WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.040 --> 00:00:02.839 I want you to transport yourself for a second back 2 00:00:02.879 --> 00:00:05.919 to the early morning hours of December twelfth, nineteen eighty five. 3 00:00:06.719 --> 00:00:08.919 Just try to paint a picture in your mind of 4 00:00:09.199 --> 00:00:11.800 two completely radically different places. 5 00:00:11.560 --> 00:00:14.359 Right, because the contrast between these two locations is really 6 00:00:14.359 --> 00:00:16.920 what sets the emotional stage for this whole thing exactly. 7 00:00:16.920 --> 00:00:20.800 So down in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, the atmosphere is just electric. 8 00:00:21.039 --> 00:00:24.920 Families are up way before dawn. They're stringing decorations, They've 9 00:00:24.920 --> 00:00:27.719 got you know, welcome home signs painted, and they're all 10 00:00:27.760 --> 00:00:28.600 gathering on the base. 11 00:00:28.800 --> 00:00:31.160 Yeah, they're waiting for their loved ones from the one 12 00:00:31.199 --> 00:00:34.719 hundred and first Airborne Division to finally return. I mean, 13 00:00:34.719 --> 00:00:38.479 this is after a really grueling six month peacekeeping deployment 14 00:00:38.520 --> 00:00:40.079 in the Sinai Peninsula, and. 15 00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:42.119 It's just in time for the holidays, right, So it's 16 00:00:42.119 --> 00:00:46.439 incredibly joyous. But to really grasp the tragedy of this story, 17 00:00:46.759 --> 00:00:49.759 you have to contrast that warm scene with where those 18 00:00:49.759 --> 00:00:51.880 soldiers actually are if five point thirty. 19 00:00:51.640 --> 00:00:53.920 In the morning, right, and where they are is Errow 20 00:00:54.000 --> 00:00:57.920 Airflight twelve eighty five, which is this massive Douglas DC eight. 21 00:00:58.439 --> 00:01:02.439 It has just touched down to refuel in Gander, Newfoundland. 22 00:01:01.880 --> 00:01:04.280 Which is pretty much the opposite of a warm Kentucky morning. 23 00:01:04.599 --> 00:01:07.280 Completely. It is pitched black outside. The temperature is just 24 00:01:07.319 --> 00:01:11.319 hovering right at freezing and there is this brutal, biting 25 00:01:11.400 --> 00:01:14.280 mix of ice and freezing rain coming down out of 26 00:01:14.319 --> 00:01:14.760 the dark. 27 00:01:15.120 --> 00:01:18.239 So inside that terminal in Gander, you have two hundred 28 00:01:18.280 --> 00:01:22.000 and forty eight US soldiers and eight true members seeking 29 00:01:22.040 --> 00:01:25.239 refuge from that cold. You know, they're stretching their legs, 30 00:01:25.239 --> 00:01:26.799 maybe grabbing a coffee. 31 00:01:26.519 --> 00:01:28.280 Just trying to wake up and get through the layover. 32 00:01:28.560 --> 00:01:32.760 Yeah, and the accident reports note this incredibly bittersweet detail. 33 00:01:32.959 --> 00:01:36.000 Some of the soldiers are actually hitting the payphones, calling 34 00:01:36.040 --> 00:01:39.959 home to Kentucky, telling their spouses and parents, you know, 35 00:01:40.040 --> 00:01:42.439 we made it a Gander. We're just a few hours away. 36 00:01:42.640 --> 00:01:43.400 Oh man. 37 00:01:43.560 --> 00:01:45.599 Some of them are even wandering through the airport gift 38 00:01:45.599 --> 00:01:50.480 shop buying these T shirts that say I survived Gander, Newfoundland, which. 39 00:01:50.319 --> 00:01:51.840 I mean that just guts you when you look at 40 00:01:51.879 --> 00:01:55.000 the historical record of what actually happens over the next hour. 41 00:01:54.920 --> 00:01:57.760 It really does. So today, our mission in this deep 42 00:01:57.799 --> 00:02:01.359 dive is to piece together what exactly rock Down Airflight 43 00:02:01.400 --> 00:02:04.159 twelve eighty five, and we have a massive stack of 44 00:02:04.200 --> 00:02:05.799 sources in front of us to help us do this. 45 00:02:06.079 --> 00:02:10.319 Yeah, we've got the official Canadian aviation accident reports, historical 46 00:02:10.360 --> 00:02:14.199 analyzes of the intense geopolitical climate of nineteen eighty five, 47 00:02:14.680 --> 00:02:20.280 and crucially, an unprecedented, highly controversial, dissenting minority report from 48 00:02:20.319 --> 00:02:21.759 the investigators themselves. 