52.799 Degrade, and the pilot fixates on his glide slope indicator 324 00:15:52.879 --> 00:15:56.200 inside the cockpit. The transmitter on the ground is turned off, 325 00:15:56.240 --> 00:15:59.000 but his needle is flickering, probably picking up stray radio 326 00:15:59.080 --> 00:16:02.600 interference or something likely. Yes, he fixates on that phantom needle, 327 00:16:02.679 --> 00:16:06.159 completely zones out, and flies the plane straight into Nimt's 328 00:16:06.200 --> 00:16:09.960 hill miles short of the runway. Good wait. Air traffic 329 00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:12.080 control has radar. Why didn't someone on the ground yell 330 00:16:12.120 --> 00:16:13.240 over the radio? Pull up? 331 00:16:13.360 --> 00:16:16.919 Because of a chilling administrative failure, the FAA had a 332 00:16:16.960 --> 00:16:21.879 system called Minimum Safe Altitude Warning or MSAW. It acts 333 00:16:21.919 --> 00:16:25.159 as an electronic safety net, tracking radar returns and blaring 334 00:16:25.200 --> 00:16:28.639 an alarm to the controller if an aircraft drops dangerously low, 335 00:16:29.440 --> 00:16:33.000 but the FAA had intentionally disabled it for approaching planes in. 336 00:16:32.960 --> 00:16:35.879 Guam, disabled it by who why? 337 00:16:36.360 --> 00:16:39.320 Well, if the software was generating occasional false alarms and 338 00:16:39.320 --> 00:16:43.559 the air traffic controllers found the alerts annoying, annoy yes, annoying, 339 00:16:43.840 --> 00:16:47.720 So management reconfigured the software to only monitor aircraft that 340 00:16:47.759 --> 00:16:51.279 were eighty kilometers out over the open ocean, essentially rendering 341 00:16:51.360 --> 00:16:54.399 it totally useless for planes actually trying to land. If 342 00:16:54.399 --> 00:16:57.519 that software hadn't been modified just for convenience, an alarm 343 00:16:57.559 --> 00:17:00.360 would have sounded, the controller would have intervened in flight 344 00:17:00.399 --> 00:17:01.679 eight oh one would have been saved. 345 00:17:01.799 --> 00:17:04.440 That is just maddening turning off a life saving safety 346 00:17:04.519 --> 00:17:07.960 system because it's a nuisance. Okay, we've explored how human 347 00:17:08.039 --> 00:17:11.960 exhaustion and mechanical misunderstanding cause crashes, But what about when 348 00:17:12.000 --> 00:17:14.319 a crash is totally unavoidable due to weather. How do 349 00:17:14.359 --> 00:17:17.119 we engineer survivability so people actually walk away? 350 00:17:17.359 --> 00:17:20.759 That brings us to an absolute master class in survival engineering. 351 00:17:21.680 --> 00:17:24.880 Air France Flight three point fifty eight in Toronto, August 352 00:17:25.000 --> 00:17:25.799 two thousand and five. 353 00:17:26.039 --> 00:17:28.839 The scene here is apocalyptic. They are landing during a 354 00:17:28.880 --> 00:17:32.359 top hat thunderstorm. What exactly makes that so dangerous? 355 00:17:32.599 --> 00:17:36.519 A top hat thunderstorm is a massive, rapidly developing storm 356 00:17:36.559 --> 00:17:40.640 cell with a flat, anvil like top. They are incredibly 357 00:17:40.720 --> 00:17:45.240 violent and produce severe microbursts. Those are sudden, localized columns 358 00:17:45.240 --> 00:17:47.400 of sinking air that hit the ground and spread out, 359 00:17:47.599 --> 00:17:49.640 creating massive, unpredictable wind cheer. 