WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.040 --> 00:00:04.320 I want to transport you to a sweltering Saturday afternoon. 2 00:00:04.519 --> 00:00:06.960 It's May twenty fifth, two thousand and two in. 3 00:00:06.879 --> 00:00:08.919 Taipei, Okay. Setting the scene. 4 00:00:09.000 --> 00:00:12.119 Yeah, we are inside the cabin of a Boeing seven 5 00:00:12.240 --> 00:00:15.679 forty seven to two hundred China Airlines flight six eleven, 6 00:00:16.160 --> 00:00:18.800 and the atmosphere is totally routine, right. 7 00:00:18.679 --> 00:00:20.760 Maybe even a little sleepy in that thick heat, you know. 8 00:00:20.879 --> 00:00:23.879 Exactly two hundred and twenty five people are settling into 9 00:00:23.920 --> 00:00:27.559 their seats, buckling in, getting comfortable for what is honestly 10 00:00:27.800 --> 00:00:29.920 an incredibly common, everyday flight. 11 00:00:30.120 --> 00:00:33.320 They're heading for Hong Kong. In the aviation industry, this 12 00:00:33.439 --> 00:00:35.880 specific path is known as the Golden Route. 13 00:00:35.920 --> 00:00:36.920 The Golden Route. 14 00:00:37.000 --> 00:00:40.039 Yeah, it's one of the most widely traveled, highly lucrative 15 00:00:40.039 --> 00:00:42.759 flight paths on the planet. I mean, for the crew, 16 00:00:42.799 --> 00:00:44.799 this is a standard is driving to the grocery store. 17 00:00:44.880 --> 00:00:46.719 It's just an hour of forty minutes, like a really 18 00:00:46.799 --> 00:00:49.920 quick hop. So the massive jumbo jet pushes back from 19 00:00:49.960 --> 00:00:51.799 the gate taxis to the runway and. 20 00:00:51.840 --> 00:00:53.799 Takes off, and the weather is clear, right. 21 00:00:53.799 --> 00:00:57.079 Picture perfect. The cockpit voice recordings from that afternoon show 22 00:00:57.119 --> 00:01:01.079 a completely relaxed crew running through their standard checklists. You 23 00:01:01.119 --> 00:01:03.679 hear the familiar chime of the seat belt signs. 24 00:01:03.399 --> 00:01:05.599 Turning off standard procedure totally. 25 00:01:06.000 --> 00:01:09.439 The plane's autopilot is engaged, and the seven forty seven 26 00:01:09.519 --> 00:01:14.159 is steadily smoothly climbing toward its cruising altitude of thirty 27 00:01:14.159 --> 00:01:16.200 five thousand feet over the Taiwan Strait. 28 00:01:16.359 --> 00:01:17.319 It is tension breaks. 29 00:01:17.439 --> 00:01:20.640 Yeah, twenty minutes into the flight, the plane simply vanishes 30 00:01:20.680 --> 00:01:22.799 from the Taipei area control radar. 31 00:01:23.040 --> 00:01:27.159 No warning, no desperate made a call from the pilots, 32 00:01:27.200 --> 00:01:30.959 nothing but static. It's gone, right, A massive machine just 33 00:01:31.040 --> 00:01:32.959 becomes a ghost on the radar screen. 34 00:01:33.159 --> 00:01:35.599 So today, the mission of this deep dive is to 35 00:01:35.599 --> 00:01:39.879 figure out why we are pulling from official aviation investigation files, 36 00:01:40.359 --> 00:01:43.719 decades old maintenance logs, and raw radar telemetry to piece 37 00:01:43.760 --> 00:01:47.719 together this really suspenseful aviation mystery. 38 00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:50.519 We want to understand how modern Jembo jet could just 39 00:01:50.560 --> 00:01:54.640 suddenly shatter in midair and honestly, what this story reveals 40 00:01:54.680 --> 00:01:58.079 about the hidden, invisible histories of the very machines you 41 00:01:58.120 --> 00:01:59.480 fly in every single day. 42 00:01:59.560 --> 00:02:01.920 Because when a modern jetliner falls out of the sky 43 00:02:02.000 --> 00:02:04.439 without a single word of distress, it challenges all of 44 00:02:04.480 --> 00:02:07.040 those fundamental assumptions we have about the safety systems we 45 00:02:07.079 --> 00:02:10.599 take for granted. Okay, let's unpack this. Investigating a high 46 00:02:10.639 --> 00:02:13.599 altitude mid air breakup is essentially like trying to put 47 00:02:13.639 --> 00:02:16.639 a shattered pane of glass back together, except you know, 48 00:02:16.719 --> 00:02:19.000 the shards are scattered over three hundred and twenty five 49 00:02:19.039 --> 00:02:22.360 square kilometers of churning, unforgiving ocean, and. 50 00:02:22.319 --> 00:02:25.800 The clock starts ticking the second the plane disappears. The 51 00:02:25.840 --> 00:02:28.199 initial response is absolutely. 