49 00:02:21.840 --> 00:02:23.639 We are going to look at how two hundred and 50 00:02:23.680 --> 00:02:27.240 fifty six people lost their lives, but also explore how 51 00:02:27.280 --> 00:02:31.000 a deeply fractured investigation ended up costing even more lives 52 00:02:31.039 --> 00:02:31.800 down the line. 53 00:02:31.879 --> 00:02:34.360 And just to set the stakes for you, the loss 54 00:02:34.360 --> 00:02:37.800 of life here was so profound. Military historians point out 55 00:02:37.800 --> 00:02:40.800 that the one hundred and first Airborne, the famed Screaming Eagles, 56 00:02:41.159 --> 00:02:43.159 they didn't lose this many people in such a short 57 00:02:43.159 --> 00:02:45.479 period of time even during the D Day invasion in 58 00:02:45.520 --> 00:02:46.120 World War Two. 59 00:02:46.319 --> 00:02:48.280 Wow, that really puts it in perspective. 60 00:02:48.400 --> 00:02:50.800 It does. And we're attempting a forensic look at two 61 00:02:51.080 --> 00:02:55.159 myometrically opposed realities of this crash. Our goal isn't to 62 00:02:55.199 --> 00:02:57.400 take a side, but to lay out the evidence exactly 63 00:02:57.479 --> 00:02:58.719 as the investigators found it. 64 00:02:58.840 --> 00:03:02.319 Right, We're untangling this real complicated web of aero dynamics 65 00:03:02.520 --> 00:03:05.479 suspicion and Cold War paranoia. So, looking at the flight 66 00:03:05.560 --> 00:03:08.280 logs we've pulled for this, the actual flight lasted in 67 00:03:08.479 --> 00:03:10.879 agonizingly short fifty three seconds. 68 00:03:11.080 --> 00:03:12.520 Just fifty three seconds. 69 00:03:12.759 --> 00:03:16.439 Yeah, it's six point four to six am. The crew 70 00:03:16.520 --> 00:03:18.919 is cleared for takeoff on runway two to two, and 71 00:03:18.919 --> 00:03:21.639 according to their charts, they are aiming for a specific 72 00:03:21.639 --> 00:03:23.439 air speed to safely lift off right. 73 00:03:23.479 --> 00:03:25.800 The log show they calculated they needed to hit one 74 00:03:25.879 --> 00:03:27.719 hundred and forty four knots to rotate. 75 00:03:27.879 --> 00:03:30.039 Rotate, meaning to pull the nose up right. 76 00:03:29.879 --> 00:03:32.159 Exactly to pull the control column back and lift the 77 00:03:32.199 --> 00:03:34.919 nose off the runway. Now, Runway two and two is 78 00:03:34.919 --> 00:03:38.280 the longest strip at Gander, so under normal circumstances they 79 00:03:38.319 --> 00:03:40.879 should have this massive safety margin. So they have plenty 80 00:03:40.879 --> 00:03:43.599 of room, plenty of room in the cockpit. The pilots 81 00:03:43.680 --> 00:03:46.719 use a little physical marker on their airspeed indicator. It's 82 00:03:46.719 --> 00:03:50.000 called a bug. They slide that bug to one hundred 83 00:03:50.000 --> 00:03:52.240 and forty four knots so they have a visual target 84 00:03:52.280 --> 00:03:53.680 to look at while accelerating. 85 00:03:53.800 --> 00:03:54.719 Okay, got it. 86 00:03:54.759 --> 00:03:57.319 But as they push the throttles forward and begin their 87 00:03:57.319 --> 00:04:01.719 takeoff roll, the acceleration is just sluggish. 88 00:04:01.080 --> 00:04:04.319 And sluggish in a massive, heavy jetliner that's hurtling down 89 00:04:04.360 --> 00:04:07.400 a dark, icy runway is a terrifying concept. 90 00:04:07.479 --> 00:04:08.479 Oh. Absolutely. 91 00:04:08.520 --> 00:04:11.000 The timeline shows it takes them four seconds longer than 92 00:04:11.039 --> 00:04:13.439 it should have to lift off, which I mean four 93 00:04:13.479 --> 00:04:15.919 seconds might sound completely trivial to us sitting. 94 00:04:15.639 --> 00:04:19.120 Here, but at that speed, four seconds means they chewed 95 00:04:19.199 --> 00:04:21.519 up over a thousand feet of runway before the wheels 96 00:04:21.560 --> 00:04:22.639 finally left the pavement. 97 00:04:22.759 --> 00:04:25.879 That is a huge distance to eat up. But the 98 00:04:25.920 --> 00:04:30.639 real terror, according to the data, sets in immediately after liftoff. 99 00:04:30.720 --> 00:04:33.839 Yeah, the DC eight gets airborne and the flight data 100 00:04:33.879 --> 00:04:35.959 shows they reach an air speed of one hundred and 101 00:04:35.959 --> 00:04:39.959 sixty seven knots. But just two seconds later that speed. 