00:00This could have turned into one of the worst tragedies in the history of aviation.
00:04It was almost midnight at the San Francisco International Airport
00:08when flight 759 of Air Canada approached to land.
00:12The pilots, exhausted by this end of the day, were waiting for a landing without a hitch.
00:17However, they did not know that the airport had an unusual configuration that night.
00:21The right runway 28 was operational, while the left runway 28, usually parallel,
00:27had been closed for maintenance, its lights had been turned off.
00:31Although they are already accustomed to this airport, the pilots made a terrible mistake.
00:36Thinking to spot two parallel runways, they took the central runway for the left runway 28,
00:40plunged into the darkness, and thought that the taxiway on the right corresponded to the right runway 28.
00:46What the crew did not know was that the taxiway was not empty.
00:50Four planes were parked there, ready for takeoff,
00:54carrying more than a thousand passengers in total.
00:56And Air Canada's plane was heading dangerously towards them.
01:00An opinion of the air navigator contained essential information for flights,
01:04including this crucial detail.
01:06However, these opinions, often very long and complex, sometimes covering several pages,
01:11can be difficult to quickly exploit.
01:14Air Canada's crew had omitted to note the closure of the runway.
01:18That night, the pilots made a visual approach,
01:21relying only on their perception to align with the runway.
01:26This process, adapted by daylight, becomes much more delicate in the dark.
01:31Tired by a long flight from Toronto, they fought against exhaustion.
01:35Their biological clock was already showing more than three o'clock in the morning.
01:39In addition, Canadian regulations on pilots' rest were less strict than elsewhere.
01:44The pilot had accumulated nearly 19 hours of work without benefiting from adequate rest.
01:50As the plane approached dangerously,
01:52no one in the cockpit realized that they were following an incorrect trajectory.
01:56The aircraft arriving in San Francisco frequently adopt a light angle
02:00to minimize noise pollution above the bay.
02:03It is therefore common for them to appear slightly offset in the eyes of air traffic controllers.
02:07However, this feature was only added to the confusion,
02:11and Air Canada's crew continued to direct the aircraft towards the taxiway.
02:15When the pilots finally became aware of an anomaly,
02:18they contacted the control tower to confirm their permission to land.
02:23The controller, busy managing both air traffic and ground operations due to the late hour,
02:29took several seconds to respond.
02:31He confirmed their permission, without suspecting that the plane was following the wrong trajectory.
02:36Simultaneously, the crew of one of the planes parked on the taxiway
02:41quickly contacted the tower by radio to report the imminent danger.
02:45The tower reacted immediately,
02:47ordering Air Canada's crew to stop landing and begin a new approach.
02:52The pilots, reacting just in time,
02:54re-aligned their aircraft, avoiding the planes on the ground by just a few meters.
02:59Although shaken by this incident, they managed to save hundreds of lives.
03:03Following this event, an in-depth investigation was carried out,
03:07and new security measures were established.
03:09However, doubts persist as to their effectiveness in preventing other similar incidents.
03:15In recent years, the number of incidents avoided accurately has experienced a disturbing increase.
03:21For example, the flight Cantaz 32, connecting London to Sydney via Singapore,
03:26had to face a critical emergency on November 4, 2010.
03:30A few minutes after taking off from the Changi airport in Singapore,
03:33an Airbus A380, flying over the Indonesian islands of Rio,
03:37was hit by a major failure.
03:39One of its four engines suffered a non-confined failure.
03:43During the next two hours, the crew had to manage an extremely tense situation,
03:48trying to assess the extent of the damage suffered by the aircraft.
03:51The incident occurred at 10h01 local time in Singapore.
03:56When the engine exploded, fragments settled in the wing,
03:59causing considerable damage to several essential systems.
04:03The fuel system was severely damaged,
04:06causing leaks and even starting a fire in one of the tanks.
04:10In addition, one of the hydraulic systems, critical of the operation of the flaps and the landing gear,
04:16was put out of service.
04:18The anti-locking brakes, essential to ensure a safe landing,
04:23also stopped operating.
04:24In parallel, two other engines began to lose power,
04:28while the flaps, responsible for controlling the descent and speed, were damaged.
04:34Despite the extent of the damage, the crew noticed that the aircraft remained maneuverable.
04:38They decided to fly over the surroundings of Singapore for about 50 minutes,
04:43the time to precisely assess the state of the aircraft.