360 00:17:49.880 --> 00:17:52.920 And right as they're landing, lightning strikes the airport, destroying 361 00:17:52.920 --> 00:17:55.519 the ground wind sensors, so the pilots are flying blind 362 00:17:55.599 --> 00:17:58.640 into a massive thirty three not crosswind. They touch down 363 00:17:58.720 --> 00:18:01.160 way too fast, almost half way down the shortest runway 364 00:18:01.160 --> 00:18:02.119 at the airport. 365 00:18:01.920 --> 00:18:04.680 And critically, because they were fighting to keep the plane straight, 366 00:18:04.960 --> 00:18:08.559 the pilots didn't engage the thrust reversers, the engine flaps 367 00:18:08.759 --> 00:18:11.880 that help break the plane for seventeen crucial seconds at 368 00:18:11.960 --> 00:18:15.519 landing speeds. Seventeen seconds eats up thousands of feet of pavement, 369 00:18:15.759 --> 00:18:16.200 So they. 370 00:18:16.079 --> 00:18:17.839 Just slide right off the end of the runway and 371 00:18:17.839 --> 00:18:21.559 plunge into a fifty foot ravine. The fuselage breaks open, 372 00:18:21.599 --> 00:18:25.799 the plane catches fire. But here's the incredible part. Two 373 00:18:25.920 --> 00:18:29.359 hundred and ninety seven passengers and crew are inside a burning, 374 00:18:29.640 --> 00:18:33.519 smoke filled tube, and they all get out, everyone survives. 375 00:18:33.759 --> 00:18:34.799 It's remarkable. Now. 376 00:18:34.799 --> 00:18:36.880 You hear about this ninety second rule in aviation all 377 00:18:36.920 --> 00:18:40.119 the time, But in a burning cabin with toxic fumes, 378 00:18:40.200 --> 00:18:44.599 people panicking, scrambling over seats, how is that physically possible? 379 00:18:44.759 --> 00:18:48.680 It is possible because of decades of frankly, blood soaked 380 00:18:48.720 --> 00:18:53.160 interior engineering. The ninety second threshold isn't just an arbitrary goal. 381 00:18:53.799 --> 00:18:57.720 It is the physical limit dictated by a phenomenon called flashover. 382 00:18:57.920 --> 00:18:59.160 How does flashover work? 383 00:18:59.319 --> 00:19:01.440 When a fire, which is a cabin, the materials start 384 00:19:01.440 --> 00:19:04.119 to heat up, the seat foams, the plastics, the overhead bins, 385 00:19:04.240 --> 00:19:07.759 they all begin off gassing highly toxic combustible smoke. That 386 00:19:07.880 --> 00:19:09.599 smoke pools at the ceiling right. 387 00:19:09.640 --> 00:19:11.440 Heat rises exactly as. 388 00:19:11.279 --> 00:19:14.440 The radiant heat builds. It eventually reaches into ignition temperature, 389 00:19:14.480 --> 00:19:17.960 where every single combustible gas in the cabin ignites simultaneously. 390 00:19:18.240 --> 00:19:21.359 That is flash over. After that moment, the environment is 391 00:19:21.400 --> 00:19:26.119 completely unsurvivable. Every fire retardant fabric, every floor track light, 392 00:19:26.440 --> 00:19:29.519 every specialized door hingte you see on a plane is 393 00:19:29.599 --> 00:19:33.880 mathematically engineered to delay flashover, and by you exactly those 394 00:19:33.960 --> 00:19:34.680 ninety seconds. 395 00:19:34.799 --> 00:19:37.920 That is incredible engineering, but dropping a plane into a 396 00:19:37.960 --> 00:19:41.279 fifty foot ravine is still insane. I was reading the 397 00:19:41.319 --> 00:19:44.319 case files and there is a technology that exists specifically 398 00:19:44.359 --> 00:19:46.960 to stop planes from sliding off runways like this. 399 00:19:47.200 --> 00:19:50.400 Yes, emas engineered material arresting systems. 400 00:19:50.440 --> 00:19:51.160 How does that work? 401 00:19:51.279 --> 00:19:54.440