102 00:04:39.720 --> 00:04:42.839 Drops and the aircraft is barely climbing above the tree line. 103 00:04:42.839 --> 00:04:45.920 At this point, the first officer is at the controls, 104 00:04:46.120 --> 00:04:48.680 and you can see his instinctual reaction in the data. 105 00:04:48.800 --> 00:04:51.279 I mean, the speed is dropping, the forest at the 106 00:04:51.399 --> 00:04:53.959 edge of the airport is approaching incredibly fast, so he 107 00:04:54.040 --> 00:04:55.879 pulls the nose up to try and force. 108 00:04:55.680 --> 00:04:58.160 A climb, which is human nature. Right, you're going down, 109 00:04:58.199 --> 00:05:01.439 you pull up. But the plane is, as one investigator 110 00:05:01.480 --> 00:05:03.759 bluntly put it. It's flying like a pig. It just 111 00:05:03.879 --> 00:05:05.600 isn't gaining altitude. 112 00:05:05.279 --> 00:05:07.680 A half mile past the end of the runway. The 113 00:05:07.720 --> 00:05:10.199 aircraft is flying so low, and it's such a radical 114 00:05:10.240 --> 00:05:13.480 nose up angle that the underbelly actually begins clipping the trees. 115 00:05:13.680 --> 00:05:16.279 Three hundred and seventy eight trees to be exact. They 116 00:05:16.279 --> 00:05:20.439 were mapped later by investigators to determine the plane's exact trajectory. 117 00:05:20.680 --> 00:05:21.519 That's horrifying. 118 00:05:21.720 --> 00:05:25.240 It is it was flying right wing low, nose pitched 119 00:05:25.360 --> 00:05:29.680 incredibly high, descending rapidly until it slammed into the frozen ground. 120 00:05:30.160 --> 00:05:32.319 You know, when I try to visualize what's happening to 121 00:05:32.319 --> 00:05:34.959 the aerodynamics when that first officer pulls the nose up, 122 00:05:35.600 --> 00:05:37.959 it makes you think of someone driving a speedboat trying 123 00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:40.120 to get it to plane on top of the water. 124 00:05:40.279 --> 00:05:42.240 Oh that's a good comparison, right, Like. 125 00:05:42.120 --> 00:05:45.360 If you don't have enough forward momentum and you pull 126 00:05:45.399 --> 00:05:47.360 the nose of the boat up too high, you don't 127 00:05:47.360 --> 00:05:49.959 glide over the water. You just turn the hall into 128 00:05:49.959 --> 00:05:50.839 a massive wall. 129 00:05:51.040 --> 00:05:54.759 Exactly, You plow the water, You create huge drag and 130 00:05:54.839 --> 00:05:56.920 the boat sinks heavily back down. 131 00:05:57.160 --> 00:05:59.600 So pulling the nose up on a stalling aircraft without 132 00:05:59.680 --> 00:06:03.160 enough speed essentially turns the underside of the wings into 133 00:06:03.160 --> 00:06:05.160 these massive air brakes against the wind. 134 00:06:05.040 --> 00:06:07.720 That captures the physics perfectly. You are increasing the angle 135 00:06:07.720 --> 00:06:09.920 of attack, hoping the wings will bite into the air 136 00:06:09.959 --> 00:06:13.800 and lift you. But without sufficient forward air speed, the 137 00:06:13.839 --> 00:06:16.839 smooth flow of air over the wing detaches. As you 138 00:06:16.879 --> 00:06:20.600 lose lift, you lose lift, drag spikes massively, and gravity 139 00:06:20.639 --> 00:06:21.959 winds you fall out of the sky. 140 00:06:22.399 --> 00:06:27.079 Man and the scene first responders arrived at was just horrific. 141 00:06:27.439 --> 00:06:30.680 They described a thirty foot high, burning mass of metal 142 00:06:30.680 --> 00:06:34.240 and jet fuel. It didn't even resemble a Douglas DC 143 00:06:34.360 --> 00:06:35.000 eight anymore. 144 00:06:35.079 --> 00:06:36.399 It was total devastation. 145 00:06:36.920 --> 00:06:40.199 So naturally, the investigators from the Canadian Aviation Safety Board 146 00:06:40.199 --> 00:06:44.240 to the CASB, specifically David McNair and Peter Bog, they 147 00:06:44.319 --> 00:06:46.680 want the black boxes. They need to know what happened. 148 00:06:47.120 --> 00:06:50.279 But looking at their initial reports, they hit a brutal 149 00:06:50.360 --> 00:06:52.639 wall almost immediately. 