- 5/26/2025
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TVTranscript
00:00A 747 cargo jet plunges into an apartment complex.
00:10Cut it like a knife.
00:14Amid wild rumours.
00:15There was speculation that a missile had struck the aircraft.
00:21Crash investigators search for the cause of the Netherlands worst air disaster.
00:26There was a lot of pressure to come up with some findings as quickly as possible.
00:32The only trouble is the investigators didn't know the answers which were simply not available.
00:39Preventing an even greater disaster may now be a race against time.
00:44We were extremely worried and concerned that the next airplane might have been a passenger
00:50airplane.
00:51Amazing, amazing.
01:22It's a quiet Sunday evening at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport.
01:29Everybody ready for take off?
01:31It's all looking good.
01:33An LL cargo jet is fuelled and ready to depart for Tel Aviv.
01:38LL 1862, good evening.
01:41Good evening LL 1862.
01:43Line up in sequence 01 left.
01:47Roger.
01:48The Boeing 747 is loaded with 126 tonnes of freight.
01:54The crew is under the command of Yitzhak Fuchs.
01:57Like all LL pilots, he earned his wings in the Israeli military.
02:02He was many years in the company already and flew for the air force at first.
02:07So I believe he had something like 20, 25 thousand hours of flying.
02:14How's the fuel?
02:16Yeah, more than enough for our flight.
02:19Gedalia Sofa is the flight engineer.
02:22It's his job to monitor the performance of the aircraft, including the engines and fuel consumption.
02:28The flight engineer was also very, very experienced, very professional.
02:33Flying with the company many years, I think he was about to retire at that time.
02:38LL 1862 is clear for take off, 01 left.
02:46Clear for take off, 01 left. Roger.
02:48Arnon, she's all yours.
02:50Thanks, Yitzhak.
02:52First officer Arnon Ohad will be handling the controls for this flight.
02:58On the roll.
03:00The legs of the flight are divided by both captains and first officer to get the same experience.
03:09The freighter's four massive Pratt & Whitney engines pump out 200,000 pounds of thrust.
03:21V1.
03:27Rotate.
03:34The visibility was good.
03:36It was cool, but there was no weather to worry about.
03:42Gear up.
03:46Gear up.
03:48It was a routine flight back to base.
03:52Flight 1862 will now head east over the suburbs of Amsterdam,
03:57then turn south to fly across central Europe before landing in Tel Aviv.
04:07LL 1862, climb flight level 210.
04:12Flight level 210. Roger.
04:15The controller clears them for a climb to 21,000 feet.
04:27Engines are looking good. Climb power is set.
04:32It's quite normal and routine climbing out of the airport.
04:38They were expecting to be home in about four hours.
04:46Everything seems normal for the first seven minutes of flight.
04:52What the hell?
04:57What happened was not only dramatic, it was completely sudden.
05:02There was no warning whatsoever.
05:05The 747 is rolling violently to the right, and the crew has no idea why.
05:11I have control.
05:13You have control.
05:15The captain takes over flying the plane.
05:18The wings are banking to the right.
05:21So far, what can you tell me?
05:24Engines three and four are out.
05:27Both engines on the right wing have suddenly died.
05:32This is a very dramatic situation.
05:35The wing is in the air.
05:38The right wing has suddenly died.
05:41This is a very dramatic situation.
05:44The wing where the engines have failed drops, and the other wing rises.
05:53We need to level off. We're working on it.
05:56The captain struggles to bring the plane level.
06:00We're losing hydraulics on system three. No, three and four.
06:04Critical flight controls are failing.
06:07The hydraulics power the controls.
06:10This is such a big aeroplane
06:13that pilots can't control it with muscle alone.
06:17All left rudder.
06:19The only way you can get the aircraft level and straight again
06:24is to put the rudder on with your left foot
06:28and try and pick up the right wing.
06:32Wings coming up.
06:38Captain Fuchs can barely control the plane.
06:44Speedbird 943, climb flight level 280.
06:49At Schiphol air traffic control, the evening routine is about to be shattered.
06:55Hello, 1862.
06:59Mayday, mayday. We have an emergency.
07:03Mayday, mayday. We have an emergency.
07:05They realize right away that they're in a real bad situation.