52 00:02:27.639 --> 00:02:29.360 Massive, right over a thousand people. 53 00:02:29.400 --> 00:02:32.400 Yeah, the coast Guard, the Taiwanese military, local fishing boats. 54 00:02:32.680 --> 00:02:35.439 They all race out into the Taiwan Strait. They are 55 00:02:35.479 --> 00:02:38.719 desperately looking for life rafts for survivors. 56 00:02:38.400 --> 00:02:40.560 But what they find floating on the surface of the 57 00:02:40.599 --> 00:02:43.199 water pants are really grim picture he does. 58 00:02:43.800 --> 00:02:47.240 The recovery teams pull up heavy mechanical pieces like landing 59 00:02:47.240 --> 00:02:49.960 gear and massive wheels bobbing in the water. 60 00:02:49.800 --> 00:02:51.479 Which is terrifying to see floating. 61 00:02:51.560 --> 00:02:54.039 But floating right next to those heavy machinery parts are 62 00:02:54.080 --> 00:03:00.879 the most mundane, intimate domestic items napkins, knives, forks, luggage. 63 00:03:00.919 --> 00:03:03.680 Wow, And tragically they find no survivors. No. 64 00:03:04.319 --> 00:03:06.479 The reality sets in very quickly that this is no 65 00:03:06.560 --> 00:03:09.960 longer a rescue mission, it's a recovery investigation mission. 66 00:03:09.759 --> 00:03:13.319 And naturally, in the absence of a distress call, public 67 00:03:13.360 --> 00:03:17.080 speculation immediately goes to the darkest possibilities. 68 00:03:17.159 --> 00:03:17.919 Of course it does. 69 00:03:18.080 --> 00:03:20.879 You have to factor in the geopolitical tension of the time. 70 00:03:21.520 --> 00:03:25.919 The relationship between China and Taiwan was incredibly complex. On 71 00:03:26.000 --> 00:03:29.960 the exact day Flight six eleven vanished, China was conducting 72 00:03:30.039 --> 00:03:33.000 live military exercises in the Taiwan Strait. 73 00:03:33.120 --> 00:03:35.319 Right the timing was suspicious to people. 74 00:03:35.199 --> 00:03:39.840 Exactly plus, just eight months before this, a Siberia Airlines 75 00:03:39.879 --> 00:03:42.520 flight had been accidentally shot down by a stray missile 76 00:03:42.560 --> 00:03:46.080 over the Black Sea during a military training exercise. So 77 00:03:46.159 --> 00:03:48.879 the media immediately starts asking, you know, was Flight six' 78 00:03:48.919 --> 00:03:49.560 eleven shot? 79 00:03:49.639 --> 00:03:52.319 Down but investigators have to tune all of that noise 80 00:03:52.360 --> 00:03:57.319 out and look exclusively at the physical. Evidence they impartially 81 00:03:57.360 --> 00:04:00.360 and methodically ruled the missile theory out by exact ammining 82 00:04:00.400 --> 00:04:01.639 the recovered metal. 83 00:04:01.520 --> 00:04:02.680 Because the metal tells a. 84 00:04:02.719 --> 00:04:05.919 Story exactly when you hit a plane with a high explosive, 85 00:04:05.919 --> 00:04:08.560 missile the metal tells the story of that. Impact you 86 00:04:08.599 --> 00:04:12.240 would find shrapnel deeply embedded in the fuselage you'd find 87 00:04:12.280 --> 00:04:16.199 explosive soot chemically bonded to the, debris and most, importantly 88 00:04:16.519 --> 00:04:19.839 high explosives caused the metal skin of an aircraft to 89 00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:24.199 curl and tear outward in a very highly, specific unique. 90 00:04:24.279 --> 00:04:27.279 Way so the investigators look at the wreckage they pulled 91 00:04:27.279 --> 00:04:29.000 from the, sea and none of that is. 92 00:04:29.040 --> 00:04:30.040 There none of. 93 00:04:30.079 --> 00:04:33.360 It no, sut no curled, metal no. Shrapnel the missile 94 00:04:33.399 --> 00:04:34.279 theory is officially. 95 00:04:34.319 --> 00:04:35.600 Dead it's completely off the. 96 00:04:35.639 --> 00:04:38.279 Table but if it wasn't an external, attack what on 97 00:04:38.399 --> 00:04:41.600 earth causes a fully functioning seven forty seven to just 98 00:04:41.720 --> 00:04:42.920 explode on a routine. 