150 00:06:52.439 --> 00:06:56.720 A completely infuriating wall for an accident investigator. I mean, 151 00:06:56.759 --> 00:06:59.720 they retrieve the cockpit voice recorder, hoping to hear the 152 00:06:59.720 --> 00:07:02.759 pie It's dialogue in those final fifty three seconds, and 153 00:07:02.839 --> 00:07:06.160 it's completely blank, completely blank. The device had malfunction prior 154 00:07:06.240 --> 00:07:07.759 to the flight and recorded nothing but. 155 00:07:07.680 --> 00:07:10.120 Static, So they have absolutely no idea what the true 156 00:07:10.160 --> 00:07:12.160 was seeing or saying. It's just a dead end. And 157 00:07:12.199 --> 00:07:14.720 then they go to the flight data recorder expecting the 158 00:07:14.800 --> 00:07:18.040 kind of detailed telemetry we see in modern investigations, but 159 00:07:18.120 --> 00:07:18.800 they don't get that. 160 00:07:18.800 --> 00:07:22.000 Either, far from it. Instead of a digital recorder tracking 161 00:07:22.160 --> 00:07:26.360 hundreds of parameters like flap sayings, engine thrust, control column inputs, 162 00:07:26.800 --> 00:07:30.240 they find this outdated model that engrieves data onto a 163 00:07:30.279 --> 00:07:32.920 slow moving roll of stainless steel foil. 164 00:07:33.160 --> 00:07:35.759 I was reading about these foil recorders in our source material, 165 00:07:35.759 --> 00:07:38.920 and it's basically the nineteen fifties technology. It uses a 166 00:07:38.959 --> 00:07:42.639 literal metal stylus to scratch lines onto a piece of 167 00:07:42.720 --> 00:07:43.360 metal ribbon. 168 00:07:43.720 --> 00:07:47.319 Yeah, it is incredibly primitive, and because it relies on 169 00:07:47.399 --> 00:07:52.519 physically etching foil, it only records four basic metrics, just four, 170 00:07:52.759 --> 00:07:57.040 just four speed, altitude, heading, and vertical acceleration meaning G forces. 171 00:07:57.439 --> 00:07:57.959 That is it. 172 00:07:58.160 --> 00:07:59.040 That is wild. 173 00:07:59.199 --> 00:08:01.199 They have no data on engine power, nothing on the 174 00:08:01.199 --> 00:08:05.040 pitch angle, no record the pilot's control inputs. The investigators 175 00:08:05.079 --> 00:08:07.279 are practically flying blind here, but they do have. 176 00:08:07.240 --> 00:08:09.839 Some basic math to start with thankfully, And they start 177 00:08:09.920 --> 00:08:12.480 looking at the weight of the aircraft. Because Arrow Air 178 00:08:12.639 --> 00:08:16.319 used a standard commercial weight estimate to calculate their takeoff parameter. 179 00:08:16.439 --> 00:08:19.319 Right, they estimated one hundred and seventy pounds per passenger, 180 00:08:19.399 --> 00:08:22.120 which includes the person and their baggage, which. 181 00:08:21.959 --> 00:08:24.399 I guess is standard practice for a typical commercial flight. Right, 182 00:08:24.839 --> 00:08:26.959 carrying a mixed demographic of men, women, and. 183 00:08:26.959 --> 00:08:29.079 Children, exactly standard average. 184 00:08:29.519 --> 00:08:32.879 But looking at the passenger manifest relying on that one 185 00:08:32.960 --> 00:08:36.639 hundred and seventy pound number seems completely absurd. I mean, 186 00:08:36.679 --> 00:08:39.639 these aren't average vacationers. These are two hundred and forty 187 00:08:39.679 --> 00:08:43.879 eight elite, fully grown paratroopers returning from a six month 188 00:08:43.960 --> 00:08:45.000 military deployment. 189 00:08:45.279 --> 00:08:47.440 Right. They're not carrying little carry on bags. 190 00:08:47.600 --> 00:08:51.679 No, they are carrying massive amounts of specialized gear, heavy boots, 191 00:08:51.799 --> 00:08:52.759 heavy duffel bags. 192 00:08:52.879 --> 00:08:56.440 And investigator David McNair saw that exact same discrepancy. I mean, 193 00:08:56.440 --> 00:08:59.840 he was an experienced pilot who had flown military personnel, 194 00:09:00.159 --> 00:09:02.159 and he knew one hundred and seventy pounds was a 195 00:09:02.200 --> 00:09:03.159 vast underestimate. 196 00:09:03.320 --> 00:09:04.279 So what do they find out? 197 00:09:04.720 --> 00:09:07.399 His team actually pulled the medical records of the soldiers 198 00:09:07.440 --> 00:09:10.000 on board to get their real weights when they factored 199 00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:12.240 in the gear and carry ons. The realistic average was 200 00:09:12.279 --> 00:09:14.519 two hundred and twenty twenty pounds per passenger. 