04:46The commander and his co-pilot used a specialized landing calculator
04:51to determine whether a landing in Changi was possible,
04:55although the aircraft was 50 tons above its maximum allowed weight.
05:00At first, the system failed to provide landing distances.
05:04However, taking into account the dry conditions of the runway,
05:08it indicated that the aircraft could land,
05:10with a margin of only 100 meters of remaining runway.
05:14At 11h45, the aircraft finally landed without trouble at Changi Airport.
05:20However, due to an approach speed of about 65 kmh at normal,
05:26four tires burst when touching the runway.
05:29Once on the ground, a new problem arose.
05:32The crew could not turn off engine number 1.
05:35The emergency teams had to intervene to deactivate it manually.
05:39The crew was faced with a critical decision.
05:42Should the passengers be evacuated immediately,
05:45knowing that fuel was flowing near overheated brakes,
05:48increasing the risk of fire?
05:50Captain David Evans explained later
05:53that it was ultimately more prudent to keep the passengers on board
05:56until the situation was under control, despite the potential risks.
06:01During this time, the cabin crew was in a maximum alert state,
06:05ready to organize an immediate evacuation if things got worse.
06:09An additional difficulty was added to this.
06:12The aircraft operated only on batteries,
06:14limiting the use of communications to a single radio,
06:18to coordinate operations with the emergency services.
06:21Luckily, the danger was removed,
06:23allowing everyone to leave the aircraft calmly, via a staircase.
06:27And the 440 passengers and 29 crew members were able to evacuate without trouble.
06:33On the ground in Batam, fragments of the engine fell on a school,
06:37houses, as well as a car.
06:39But fortunately, no injuries were reported.
06:42A few errors of judgment would have been enough to turn this situation into a disaster.
06:47But the crew showed heroic professionalism.
06:51Investigations revealed that the failure had been caused by a small oil conduit
06:56poorly manufactured in the engine, which was at the origin of the incident.
07:01It was the first time that such an engine failure occurred on an A380,
07:06which was, and still is today, the largest airliner in the world.
07:11Following this incident,
07:13Qantas, as well as other airlines,
07:16temporarily immobilized their A380 to study their safety.
07:21A comparable incident occurred in 2002 with the flight 85 of Northwest Airlines.
07:27The aircraft took off from the Metropolitan Airport in Detroit at 2.30 pm,
07:32east coast time.
07:33On board, there were 4 pilots.
07:36About 7 hours after the start of the flight,
07:38while the aircraft was flying at 10,000 meters altitude,
07:41an unexpected problem occurred.
07:43The plane suddenly turned, tilting to the left.
07:46The pilots first suspected an engine failure.
07:49The on-board commander immediately returned to the cockpit to resume manual controls.
07:54An emergency situation was declared,
07:56and the decision was made to derail the aircraft to Anchorage.
08:00Communication was complicated,
08:01because they were in an area where the signal was weak.
08:05Finally, they managed to contact another flight of Northwest Airlines nearby,
08:10which relayed their emergency call to Alaska.
08:13The situation was so unusual
08:15that no standard emergency procedures were applied.
08:18The crew then contacted the Northwest Airlines headquarters in Minneapolis
08:22to get help, but even they were unable to offer a solution.
08:27Despite everything, the pilots united their efforts to maintain control of the aircraft.
08:31They used round wings and adjusted the power of the engines,
08:35by increasing that of one reactor compared to the other,
08:39in order to direct the aircraft.
08:40This complex maneuver allowed them to land safely in Anchorage.
08:45After this incident,
08:46the National Security Council of Transport and Boeing launched a new investigation.
08:51An investigator described the event as dramatic,
08:54requiring an in-depth analysis.
08:56The investigation revealed a crack in the power control module of the fuselage,
09:00resulting in the rupture of part of its metal box.
09:03This type of failure was unusual,
09:06because it touched the external envelope of the module rather than its internal components.
09:10The NTSB determined that this crack had caused a phenomenon called
09:14governance hardening,
09:16where it is blocked in the maximum position,
09:19resulting in a sudden and dangerous turn.
09:22These terrifying situations illustrate how fatigue,
09:25inefficient communication and obsolete procedures
09:28can lead to disasters.
09:30However, the large number of similar incidents in history,
09:34notably in American airports,
09:36raises the question of whether the necessary lessons
09:39have really been learned.
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