99 00:04:42.959 --> 00:04:46.319 Climb, well the team from THE Us National Transportation Safety, 100 00:04:46.319 --> 00:04:49.759 board THE ntsb who flew into assist, trade they had 101 00:04:49.759 --> 00:04:53.560 a leading theory based on a massive investigation they concluded 102 00:04:53.639 --> 00:04:57.040 just a few years PRIOR twafla eight hundred, exactly that 103 00:04:57.160 --> 00:04:59.759 was also a seven forty. Seven it also broke Into 104 00:04:59.759 --> 00:05:03.279 pece without warning while still, Climbing and, crucially it also 105 00:05:03.360 --> 00:05:04.279 took off in very hot. 106 00:05:04.319 --> 00:05:07.079 WEATHER i remember that in THE twa, case the plane 107 00:05:07.079 --> 00:05:09.079 had been sitting on the hot tarmac with its air 108 00:05:09.079 --> 00:05:11.480 conditioning units running full, blast, right. 109 00:05:11.319 --> 00:05:13.920 And those units sit directly underneath the center fuel. Tank 110 00:05:14.199 --> 00:05:17.000 the heat basically boiled the residual fuel inside the, tank 111 00:05:17.240 --> 00:05:19.560 and a stray spark caused the vapors to violently. 112 00:05:19.600 --> 00:05:22.319 Explode so you look at flight six eleven taking off 113 00:05:22.319 --> 00:05:25.480 in the sweltering heat Of, taipei and the immediate question 114 00:05:25.639 --> 00:05:28.680 is could a hot air conditioning unit have boiled the 115 00:05:28.680 --> 00:05:29.800 center fuel tank? Again? 116 00:05:30.000 --> 00:05:32.600 Right but to prove, that they had to actually find 117 00:05:32.879 --> 00:05:35.360 the center fuel, tank and the problem was it was 118 00:05:35.399 --> 00:05:38.519 resting deep on the ocean floor miles. Down, Yeah so 119 00:05:38.519 --> 00:05:41.720 they brought in a sophisticated salvage vessel and sent down 120 00:05:41.879 --> 00:05:44.000 a remote operated vehicle an. 121 00:05:44.120 --> 00:05:47.720 Rov it navigates in pure, darkness guided only by its 122 00:05:47.720 --> 00:05:50.439 own lights and, sonar searching the ocean floor for this 123 00:05:50.600 --> 00:05:51.560 specific piece of. 124 00:05:51.600 --> 00:05:54.040 Metal and when they finally locate the center fuel tank 125 00:05:54.120 --> 00:05:57.759 in the murky, depths the visual evidence is. Undeniable what 126 00:05:57.800 --> 00:06:00.800 did they? See, well if the tank get exploded from 127 00:06:00.800 --> 00:06:03.519 the inside, out the metal would be blown, outward the 128 00:06:03.680 --> 00:06:08.040 edges would be violently splayed open like a firecracker going 129 00:06:08.040 --> 00:06:08.639 off inside of. 130 00:06:08.600 --> 00:06:10.680 Ten, can right outward. Forth, yeah. 131 00:06:10.720 --> 00:06:13.040 Exactly but the tank they found on the ocean floor 132 00:06:13.240 --> 00:06:16.959 was relatively, intact and more, importantly it was crumpled in. 133 00:06:17.000 --> 00:06:17.800 There we crumpled. 134 00:06:17.839 --> 00:06:21.439 Inward, yes it had been crushed by the massive ambient 135 00:06:21.480 --> 00:06:24.519 water pressure as it sank miles down to the bottom 136 00:06:24.560 --> 00:06:24.720 of the. 137 00:06:24.720 --> 00:06:27.360 Ocean oh, Wow so there was no internal. 138 00:06:27.000 --> 00:06:31.439 Explosion, none no soot inside. Either THE twa eight hundred 139 00:06:31.480 --> 00:06:33.480 fuel tank theory just evaporated. 140 00:06:33.519 --> 00:06:37.000 Completely so we have a massive sea of wreckage and 141 00:06:37.160 --> 00:06:41.959 literally zero leading. Theories the bomb theories, out the missile theories, 142 00:06:42.000 --> 00:06:46.040 out the fuel tank theory is. Out the investigation hits 143 00:06:46.240 --> 00:06:46.879 a brick. 144 00:06:46.959 --> 00:06:47.800 Wall it really. 145 00:06:47.800 --> 00:06:51.199 Did to get past, it the managing director Of Taiwan's 146 00:06:51.199 --> 00:06:55.439 Aviation Safety, council along with THE, ntsb they decide they 147 00:06:55.480 --> 00:06:57.560 need to stop looking at the ocean and start looking 148 00:06:57.560 --> 00:07:00.519 at the. Sky they turn to the raw radar. 149 00:07:00.560 --> 00:07:05.720 Telemetry, yeah they employed a highly advanced technique called ballistic trajectory. Analysis, 150 00:07:05.800 --> 00:07:08.040 okay what is. That, well they had the ground based 151 00:07:08.160 --> 00:07:11.399 radar that was tracking the flight's transponder at the exact 152 00:07:11.480 --> 00:07:14.879 moment the event. Happened the radar signal actually split apart 153 00:07:14.920 --> 00:07:16.399 into multiple sizeable. 