201 00:09:14.799 --> 00:09:18.240 Okay, so a fifty pound difference per person. Multiplying that 202 00:09:18.279 --> 00:09:20.559 across two hundred and forty eight people means the aircraft 203 00:09:20.600 --> 00:09:23.759 was carrying at least twelve thousand extra pounds that the 204 00:09:23.759 --> 00:09:26.480 pilots had not accounted for in their takeoff calculations. 205 00:09:26.720 --> 00:09:29.000 That is a huge deal. The engines had to work 206 00:09:29.039 --> 00:09:32.879 significantly harder than the crew realized. Right, I mean, twelve 207 00:09:32.960 --> 00:09:37.960 thousand pounds is a massive dangerous discrepancy. But, and this 208 00:09:38.039 --> 00:09:41.360 is important, if we trace the logical through line, the 209 00:09:41.399 --> 00:09:44.679 weight alone doesn't crack the case because. 210 00:09:44.360 --> 00:09:46.120 The plane had already been flying with that weight. 211 00:09:46.320 --> 00:09:51.480 Yeah, exactly. The DC eight is an absolute workhorse. More importantly, 212 00:09:52.200 --> 00:09:55.120 this specific plan had been flying with that exact same 213 00:09:55.240 --> 00:09:58.200 heavy load all night. It took off from Cairo, and 214 00:09:58.240 --> 00:10:00.720 it took off from Cologne, Germany completely fine. 215 00:10:00.799 --> 00:10:02.240 So if the way was the only issue, it would 216 00:10:02.279 --> 00:10:03.080 have crashed in Europe. 217 00:10:03.360 --> 00:10:06.360 Right. The causal link forces investigators to look at the 218 00:10:06.440 --> 00:10:07.960 environment in Gander, and. 219 00:10:07.919 --> 00:10:10.440 The weather logs for Ganders show that freezing rain. We 220 00:10:10.519 --> 00:10:14.320 talked about. Witnesses from the refueling crew noted the aircraft 221 00:10:14.360 --> 00:10:16.799 had picked up ice on its wings during its descent, 222 00:10:17.399 --> 00:10:19.480 but the crew elected not to de ice the plane 223 00:10:19.480 --> 00:10:20.559 before taking off again. 224 00:10:20.679 --> 00:10:23.759 And to understand the mechanism of why that decision was fatal, 225 00:10:23.960 --> 00:10:26.279 we really have to look at the wind tunnel simulator 226 00:10:26.360 --> 00:10:27.600 data the investigators ran. 227 00:10:27.759 --> 00:10:29.000 Okay, let's get into it. 228 00:10:29.120 --> 00:10:32.600 See, in the mid nineteen eighties, the aviation industry didn't 229 00:10:32.639 --> 00:10:36.440 fully appreciate how dangerous a microscopic layer of ice could be. 230 00:10:37.320 --> 00:10:39.600 A flight engineer might look out the window for thick, 231 00:10:39.639 --> 00:10:43.000 heavy chunks of ice that add physical weight to the plane. 232 00:10:42.639 --> 00:10:45.120 Because you think ice equals heavy exactly. 233 00:10:45.799 --> 00:10:47.879 But the danger isn't just the wave of the ice. 234 00:10:48.120 --> 00:10:49.960 It is the aerodynamic destruction. 235 00:10:50.639 --> 00:10:53.039 Our sources talk a lot about the boundary layer. Can 236 00:10:53.080 --> 00:10:55.120 you explain how ice disrupts that? 237 00:10:55.559 --> 00:10:59.200 Sure? So, think of a smooth rock in a fast 238 00:10:59.279 --> 00:11:03.240 moving stream. The water flows seamlessly over the curve of the. 239 00:11:03.279 --> 00:11:04.080 Rock right right. 240 00:11:04.440 --> 00:11:07.399 That thin smooth flow hugging the surface is like the 241 00:11:07.440 --> 00:11:10.480 boundary layer of air on an aircraft's wing. Now imagine 242 00:11:10.480 --> 00:11:13.000 wrapping that smooth rock in coarse sandpaper. 243 00:11:13.159 --> 00:11:15.799 Okay, so the water doesn't flow smoothly anymore, right. 244 00:11:15.679 --> 00:11:18.200 It trips on the rough surface, churning and bubbling up. 245 00:11:18.240 --> 00:11:20.159 It creates turbulence right at the surface. 246 00:11:20.279 --> 00:11:23.039 Precisely. Even a layer of ice as thin and rough 247 00:11:23.080 --> 00:11:25.360 as medium grit sandpaper on the leading edge of a 248 00:11:25.399 --> 00:11:29.399 wing drastically destroys its ability to generate lyft. It causes 249 00:11:29.480 --> 00:11:31.519 that boundary layer of air to separate from the wing 250 00:11:31.720 --> 00:11:32.799 far earlier than. 251 00:11:32.720 --> 00:11:34.919 It should, which is catastrophic on takeoff. 