07:09Hello, 1862. Do you wish to return to Schiphol?
07:12Affirmative. Mayday, mayday, mayday.
07:16Turn right, heading 260.
07:20The crew now has a heading back to the airport,
07:23but with hydraulics failing,
07:25the captain is having more and more difficulty controlling the plane.
07:33Watch your pitch.
07:48Then the crisis gets much worse.
07:51We have a fire number three.
07:53A new warning tells the crew one of the engines is on fire.
07:57Shutting down engine three.
07:59Shutting down engine three.
08:01We have a fire in engine three.
08:03Roger.
08:05You've got to get the fire out quickly,
08:08because if fire starts, that's serious,
08:11because it will structurally damage the airplane very rapidly.
08:15Number three fire extinguisher.
08:20Hold it.
08:22The crew triggers the fire extinguisher
08:25and waits for it to douse the flames.
08:33They had not only to keep control of this really stricken airplane,
08:38they also had to go through the routine for putting the fire out.
08:42We still have a fire warning.
08:46The procedure has no effect.
08:49The crew can't see their engines from the cockpit.
08:52They have no idea how bad the fire might be.
08:56When it doesn't work, you are getting into real pressure
08:59to put the aircraft back on the ground very quick.
09:02We need to land. See if they can get us down on runway 27.
09:07We have a fire in engine three.
09:10Engine three and four in operative.
09:13Request runway 27 for landing.
09:16The captain knows the airport.
09:19He wants to land on the longest runway at Schiphol.
09:22In that case, heading 360.
09:25Heading 360.
09:28Roger 360.
09:30It's the pilot who decides what can be done,
09:35especially with an airplane which is as badly stricken as this one.
09:39The air traffic controller's job
09:41is to facilitate that request from the air.
09:45That will give you a right turn to cross the localizer.
09:49You only have seven miles to go from current position.
09:53Damn it!
09:55The crew is now facing another huge challenge.
10:00There's no way we can slow down at this distance.
10:03We're going to have to go around again.
10:05Agreed.
10:07They're too close to the airport to slow down in time to land.
10:12Captain Fuchs decides to make a descending turn over Amsterdam
10:16so he can lose speed and altitude before coming in to land.
10:23They have no power on the right side, no hydraulics.
10:28These pilots had an airplane which was scarcely flyable.
10:33But they didn't know why.
10:37There's Schiphol runway 35.
10:40Got it.
10:42The crew has to make one final turn to line up with the runway.
10:481-8-6-2, your speed is?
10:50Speed is 2-6-0.
10:53Despite the unexplained damage to his plane,
10:56Fuchs manages to guide the 747 toward the runway.
10:59Very difficult controlling the aircraft in this situation,
11:02but they control the aircraft full 360 degrees back.
11:07Speed's a little high.
11:10Are we stable enough to make the runway?
11:12We'll see.
11:17The crew has no doubt.
11:19This will be the riskiest landing they've ever attempted.
11:25Here we go.
11:37Flight 1862 is less than 3 minutes from landing.
11:43All right, let's get the gear down.
11:49Gear down, 3 green.
11:51Amsterdam's airport is tantalizingly close.
11:56Reducing speed.
11:58Captain Yitzhak Fuchs slows his plane and calls for the flaps.
12:02Flaps 2.
12:04He wants to increase the wing's surface area.
12:08Flaps 2.
12:10To add lift at the slower speed he needs for landing.
12:15All right, nice and easy.
12:20Easy.
12:24Easy. No, no, no, no!
12:27We're losing it.
12:29The plane is once again rolling to the right,
12:31and this time it's worse.
12:33The pilot realized that by going slower
12:37he was having even more control problems than he already had.
12:42LL, further right heading 3-1-0.
12:46Heading 3-1-0.
12:48Controllers urge the pilots to correct their course to the runway.
12:53I can't hold it! I can't hold it!
12:56We have a control problem.
12:58We have a control problem.
13:00They realized that their aircraft was uncontrollable.
13:05Oh, no, no! Come on!
13:07Going down.
13:11Going down. 1862 going down.
13:14Going down.
13:17Come on!
13:24Hit the building and cut it like a knife.
13:28LL 1862 has slammed into an 11-storey apartment block.
13:36The Beelmemeer apartment complex, home to thousands of people,
13:41is engulfed in flames.