154 00:07:16.040 --> 00:07:17.439 Pieces just shattered on the. 155 00:07:17.439 --> 00:07:20.279 Screen, yeah the radar watched these heavy pieces fall from 156 00:07:20.319 --> 00:07:22.720 thirty five thousand feet all the way down to the ocean. 157 00:07:22.720 --> 00:07:26.680 Surface so the investigators decide to take eighteen specific pieces 158 00:07:26.680 --> 00:07:29.439 of recovered wreckage from all different parts of the, plane the, 159 00:07:29.480 --> 00:07:32.519 front the, middle the, back and they feed the exact 160 00:07:32.560 --> 00:07:35.959 weight of each, piece its aerodynamic, shape the wind speed that, 161 00:07:36.079 --> 00:07:39.279 day and the ocean currents into a specialized computer. 162 00:07:39.399 --> 00:07:42.040 System and the goal of this simulation is to figure 163 00:07:42.040 --> 00:07:46.839 out the exact sequence of. DISINTEGRATION i, mean logic dictates 164 00:07:46.879 --> 00:07:49.439 that the very first piece to break off the airplane 165 00:07:49.879 --> 00:07:51.639 is going to be the very first piece to hit the. 166 00:07:51.680 --> 00:07:54.120 Water, OKAY i have to ADMIT i really struggle to 167 00:07:54.120 --> 00:07:57.000 wrap my head around this. Concept how, so, well how 168 00:07:57.040 --> 00:07:59.759 can a computer tell you what broke off first just 169 00:07:59.839 --> 00:08:02.160 by looking at where it washed? Up isn't that like 170 00:08:02.279 --> 00:08:04.680 tossing a handful of rocks and leaves into the wind 171 00:08:04.720 --> 00:08:07.079 and trying to guess which left your hand. FIRST i, 172 00:08:07.079 --> 00:08:09.439 mean the leaves are gonna blow miles away and the 173 00:08:09.519 --> 00:08:10.720 rocks are going to drop straight. 174 00:08:10.759 --> 00:08:14.120 Down that's a great. Analogy but what's fascinating here is 175 00:08:14.160 --> 00:08:17.040 that the brilliance of the computer model is that it 176 00:08:17.040 --> 00:08:19.560 accounts for exactly that rock versus leaf. 177 00:08:19.639 --> 00:08:21.519 Physics oh, really. 178 00:08:21.360 --> 00:08:25.079 Yeah every piece of debris has a specific drag coefficient 179 00:08:25.120 --> 00:08:28.319 basically how it catches the, air and the specific terminal 180 00:08:28.399 --> 00:08:29.560 velocity based on its. 181 00:08:29.600 --> 00:08:30.839 Weight, okay that makes. 182 00:08:30.879 --> 00:08:33.480 Sense so the computer takes THE gps coordinate of where 183 00:08:33.480 --> 00:08:37.399 the piece was found in the. Water then it mathematically reverses. 184 00:08:37.440 --> 00:08:38.840 Time it rewinds it. 185 00:08:39.000 --> 00:08:42.240 Exactly. Yep it calculates how far the ocean current pushed. 186 00:08:42.279 --> 00:08:44.759 It then it calculates how far the wind blow it 187 00:08:44.759 --> 00:08:47.200 as it, fell it strips away the wind in the, 188 00:08:47.200 --> 00:08:51.960 water mathematically rewinding the fall of that specific piece until 189 00:08:51.960 --> 00:08:54.120 it reaches thirty five thousand. Feet that is. 190 00:08:54.120 --> 00:08:56.720 Incredible and when they did this for all eighteen, pieces 191 00:08:57.240 --> 00:09:01.159 the computer pinpointed exactly when each item separated from the 192 00:09:01.200 --> 00:09:02.039 main body of the. 193 00:09:02.080 --> 00:09:05.200 Aircraft, yes and the result of that simulation is absolutely. 194 00:09:05.279 --> 00:09:08.559 Terrifying it paints a picture of the exact moment of. 195 00:09:08.559 --> 00:09:11.159 Failure where did it? Start the breakup started at the 196 00:09:11.279 --> 00:09:13.600 very back of the. Airplane the tail of the mass 197 00:09:13.639 --> 00:09:14.960 of seven forty seven ripped off. 198 00:09:14.960 --> 00:09:18.159 First that is a nightmare, scenario and that data point 199 00:09:18.240 --> 00:09:22.759 perfectly aligned with another bizarre. Clue the recovery teams had 200 00:09:22.799 --> 00:09:23.679 just pulled from the. Water. 201 00:09:23.759 --> 00:09:28.320 Right, yes investigators recovered nineteen distinct panels CALLED d, panels 202 00:09:28.600 --> 00:09:31.159 and out of the nineteen they, found four of them 203 00:09:31.200 --> 00:09:32.080 were locked in the open. 204 00:09:32.120 --> 00:09:34.720 POSITION i know these are pressure release, volves but why 205 00:09:34.759 --> 00:09:37.080 does finding them open point to the tail falling. 