252 00:11:35.080 --> 00:11:38.360 Completely. So when you take an aircraft carrying an uncalculated 253 00:11:38.399 --> 00:11:41.159 twelve thousand extra pounds and you pair it with wings 254 00:11:41.200 --> 00:11:44.399 that have had their lifting capability destroyed by a sandpaper 255 00:11:44.519 --> 00:11:47.639 like layer of ice, the physics are insurmountable. 256 00:11:47.720 --> 00:11:50.919 Wow, so the aircraft was functionally doomed the second the 257 00:11:50.960 --> 00:11:55.000 wheels left the ground. It's a tragic but very clear 258 00:11:55.320 --> 00:11:59.200 scientific explanation. Weight plus ice equals disaster. 259 00:11:59.480 --> 00:12:01.159 That's what Knair's team concluded. 260 00:12:01.639 --> 00:12:04.080 But just as this ice theory starts to become the 261 00:12:04.120 --> 00:12:07.960 consensus among the lead investigators, the narrative takes this really 262 00:12:08.000 --> 00:12:11.799 sharp turn. The investigation plunges straight into Cold war paranoia. 263 00:12:11.960 --> 00:12:13.559 Yeah, we have to zoom out for a second and 264 00:12:13.600 --> 00:12:16.759 look at the globe. In nineteen eighty five, the geopolitical 265 00:12:16.799 --> 00:12:19.559 tension is at a boiling point. The US military had 266 00:12:19.600 --> 00:12:23.519 recently suffered catastrophic losses in the Beirut truck bombings, and 267 00:12:23.639 --> 00:12:26.799 literally within hours of flight twelve eighty five going down, 268 00:12:27.120 --> 00:12:30.799 an oversees US consulate receives a phone call from someone 269 00:12:30.879 --> 00:12:34.559 claiming to represent Islamic Jihad, which is a branch of Hesbelah. 270 00:12:34.639 --> 00:12:36.159 They claim they destroyed the aircraft. 271 00:12:36.480 --> 00:12:39.440 And I mean when a plane full of American soldiers 272 00:12:39.480 --> 00:12:43.279 goes down and a known terrorist group claims responsibility, the 273 00:12:43.440 --> 00:12:46.120 entire security apparatus goes into overdriveing. 274 00:12:45.679 --> 00:12:47.399 Oh, absolutely, everyone. 275 00:12:47.080 --> 00:12:50.679 Is on edge. And adding to the suspicion, the historical 276 00:12:50.720 --> 00:12:54.159 reports show serious anomalies with the cargo. There were large, 277 00:12:54.360 --> 00:12:57.720 unmanifested wooden boxes loaded onto the plane back in Cairo 278 00:12:58.440 --> 00:13:00.519 and we still have definitively know was in them. 279 00:13:00.879 --> 00:13:04.480 Plus security at the Kiro report was shockingly lax according 280 00:13:04.480 --> 00:13:05.080 to the reports. 281 00:13:05.200 --> 00:13:07.840 Right and floating in the background of all this are 282 00:13:07.960 --> 00:13:12.600 rumors tying the charter airline Aerowair to Colonel Oliver North's 283 00:13:12.759 --> 00:13:16.480 covert airon contra operations, which if you don't know was 284 00:13:16.559 --> 00:13:20.600 this massive shadow logistics network involving the illicit transfer of arms. 285 00:13:20.799 --> 00:13:23.200 So you have all this swirling around, and that environment 286 00:13:23.200 --> 00:13:26.799 of intense suspicion begins to fracture the Canadian Aviation Safety 287 00:13:26.840 --> 00:13:27.480 Board itself. 288 00:13:27.679 --> 00:13:29.200 It literally tears the team apart. 289 00:13:29.360 --> 00:13:33.240 It does. A faction of investigators emerges, led by a 290 00:13:33.320 --> 00:13:36.919 board member and flight data recorder specialist named less Photus. 291 00:13:37.480 --> 00:13:40.360 Photos looks at the scratch marks on that primitive foil recorder, 292 00:13:40.559 --> 00:13:45.159 specifically the deceleration rates, and says, ice doesn't explain this. 293 00:13:45.559 --> 00:13:48.200 Wait, so what was Photos seeing in the deceleration data 294 00:13:48.200 --> 00:13:50.759 that made him break ranks with McNair. 295 00:13:50.480 --> 00:13:53.120 Well, he calculated that for the massive DC eight to 296 00:13:53.159 --> 00:13:56.480 slow down as rapidly as the foil data suggested, it 297 00:13:56.480 --> 00:13:59.440 couldn't just be a loss of lift from ice, he argued. 298 00:13:59.440 --> 00:14:02.120 It would require WHI are a massive abrupt loss of. 299 00:14:02.120 --> 00:14:04.519 Forward thrust, like the engines just quit. 300 00:14:04.759 --> 00:14:07.240 Yeah. He believed all four jet engines would have had 301 00:14:07.279 --> 00:14:10.759 to suddenly spool down, meaning rapidly lose their rotational speed 302 00:14:10.799 --> 00:14:14.039 and power simultaneously, and ice on the wing simply does 303 00:14:14.080 --> 00:14:17.759 not cause four independent jet engines to suddenly stop producing thrust. 