13:45You prepare yourself for a lot of things,
13:48but this was more than I ever expected.
13:52Henk van Rooij is one of hundreds of Amsterdam firefighters
13:56who rushed to the crash site.
14:02When I arrived there and I looked at the flat,
14:05and there was a big hole in it, and it was a massive fire.
14:11It was the biggest fire I've ever seen in my life.
14:16The intensity of the inferno is overwhelming.
14:19The cargo plane was fuelled up in Schiphol with 80 tons of kerosene.
14:27Rescuers race to pull the injured to safety.
14:30In the chaos, it's hard to know how many victims there actually are.
14:36I was expecting 200 people dead,
14:39just killed and 600 people injured.
14:43The next morning,
14:45daylight reveals the overwhelming scale of the disaster.
14:51It was traumatic to see the damage
14:54and what it did to the people living there.
14:57The plummeting jet has cut the apartment block completely in two.
15:03The fire has spread to the entire building.
15:07The plummeting jet has cut the apartment block completely in two.
15:12There's almost nothing left of the plane.
15:15No one aboard has survived.
15:20It was quite clear that a lot of lives had been lost on the ground,
15:24let alone in the air.
15:27Though the exact number isn't yet known, dozens are dead.
15:32The eyes of the world soon focus
15:35on the Netherlands' worst ever aviation disaster.
15:40The spectacular nature of this accident
15:44was such that all the cameras were quickly there.
15:56The Dutch government assigns Pim van Santen
15:59to the crash investigation.
16:02How soon can I get my team in here?
16:06He's well aware that his entire nation will soon be demanding answers.
16:11There was a lot of pressure,
16:13both from the public, from the press,
16:16to come up with some findings as quickly as possible.
16:21Van Santen faces a frustrating delay.
16:24He's not allowed to examine the debris
16:27until rescuers complete their search for victims in the demolished building.
16:32We're just waiting. They're clearing out the bodies.
16:36We were basically walking around and getting as close as possible
16:42without disturbing the rescue people.
16:46For now, vital evidence remains out of reach.
16:58Go ahead, please.
17:00With the crash site off-limits,
17:03Van Santen turns to recordings made by Schiphol Air Traffic Control
17:07on the night of the accident.
17:10LL 1862, Mayday, Mayday, we have an emergency.
17:14LL 1862, do you wish to return to Schiphol?
17:17It's not as detailed as the cockpit recording,
17:20but does capture the conversations between controllers.
17:23You hear those people speaking.
17:26And that makes it very, for me at least,
17:30made it very emotional.
17:32You hear people speaking, but you also know that they are dead.
17:41The recording reveals just how quickly the disaster unfolded.
17:46It's not as detailed as the cockpit recording,
17:49but does capture the conversations between controllers
17:53LL, further right heading 3-1-0, heading 3-1-0.
17:59It captures the terrible moment when the crew lost control of their plane.
18:03Going down, 1862, going down.
18:08But what triggered the crisis remains a mystery.
18:13This isn't getting us anywhere.
18:17We need to find those flight recorders.
18:19We didn't hear anything which was really directing us at the actual cause.
18:28The only thing that was obvious was that the airplane was no longer controllable.
18:35Von Santen pins his hopes on recovering the plane's black boxes.
18:41Every 747 carries a flight data recorder
18:44and a cockpit voice recorder in the tail.
18:47They capture detailed information about everything the pilots say and do during the flight.
18:54But finding those recorders won't be easy.
19:00City officials have ordered the crash debris to be trucked to dump sites around Amsterdam.
19:07The city wanted to have the crash site cleaned as quickly as possible
19:12because for the people living there, who may have lost relatives,
19:16it was extremely traumatic to see these buildings and parts of the airplane.
19:30Dig in, guys! We need those black boxes!
19:34Robert Benzen is a veteran investigator with the US National Transportation Safety Board.
19:39He joins the team and knows just how crucial the voice and data recorders can be.
19:45We use those extensively, along with examination of record,
19:49to nail down almost to an nth degree what happened sometimes.
19:57Investigators face a difficult search through a tangled mess of pulverized aircraft parts and building debris.
20:05Hang on! Hang on!
20:08Hang on! That's an engine part! It goes over there!