206 00:09:37.159 --> 00:09:40.360 Off to understand the significance of THE d, panels we 207 00:09:40.480 --> 00:09:42.879 have to look at the hidden anatomy of a seven forty. 208 00:09:42.879 --> 00:09:46.440 Seven the floor beneath your feet in the pasture cabin 209 00:09:46.679 --> 00:09:50.039 is also the ceiling of the cargo. Hold right beneath 210 00:09:50.080 --> 00:09:54.120 those floorboards runs the entire nervous system of the, airplane 211 00:09:54.240 --> 00:09:57.240 the vital steel cables that connect the pilot's controls to 212 00:09:57.279 --> 00:09:58.600 the rudder and elevators on the. 213 00:09:58.600 --> 00:10:00.840 Tail so if something happened thanks to that, floor the 214 00:10:00.840 --> 00:10:02.080 plane goes completely brain. 215 00:10:02.159 --> 00:10:05.799 Dead exactly. That back in nineteen seventy, four A turkish 216 00:10:05.840 --> 00:10:09.000 airline's flight had a faulty cargo door blay out mid. 217 00:10:09.080 --> 00:10:10.399 Flight, Oh i've heard of. 218 00:10:10.440 --> 00:10:12.960 This, Yeah the cargo hold suddenly lost all its air, 219 00:10:13.000 --> 00:10:15.960 pressure but the passenger cabin above it was still fully, 220 00:10:16.000 --> 00:10:20.000 Pressurized so you suddenly had a massive invisible weight of 221 00:10:20.120 --> 00:10:22.600 high pressure air pushing down on the floor of the 222 00:10:22.639 --> 00:10:25.679 passenger cabin with no pressure. Underneath to support it so 223 00:10:25.840 --> 00:10:28.799 just caves in it violently collapse downward into the cargo, 224 00:10:28.879 --> 00:10:32.120 hold severing all those vital flight control. Cables the pilot's 225 00:10:32.159 --> 00:10:33.639 lost complete control the. PLANE. 226 00:10:33.679 --> 00:10:37.039 Wow so to prevent that nightmare scenario from ever happening, 227 00:10:37.080 --> 00:10:41.720 again the aviation industry INSTALLED d. Panels they're, small spring 228 00:10:41.799 --> 00:10:45.120 loaded doors located near the. Floorboards they are designed to 229 00:10:45.159 --> 00:10:49.240 spring open automatically and instantly equalize the pressure between the 230 00:10:49.279 --> 00:10:52.559 passenger cabin and the cargo hold to save the floor from, 231 00:10:52.600 --> 00:10:53.480 collapsing and. 232 00:10:53.399 --> 00:10:56.879 They only open if there is a sudden catastrophic loss 233 00:10:56.879 --> 00:10:58.120 of pressure in the belly of the. 234 00:10:58.120 --> 00:11:01.639 Plane so connecting the from the, data FOUR d panels 235 00:11:01.679 --> 00:11:05.039 are permanently locked, open meaning the lower belly of the 236 00:11:05.080 --> 00:11:10.159 plane ruptured, violently and the ballistic trajectory analysis proves the 237 00:11:10.200 --> 00:11:13.840 tail fell off, first something catastrophic happened to the lower 238 00:11:13.879 --> 00:11:15.720 back half of the seven forty, seven. 239 00:11:15.559 --> 00:11:18.799 Which gives the recovery teams a laser. Focus instead of searching, 240 00:11:18.840 --> 00:11:21.159 blindly they know exactly what part of the plane they 241 00:11:21.159 --> 00:11:21.919 need to, find. 242 00:11:21.759 --> 00:11:23.679 And that brings us to the docks of the Pengu. 243 00:11:23.720 --> 00:11:26.919 Islands hundreds of pieces of battered metal are piling up 244 00:11:26.919 --> 00:11:30.120 on this massive pier and ntsp metal are just. Named 245 00:11:30.120 --> 00:11:34.240 Frank zacar is walking the yard methodically sifting through the, debris. 246 00:11:33.879 --> 00:11:36.440 And he spots item number six. Forty item six. 247 00:11:36.600 --> 00:11:37.240 Forty what is? 248 00:11:37.279 --> 00:11:39.879 It it is a massive chunk of the lower aft, 249 00:11:39.879 --> 00:11:43.240 fuselage the lower rear, section and it includes part of 250 00:11:43.240 --> 00:11:46.000 the rear cargo. Door it is the exact area the 251 00:11:46.000 --> 00:11:47.000 computer models pointed. 