00:00This could've been one of the biggest disasters in aviation history.
00:04It was close to midnight at San Francisco International Airport when Air Canada Flight
00:09759 approached for landing.
00:12The pilots were almost done for that day and thought they'd land as usual, but they were
00:17unaware that the airport looked different that night.
00:21Runway 28R was open, while Runway 28L, usually parallel, was closed for maintenance, with
00:27its lights turned off.
00:29Despite having landed here before, the pilots made a critical error, expecting to see two
00:34parallel runways.
00:36They mistook the center runway for the darkened 28L and assumed the taxiway on the right was
00:4228R.
00:43What the crew didn't realize was that the taxiway wasn't empty.
00:48Four planes were lined up there, waiting for takeoff, with more than a thousand passengers
00:52in total.
00:54And their plane was headed straight toward them.
00:57There was a notice to airmen which listed important details for flights, including this
01:01critical information.
01:03But these notices are long and dense, often stretching several pages, and the closure
01:08detail had been missed by the Air Canada crew.
01:11That night, the pilots were conducting a visual approach, relying on what they could see to
01:16align with the runway.
01:18This is normal in good weather, but is much harder at night.
01:22The crew had flown from Toronto and were tired after a long day.
01:26Their internal clocks were already past 3 a.m.
01:29And Canadian rules regarding pilot rest were less strict than those in the U.S.
01:34The captain had been working for nearly 19 hours without proper rest.
01:39As the plane got closer to danger, no one in the cockpit noticed they were on the wrong
01:44path.
01:45Planes approaching San Francisco often come in at a slight angle to reduce noise over
01:50the bay.
01:51It's normal for them to appear slightly off to air traffic controllers.
01:56This added to the confusion, and the Air Canada crew kept heading toward the taxiway.
02:01When the pilots finally realized that something was off, they radioed the control tower to
02:06confirm their landing clearance.
02:08The controller, who was managing both air traffic and ground operations due to the late
02:13hour, took several seconds to respond.
02:16He cleared them to land, unaware that the plane was lined up for the wrong path.
02:21Meanwhile, the crew of one of the planes on the runway quickly radioed the tower, alerting
02:26them to the imminent danger.
02:28The tower immediately instructed the Air Canada crew to stop and go around for another attempt.
02:34The Air Canada pilots pulled up just in time, missing the parked planes by just a couple
02:39feet.
02:40The pilots, still shaken from the near-miss, saved hundreds of lives.
02:46After the incident, a full investigation was conducted.
02:49Now there are new safety measures.
02:52But there are still concerns about whether the lessons learned are enough.
02:56Recent years have seen an alarming rise in such awful close calls.
03:01Qantas Flight 32, a scheduled flight from London to Sydney via Singapore, encountered
03:07a critical emergency on November 4, 2010.
03:11Just minutes after taking off from Singapore's Shangi Airport, as an Airbus A380 was flying
03:16over the Riau Islands in Indonesia.
03:19It encountered a serious problem.
03:21One of its four engines underwent an uncontained failure.
03:25For the next two hours, the crew faced a tense and difficult situation as they tried to figure
03:30out how badly the plane was damaged.
03:33The accident happened at 10.01 a.m. Singapore time.
03:37When the engine went off, pieces of it flew into the wing, damaging important systems.
03:43The fuel system was hit, causing leaks and even starting a fire in one of the fuel tanks.
03:48It also took out one of the plane's hydraulic systems, which help control things like the
03:53flaps and landing gear.
03:55It disabled the anti-lock brakes, which are crucial for safe landings.
03:59Two of the other engines started to lose power as well, and the flaps, which help control
04:03the plane's descent and speed, were damaged.
04:06Despite the harm to the aircraft, the crew realized it was still controllable.
04:11They decided to circle near Singapore for about 50 minutes while they carefully checked
04:16the condition of the aircraft.
04:18The first officer and the supervising captain then used a special landing calculator to
04:23see if they could land safely at Changi, even though the plane was 50 tons heavier than
04:28its maximum landing weight.
04:30At first, the system couldn't give them a landing distance.
04:34But after adjusting for the fact that the runway was dry, it showed they could land
04:39with only 328 feet of runway left to spare.
04:43At 11.45 a.m., the plane landed safely at Changi Airport.
04:48But because it was going about 40 miles per hour faster than usual, four of its tires
04:53blew out when it touched down.
04:56After landing, the crew ran into another problem – they couldn't shut off the number one
05:01engine.
05:02Emergency crews had to step in and put out the engine themselves.
05:06The crew had to decide whether to evacuate the plane right away because fuel was leaking
05:11near the overheated brakes, which could've caused a fire.
05:15Captain David Evans later explained that, despite the risk, it was actually safer to
05:19keep everyone on board until things settled down.
05:23The cabin crew stayed on high alert, ready to evacuate passengers immediately if the
05:28situation got worse.
05:30To make things even tougher, the plane was running on battery power, which meant they
05:34could only use one radio to communicate with emergency services.
05:39Luckily, the danger passed, and everyone was able to leave the plane calmly using a set
05:44of stairs.
05:46Everyone on board – 440 passengers and 29 crew members – got out safely.
05:52On the ground in Batam, some debris from the engine fell on a school, houses, and a car.
05:58But thankfully, everyone was okay there as well.
06:02Just a few missteps could've made that situation turn out very differently, but luckily the
06:07crew handled it like heroes.
06:10Investigators eventually found that the problem started because a small oil pipe in the engine
06:15had been poorly made, leading to the disaster.
06:19This was the first time an engine failure like this had happened on an A380.
06:23It was, and still is, the world's largest passenger plane at the time.
06:28As a result, Qantas and some other airlines temporarily grounded all of its A380 planes
06:34to ensure they were safe.
06:37Another similar incident happened with Northwest Airlines Flight 85 in 2002.
06:42The plane took off from Detroit Metropolitan Airport at 2.30 p.m. Eastern Time.
06:48There were 4 pilots on board.
06:51About 7 hours into the flight, flying at 35,000 feet, an unexpected issue struck.
06:57The plane veered sharply, banking to the left.
07:00The pilots initially thought an engine had failed.
07:03The senior captain quickly returned to the cockpit and took manual control.
07:08An emergency was declared, and they decided to divert the flight to Anchorage.
07:13It was hard to communicate as they were in a zone with weak signals.
07:17Eventually they connected with another Northwest Airlines flight nearby, which relayed their
07:22emergency call to Alaska.
07:24The situation was so unusual that none of the usual emergency procedures worked.
07:30The flight crew called Northwest Airlines headquarters in Minneapolis for help, but
07:34even they couldn't find a solution.
07:37Thankfully, the pilots worked together to control the plane.
07:41They managed to steer the plane using the ailerons, and by applying more power to one
07:46engine than the other.
07:47This tricky maneuver allowed them to land safely at Anchorage.
07:52After the incident, the NTSB and Boeing investigated once again.
07:57The NTSB investigator described it as a dramatic event that required careful examination.
08:03They found a crack in the power control module for the rudder, which had caused part of its
08:08metal housing to break.
08:10This break was unusual because it affected the module's outer casing, not just the
08:15inside parts.
08:17The NTSB concluded that the crack led to what's known as a rudder hardover, where the rudder
08:22is pushed to its maximum position and stays there, causing the sudden dangerous turn.
08:29All of these horrible situations show how fatigue, miscommunication, and outdated procedures
08:34can lead to disasters.
08:36But the sheer number of them in history, especially in U.S. airports, raises the question of whether
08:42enough lessons have truly been learned.
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