20:14You'd be surprised how much building debris, pipes and things can actually look like airplane parts.
20:21It gets confusing.
20:24While investigators sort through the mountains of debris, witness reports provide a stunning lead.
20:31The earliest information that I think the investigators had,
20:34which gave them clues that there was more to this crash than just the pilots losing power on two engines,
20:43was that witnesses saw things happening to the airplane and they reported this.
20:49Just minutes before the crash,
20:51they saw what looked like two jet engines falling into Lake Hoimeer, east of the airport.
21:01For an engine to fall off the wing of an airplane, it's not unheard of, but it's very, very unusual.
21:09Sorter, what can you tell me?
21:13Engines three and four are out.
21:16Losing two engines for us was...
21:21We've never heard of that before.
21:24Two engines in this lake.
21:27Let's find them, please.
21:28Two engines were missing and that became the focus of the investigation.
21:33Divers immediately take to the water in search of the fallen debris.
21:38What they find could solve this mystery.
21:47Meanwhile, across Amsterdam, rumours begin to spread.
21:52Speculation about what could have torn two engines from a 747.
21:57Well, the fact that the aircraft was an Israeli company, El Al,
22:02led to early speculation that there may have been some kind of terrorist involvement.
22:10The history of conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbours suggests a terrifying possibility.
22:17There was early speculation that a missile had struck the aircraft.
22:20Other rumours hint the 747 might have been carrying explosive military cargo for the Israeli army.
22:29Cargo not listed on the official manifest.
22:33El Al. Must have been sabotage. Must have been. Might have been a missile.
22:38They were going for absolutely every possible explanation.
22:42The people standing in front of the cameras had to have something to say, so they said it.
22:46Within hours, the search of Lake Hoimir pays off.
22:51Investigators recover one of Flight 1862's right-side engines.
23:00A look at the serial number reveals its engine number 4.
23:05The 747's engines are numbered from left to right.
23:09Number 4 is the engine number of Flight 1862.
23:12The 747's engines are numbered from left to right.
23:16Number 4 is the outermost engine on the right wing.
23:23Searchers also recover debris from the forward edge of the right wing.
23:28Control surfaces that are crucial for controlling the plane.
23:33The loss of leading edge components, flaps and slats,
23:36led us to believe that the aircraft was extremely difficult to fly safely.
23:42The mystery now is what caused the engines to fall off.
23:47Was it terrorism? A mechanical failure? Or something else?
23:52Investigators rush the recovered wreckage to a forensic lab and test it for explosive residue.
23:59You have to look at every single part to either rule it in or out.
24:04But there's no evidence of any explosion.
24:08We looked at every single part and ruled out a missile.
24:12One thing is now certain. The El Al disaster has nothing to do with terrorism.
24:19But with engine 3 still missing, the case is far from being solved.
24:25Finding both engines was a virtual necessity.
24:30We had other parts of the aircraft, of course, that went into the apartment complex.
24:35But they were heavily damaged, so we needed all the parts of the puzzle that we could possibly locate.
24:42Take a look at this.
24:45News of another recent accident adds grave urgency to the search.
24:50I think the whole fleet could be in danger.
24:53Investigators learn of another 747 that lost two engines and crashed just nine months earlier.
25:01It quickly became apparent that a similar accident occurred in Taiwan to a China Airlines 747.
25:08Very similar, in fact.
25:11It suddenly seems possible that the 747 may have a deadly design flaw.
25:17That scares everybody because there were a thousand 747s out there at the time.
25:25We were extremely worried and concerned that if this was a pattern,
25:32that the next airplane might have been a passenger airplane.
25:37Thousands of lives could be at risk.
25:39Investigators must work quickly to find out what brought down Flight 1862.
25:51The crash of a 747 near the heart of Amsterdam has shocked people all across that city.
25:58The Netherlands' Queen Beatrix tours the devastation, sharing in her nation's grief.
26:07At least 43 people are dead.
26:12A lot of people died, but it could have been much worse than that.
26:17Pressure builds.
26:20A lot of people died, but it could have been much worse than that.
26:26Pressure builds to find evidence.
26:29With engine 3 still missing, investigators call in the Dutch Navy to search Lake Hoymer using sonar.