252 00:11:47.039 --> 00:11:48.759 To so he found the needle in the. 253 00:11:48.799 --> 00:11:53.519 Haystack he, did And zakor immediately focuses not just on the, 254 00:11:53.559 --> 00:11:55.720 piece but on how the metal itself is. 255 00:11:55.759 --> 00:11:59.000 Broken because typically if a plane breaks apart in mid, 256 00:11:59.039 --> 00:12:02.399 air the five hundred mile per hour wind just shreds the. 257 00:12:02.399 --> 00:12:05.919 Structure it's what metaler just call an aerodynamic overload. 258 00:12:05.919 --> 00:12:09.240 Fracture right when metal is ripped apart violently by winds 259 00:12:09.240 --> 00:12:13.000 and extreme, stress the edges tear it at itstinct jagged. 260 00:12:13.039 --> 00:12:15.279 Angle it's a, chaotic violent. 261 00:12:15.360 --> 00:12:18.000 Fracture but When Frank zacar runs his hands along the 262 00:12:18.080 --> 00:12:22.200 torn edges of piece six, forty they aren't, jagged they aren't. 263 00:12:22.200 --> 00:12:24.120 Angled, no the edge is perfectly flat and. 264 00:12:24.159 --> 00:12:27.639 Smooth here's where it gets really. Interesting it's the physical 265 00:12:27.679 --> 00:12:30.879 difference between forcefully grabbing a thick piece of cardboard and 266 00:12:30.960 --> 00:12:33.200 ripping it in, half where you see all those, jagged 267 00:12:33.240 --> 00:12:36.480 torn paper, fibers versus taking a metal paper clip and 268 00:12:36.519 --> 00:12:38.799 just bending it back and forth slowly for. 269 00:12:38.919 --> 00:12:41.919 Weeks, right eventually the structural integrity of that paper clip 270 00:12:41.919 --> 00:12:44.879 simply gives up and it snaps, clean just. Snaps item 271 00:12:44.960 --> 00:12:48.039 six forty didn't rip in the. Wind it. Snapped it 272 00:12:48.120 --> 00:12:49.840 is a textbookcase of metal. 273 00:12:49.840 --> 00:12:52.759 Fatigue so this metal didn't break suddenly as it fell 274 00:12:52.759 --> 00:12:56.399 from the. Sky the separation happens slowly over an extended 275 00:12:56.440 --> 00:12:56.879 period of. 276 00:12:56.879 --> 00:13:00.840 Time, Yes and As zakar inspects this fatigue, crack he 277 00:13:00.960 --> 00:13:04.600 notices a visual anomaly on the outside of the. Fuselage 278 00:13:05.080 --> 00:13:09.240 sitting right over this massive flat crack is A doubler. Plate. 279 00:13:09.320 --> 00:13:12.200 Oh doubler plate is essentially an aviation, patch right. 280 00:13:12.320 --> 00:13:14.679 Exactly you can think of it like taking a heavy 281 00:13:14.759 --> 00:13:17.080 rubber patch and vulcanizing it over a puncture on a 282 00:13:17.080 --> 00:13:19.919 bicycle tire to restore its. Strength airplanes get dinged and 283 00:13:19.960 --> 00:13:22.480 scratched all the, time so finding a repair patch on 284 00:13:22.519 --> 00:13:24.559 a twenty two year old airplane is standard. 285 00:13:24.639 --> 00:13:28.879 Procedure but what wasn't standard were the dark longitudinal streaks 286 00:13:29.000 --> 00:13:32.799 visibly leaking out from underneath the edges of this specific metal. 287 00:13:32.840 --> 00:13:36.000 Patch, right something had been seeping out from behind the doubler, 288 00:13:36.000 --> 00:13:39.399 plate staining the white paint on the outside of the, Plane. 289 00:13:39.000 --> 00:13:42.240 And for an, investigator a leaking patch is a massive red, 290 00:13:42.240 --> 00:13:43.440 flag huge red. 291 00:13:43.480 --> 00:13:46.519 Flag they immediately cut out a large section Of piece 292 00:13:46.600 --> 00:13:49.840 sixty passion all and ship it to the Chung Shan, 293 00:13:50.000 --> 00:13:53.720 institute which is a highly advanced military science facility In. 294 00:13:53.720 --> 00:13:56.559 Taiwan they are about to peel back a metal patch 295 00:13:56.600 --> 00:13:59.360 that has been hiding a secret for. Decades when the 296 00:13:59.399 --> 00:14:02.559 scientists finally remove the doubler plate in the, lab they 297 00:14:02.600 --> 00:14:05.799 don't find a, clean professional repair, underneath not at. 298 00:14:05.799 --> 00:14:10.000 All they find massive deep gouges in the original aluminum, 299 00:14:10.039 --> 00:14:14.480 skin covering the entire fractured. Surface inside that massive crack 300 00:14:15.039 --> 00:14:17.279 is a thick layer of aluminium, oxide. 