304 00:14:18.279 --> 00:14:22.039 So Photus and his dissenting colleagues start compiling evidence pointing 305 00:14:22.080 --> 00:14:24.360 to a catastrophic event inside. 306 00:14:24.039 --> 00:14:27.080 The plane, and honestly, looking at their specific points, you 307 00:14:27.080 --> 00:14:29.320 can kind of see why they built such a compelling 308 00:14:29.360 --> 00:14:30.240 alternative theory. 309 00:14:30.440 --> 00:14:32.720 It wasn't just a wild guess. They had tangible things 310 00:14:32.720 --> 00:14:36.360 they were pointing to. Right. First, they had eyewitness testimony. 311 00:14:36.759 --> 00:14:40.080 Two truckers driving on the Trans Canada Highway directly under 312 00:14:40.080 --> 00:14:43.639 the flight path testified that they saw a bright glow 313 00:14:43.799 --> 00:14:46.600 or flames coming from the bottom of the plane before 314 00:14:46.600 --> 00:14:47.960 it ever hit the trees. 315 00:14:47.840 --> 00:14:50.559 And they believe that indicated a mid air fire or explosion. 316 00:14:51.200 --> 00:14:54.600 Then my immediate thought reading the autopsy reports was if 317 00:14:54.600 --> 00:14:58.240 the medical examiners found extremely high levels of carbon monoxide 318 00:14:58.240 --> 00:15:00.559 in the blood of some victims, they had to be 319 00:15:00.600 --> 00:15:03.159 breeding smoke while they were still alive in the air, right. 320 00:15:03.200 --> 00:15:06.159 The rebel investigators argued this proved there was a fire 321 00:15:06.200 --> 00:15:08.000 in the cabin before the crash, And. 322 00:15:07.960 --> 00:15:11.559 Then they also pointed to specific physical debris. They found 323 00:15:11.559 --> 00:15:13.639 a piece of the fuselage with a hole in it 324 00:15:13.919 --> 00:15:15.759 where the metal was curled outward. 325 00:15:16.039 --> 00:15:18.639 Yeah, think about if you push your finger from the 326 00:15:18.679 --> 00:15:21.360 inside of a sheet of aluminum foil to the outside. 327 00:15:21.720 --> 00:15:24.720 The edges curl out right away from you to them. 328 00:15:24.879 --> 00:15:29.000 That indicated an internal explosive force pushing outward, not an 329 00:15:29.080 --> 00:15:31.720 impact force from hitting the ground pushing inward. 330 00:15:32.000 --> 00:15:35.840 And then there's the engine debris. An independent investigator hired 331 00:15:35.840 --> 00:15:39.120 by the airline looked at the internal guide veanes of 332 00:15:39.159 --> 00:15:42.080 the number three engine, and if you picture the very 333 00:15:42.240 --> 00:15:45.320 front of a jet engine, right behind those big spinning 334 00:15:45.360 --> 00:15:48.399 fan blades you see from the terminal, there are stationary 335 00:15:48.399 --> 00:15:50.360 metal fins that guide the air inward. 336 00:15:50.559 --> 00:15:52.200 Those are the guide vanes exactly. 337 00:15:52.720 --> 00:15:55.519 They found dense on the leading edges of these veins, 338 00:15:55.720 --> 00:15:58.080 and one of them had a smear of bright red paint, 339 00:15:58.840 --> 00:16:02.200 so they theorized this was debris from a midair explosion 340 00:16:02.279 --> 00:16:04.799 painted red, being sucked through the turbine. 341 00:16:04.840 --> 00:16:07.799 So now you have a board completely torn into The 342 00:16:07.879 --> 00:16:11.480 lead investigators McNair and Bogue are watching their team fracture, 343 00:16:11.840 --> 00:16:14.600 but they maintain that every single piece of the bomb theory, 344 00:16:14.919 --> 00:16:18.240 the flames, the carbon monoxide, the paint can be explained 345 00:16:18.240 --> 00:16:21.440 by science and the brutal realities of the crash sequence itself. 346 00:16:21.639 --> 00:16:25.039 So let's work through McNair's scientific rebuttals because this is fascinating. 347 00:16:25.320 --> 00:16:27.840 They are looking at the exact same evidence and drawing 348 00:16:28.000 --> 00:16:29.360 entirely different conclusions. 349 00:16:29.399 --> 00:16:31.080 It really is a study and perspective. 