301 00:14:16.919 --> 00:14:20.080 Which is the aviation equivalent of. Rust, Right but the 302 00:14:20.120 --> 00:14:22.080 chemistry behaves a bit, differently doesn't it very? 303 00:14:22.120 --> 00:14:25.120 Differently when iron, rusts it flakes away and destroys the metal, 304 00:14:25.200 --> 00:14:29.200 Rapidly but when aluminum is exposed to, oxygen it oxidizes 305 00:14:29.440 --> 00:14:30.840 and creates a, hard protective. 306 00:14:30.879 --> 00:14:31.639 Shell OH i. 307 00:14:31.679 --> 00:14:33.879 See, yeah so for that oxide layer to build up 308 00:14:33.879 --> 00:14:36.559 thick enough to be clearly visible to the naked, eye that, 309 00:14:36.720 --> 00:14:39.480 raw unpainted metal had to be exposed to the air for, 310 00:14:39.639 --> 00:14:43.480 years not days or. Hours, wow the chemistry proved definitively 311 00:14:43.600 --> 00:14:44.360 that this crack was. 312 00:14:44.399 --> 00:14:47.720 Ancient this forces the investigators to dig deep into the 313 00:14:47.720 --> 00:14:51.320 plane's maintenance. Archives they pull the physical, logbooks and they 314 00:14:51.399 --> 00:14:54.480 uncover a story that takes us back exactly twenty two. 315 00:14:54.440 --> 00:14:55.919 Years back to nineteen. 316 00:14:56.000 --> 00:15:00.200 Eighty, yeah This boeing seven forty seven is practically and. 317 00:15:00.320 --> 00:15:03.720 New it's barely six months. Old it's landing In Hong, 318 00:15:03.840 --> 00:15:06.120 kong and the pilot comes in at too steep of an. 319 00:15:06.159 --> 00:15:08.639 Angle the nose is held too, high which means the 320 00:15:08.679 --> 00:15:09.759 heavy tail drops too. 321 00:15:09.799 --> 00:15:13.360 Low so the belly of the rear fuselage literally scrapes 322 00:15:13.399 --> 00:15:17.919 across the concrete runway at over one hundred miles an, hour, sparks, flying, metal, 323 00:15:17.960 --> 00:15:19.759 grinding smoke trailing behind the. 324 00:15:19.759 --> 00:15:21.600 Aircraft it's what the industry calls a tail. 325 00:15:21.639 --> 00:15:23.840 Strike and tail strikes, happen right they. 326 00:15:23.840 --> 00:15:26.519 Do there are a known risk during takeoff and, landing 327 00:15:26.559 --> 00:15:31.399 And boeing has very, specific rigorous protocols for how mechanics 328 00:15:31.480 --> 00:15:32.000 must fix the. 329 00:15:32.039 --> 00:15:33.320 Damage what does the manual? 330 00:15:33.360 --> 00:15:36.320 Say according to the official structural Repair, manual if the 331 00:15:36.360 --> 00:15:39.480 scratches from a runway scrape or, shallow you can safely 332 00:15:39.480 --> 00:15:43.080 stand them, smooth. Okay but if they're deep, gouges the 333 00:15:43.080 --> 00:15:46.960 manual explicitly requires mechanics to completely cut out the damage 334 00:15:46.960 --> 00:15:51.240 section of the fuselage skin and replace it with, fresh uncompromised, metal. 335 00:15:51.360 --> 00:15:55.679 Because you cannot leave deeply gouged metal on a pressurized. Aircraft, 336 00:15:55.799 --> 00:15:59.240 exact but the investigators looking at the ancient gouges under 337 00:15:59.279 --> 00:16:03.600 that patch realize the chilling. Truth the mechanics In Hong 338 00:16:03.720 --> 00:16:06.440 kong in nineteen eighty didn't cut the damage. 339 00:16:06.480 --> 00:16:07.039 Out it took a. 340 00:16:07.080 --> 00:16:10.879 Shortcut they merely sanded down the deepest, scratches slapped a 341 00:16:10.919 --> 00:16:14.200 doubler plate over the top that barely even covered the damaged, 342 00:16:14.240 --> 00:16:16.600 area and then wrote it up in the log book 343 00:16:16.720 --> 00:16:19.399 as a perfect bowing compliant by the book. 344 00:16:19.440 --> 00:16:23.600 Repair it documented a structural replacement that never, happened and 345 00:16:23.679 --> 00:16:26.360 because the logbook said the damage metal had been, removed 346 00:16:27.000 --> 00:16:29.759 no future mechanic ever had a reason to remove that 347 00:16:29.840 --> 00:16:31.240 patch to check underneath. 348 00:16:31.279 --> 00:16:33.960 It they had unwittingly created a ticking time. Bomb. 349 00:16:34.080 --> 00:16:36.279 Right if we connect this to the bigger, picture to 350 00:16:36.360 --> 00:16:39.279 really grasp why a scratch can bring down a, jet 351 00:16:39.559 --> 00:16:42.159 we have to talk about the physics of. Pressurization let's do. 352 00:16:42.200 --> 00:16:45.639 It every time a commercial airplane climbs to, altitude the 353 00:16:45.679 --> 00:16:48.840 air inside the cabin is artificially pressurized so you can breathe, 354 00:16:48.879 --> 00:16:51.960 normally while the air outside is thin and. Freezing the 355 00:16:52.000 --> 00:16:57.039 plane essentially inflates like a. Balloom, exactly the entire fuselage expands, 356 00:16:57.039 --> 00:17:00.559 outward stretching the metal. Skin when the plane, lands the 357 00:17:00.600 --> 00:17:02.559 pressure is released and the metal. 358 00:17:02.279 --> 00:17:05.039 Deflates right and over its twenty two year life, Span 359 00:17:05.160 --> 00:17:08.480 flight six eleven took off and landed more than twenty thousand, 360 00:17:08.519 --> 00:17:09.160 times so that. 361 00:17:09.160 --> 00:17:12.640 Means twenty thousand times the metal skin of that airplane, expanded, 362 00:17:12.960 --> 00:17:14.359 stretched and contracted. 363 00:17:14.400 --> 00:17:17.839 Back going back to the earlier, analogy it's like bending 364 00:17:17.839 --> 00:17:21.839 that metal paper clip twenty thousand. Times trapped beneath that hidden, 365 00:17:21.880 --> 00:17:25.039 patch those deep scratches from the runway strike were taking 366 00:17:25.079 --> 00:17:26.359 all the stress of the expanding. 367 00:17:26.359 --> 00:17:29.640 Cabin, right every single, flight a microscopic crack began to 368 00:17:29.680 --> 00:17:32.640 grow in the compromised metal millimeter by, millimeter year. 369 00:17:32.519 --> 00:17:35.400 After, year until that tiny scratch grew into a monstrous 370 00:17:35.440 --> 00:17:38.880 two point three meter fracture spanning completely across the lower 371 00:17:38.880 --> 00:17:39.319 belly of the. 372 00:17:39.319 --> 00:17:41.799 Plane and, then On may twenty, five two thousand and, 373 00:17:41.839 --> 00:17:45.680 two at thirty five thousand, feet the structural integrity finally. 374 00:17:45.720 --> 00:17:48.440 Failed the metal gave, way the d panels blew, open 375 00:17:48.480 --> 00:17:50.000 the tail ripped, off and the plane. 376 00:17:50.079 --> 00:17:53.279 Disintegrated it is a devastating chain of. Causality and what 377 00:17:53.400 --> 00:17:56.240 makes this story almost unbearable is that the aviation industry 378 00:17:56.440 --> 00:17:57.319 already knew this could. 379 00:17:57.359 --> 00:17:57.799 Happen they. 380 00:17:57.839 --> 00:18:00.400 Did they had a massive wake up call about this 381 00:18:00.559 --> 00:18:03.720 exact type of danger long Before flight six to eleven 382 00:18:03.799 --> 00:18:07.240 crashed back in nineteen eighty, eight and Aging boeing seven thirty, 383 00:18:07.240 --> 00:18:11.279 seven operated by A Loha airlines flying In, hawaii literally 384 00:18:11.319 --> 00:18:14.400 had its roof peel off mid flight due to severe 385 00:18:14.440 --> 00:18:15.559 metal fatigue and hidden. 386 00:18:15.559 --> 00:18:17.480 Corrosion Oh i've seen the photos of. That it's. 387 00:18:17.559 --> 00:18:21.200 Terrifying, amazingly the pilot managed to land, it but the 388 00:18:21.240 --> 00:18:24.880 imagery sent a shock wave through the. Industry The Federal 389 00:18:24.920 --> 00:18:30.680 Aviation administration mandated worldwide rigorous inspections of all older, planes. 390 00:18:30.319 --> 00:18:33.359 So airlines were ordered to go back and physically reevaluate 391 00:18:33.400 --> 00:18:34.640 all existing structural. 392 00:18:34.680 --> 00:18:38.880 Repairs, yes And China airlines actually started this mandated process 393 00:18:39.319 --> 00:18:42.119 one year Before flight six eleven. Crashed they brought the 394 00:18:42.160 --> 00:18:45.319 plane into the hangar and photographed all thirty One dudler 395 00:18:45.319 --> 00:18:48.759 plates on the, fuselage specifically preparing for this deep dive. 396 00:18:48.799 --> 00:18:51.559 Inspection, wait they photographed the exact patch hiding the fatal. 397 00:18:51.559 --> 00:18:53.559 Crack they, did oh, wow. 398 00:18:53.359 --> 00:18:56.960 And here's the smoking. Gun, Literally remember those dark streaks 399 00:18:57.000 --> 00:18:58.960 leaking out from the patch That Frank zacar. 400 00:18:58.880 --> 00:19:00.680 Noticed on the, docks, right the stains on the. 401 00:19:00.680 --> 00:19:03.279