350 00:16:31.360 --> 00:16:33.799 Let's start with the truckers. I hear them saying they 351 00:16:33.840 --> 00:16:38.000 saw flames in the sky. How does McNair's team explain 352 00:16:38.159 --> 00:16:40.720 fire coming from the plane if there wasn't a bomb. 353 00:16:40.960 --> 00:16:44.399 They explain it through an aerodynamic phenomenon called a compressor stall. 354 00:16:44.600 --> 00:16:46.120 A compressor stall what is that? 355 00:16:46.320 --> 00:16:48.759 When an aircraft is pitched up at a radical angle, 356 00:16:49.159 --> 00:16:52.799 starving for forward air speed, Remember it's flying like a pig, 357 00:16:53.440 --> 00:16:57.000 The airflow entering the jet engines is severely disrupted. The 358 00:16:57.039 --> 00:16:59.759 engines literally choke on the turbulent air. 359 00:17:00.080 --> 00:17:01.120 Oh wow. Yeah. 360 00:17:01.519 --> 00:17:05.039 And when that happens, unburned jet fuel can ignite and 361 00:17:05.119 --> 00:17:07.119 shoot out the front or back of the engine as 362 00:17:07.160 --> 00:17:08.319 a massive tongue of flame. 363 00:17:08.519 --> 00:17:11.039 So does someone driving on the highway below. It looks 364 00:17:11.079 --> 00:17:12.319 like the planes on fire. 365 00:17:12.359 --> 00:17:16.160 Exactly In reality, the engines are just violently struggling for 366 00:17:16.200 --> 00:17:18.319 air because of the extreme noseup angle. 367 00:17:18.480 --> 00:17:22.960 That makes incredible sense aerodynamically, But what about the carbon monoxide? 368 00:17:23.319 --> 00:17:26.599 If the victims inhaled smoke doesn't that require a fire 369 00:17:26.640 --> 00:17:28.359 in the cabin before they hit the ground. 370 00:17:28.640 --> 00:17:31.680 Not necessarily. And this is where it gets grim. McNair 371 00:17:31.720 --> 00:17:34.880 attributed the carbon monoxide to the sheer intensity of the 372 00:17:34.880 --> 00:17:36.680 post crash infernout. 373 00:17:36.160 --> 00:17:38.119 Because it was a huge fireball on the ground. 374 00:17:38.440 --> 00:17:41.640 Right. The destruction was so total and the fuel fed 375 00:17:41.680 --> 00:17:45.359 fire so massive that victims who survived the initial impact 376 00:17:45.440 --> 00:17:48.680 for even a few chaotic seconds could have absorbed carbon 377 00:17:48.720 --> 00:17:52.000 monoxide during the crash sequence on the ground, not in 378 00:17:52.039 --> 00:17:52.400 the air. 379 00:17:52.519 --> 00:17:55.240 Okay, I see, And what about that mysterious red paint 380 00:17:55.319 --> 00:17:58.599 on the internal guide vanes the supposed bomb debris. 381 00:17:58.680 --> 00:18:02.640 So the Royal Canadian Mound Police actually traced that specific 382 00:18:02.720 --> 00:18:04.640 red paint to a front end loader. 383 00:18:04.960 --> 00:18:06.720 Wait really, yeah a tractor. 384 00:18:06.920 --> 00:18:10.359 Yeah, emergency crews use heavy machinery to bulldoze and move 385 00:18:10.359 --> 00:18:13.200 wreckage at the crash site during the recovery effort. The 386 00:18:13.279 --> 00:18:15.400 dent and the red paint happened while the engine was 387 00:18:15.440 --> 00:18:17.599 being shoved around on the frozen ground, not at a 388 00:18:17.680 --> 00:18:18.680 thousand feet in the air. 389 00:18:18.799 --> 00:18:20.799 That is just it forces you to look at how 390 00:18:20.839 --> 00:18:24.359 powerful human psychology is in high stake situations. Yeah, I mean, 391 00:18:24.519 --> 00:18:28.839 why did these brilliant dedicated experts split so completely well. 392 00:18:28.759 --> 00:18:31.960 The investigators were under immense pressure. The American military and 393 00:18:31.960 --> 00:18:35.359 international media were scrutinizing their every move right. 394 00:18:35.359 --> 00:18:38.039 Everyone wanted an answer yesterday. Yeah, and it seems like 395 00:18:38.079 --> 00:18:41.319 it is almost easier for the human mind to process that, 396 00:18:41.440 --> 00:18:44.440 you know, evil men planted a bomb to destroy a plane. 397 00:18:44.799 --> 00:18:48.200 Rather than accepting that a mundane, microscopic layer of ice 398 00:18:48.559 --> 00:18:51.240 and a simple math error could wipe out two hundred 399 00:18:51.240 --> 00:18:52.680 and fifty six soldiers. 400 00:18:52.359 --> 00:18:55.920 They needed a villain, and the geopolitical tension provided. 401 00:18:55.480 --> 00:18:59.599