26:37It is not very deep there, maybe 4 or 5 meters, but that is deep enough to make it difficult to find.
26:45Three days into the investigation, a major breakthrough.
26:51Searchers find a black box in the debris.
26:56It's the flight data recorder.
27:00Okay, let's see what the lab can do with this.
27:05It should contain detailed information about the operation of the engines,
27:09but getting at that data may be impossible.
27:15The huge impact has taken a heavy toll on the critical recording device.
27:20The FDR survived the accident, but it certainly wasn't intact.
27:26The tape is badly damaged.
27:29The tape had shattered upon impact in a couple of places.
27:33But von Santen and his team are determined.
27:37They ship the recorder to Washington, where NTSB experts will try to repair the damage.
27:50More than a week after the Netherlands' worst air disaster,
27:54there's still no sign of the second black box, the cockpit voice recorder.
27:58Any luck?
28:01It looks like investigators will have to solve this mystery without one of their best tools.
28:07You have to remember it was a giant pile of rubble mixed in with an entire 747.
28:14It never showed up.
28:16My guess is that it probably was burned into a little cinder.
28:20Underwater searchers are having better luck.
28:23They've found and recovered engine number three.
28:26Investigators now have both the engines from the right side of the plane.
28:31But a close examination of the newly recovered engine only adds to the mystery.
28:36Visual exam shows no sooting, no signs of fire.
28:41It looks like the engine is dead.
28:43We have a fire number three.
28:45In spite of what the flight crew said over the radio,
28:48there was absolutely no evidence of sooting, melted metal,
28:52things like that inside the engines.
28:55Shutting down engine three.
28:59Whatever went wrong, it not only caused the engine to fail,
29:03but it also caused the plane to crash.
29:06It was a disaster.
29:07Engine three.
29:10Whatever went wrong, it not only caused the engines to separate from the wing,
29:15it also triggered a false fire alarm that misled the crew.
29:20All they had to go on were lights and indications in the cockpit.
29:24I don't think they ever knew that they were missing two engines.
29:30Investigators hope an unusual streak of paint found on the cowling of engine three
29:34will help explain what really happened.
29:38They take a sample of the paint for testing.
29:43Let's see if the lab can tell us where this came from.
29:46While they wait for lab results,
29:49investigators turn their attention to the fittings that attach the engines to the wing.
29:54Known as pylons, they are designed to be strong enough
29:58to support the massive engines during all the rigors of flight.
30:04If the airplane is in turbulence in the sky,
30:08and the whole airplane is being shaken,
30:11the engines are being shaken as well, so the pylons have to be very, very strong.
30:17V1.
30:19Investigators know flight 1862 powered away safely from the runway.
30:23Rotate.
30:26They wonder, did the 747 hit something in the air
30:30that somehow damaged the two right-side engine mounts?
30:35Air Force radar scans from the night of the crash reveal some intriguing data.
30:41So these blue areas are all flocks of birds?
30:45Wow.
30:47There were unusually large flocks of birds around the airport the night of the crash.
30:52One of the scenarios was that there was bird impact.
30:56In October, November, we have lots of geese flying around Schiphol Airport,
31:00and these are big birds.
31:02Bird strikes can do incredible damage.
31:11What the hell?
31:13Finally, there might be an explanation.
31:16I have control. You have control.
31:18For what tore two engines off El Al flight 1862?
31:27To test the bird strike theory,
31:31the team turns to the science of light.
31:34When exposed to ultraviolet light,
31:37blood and other organic remains will glow green.
31:42Looks clean.
31:44But they can find no green fluorescence on any part of either engine.
31:49The investigation is back to square one.
31:52Bird impact was ruled out. Fire was ruled out.
31:57So basically then the conclusion was it must have been something else.
32:04The media, of course, are putting pressure on them to answer questions.
32:09The only trouble is the investigators didn't know the answers either.
32:15Then the investigation takes a dramatic turn.
32:20Lab results reveal the paint found on engine three
32:23came from the cone-shaped spinner at the front of another engine.
32:32Get everyone together.
32:34I think I know what happened.
32:36Von Santen believes there's only one scenario
32:40that can explain the bizarre finding.
32:42See?
32:44This is engine three.
32:47Paint transfer is right there.
32:50No way engine four could come forward.
32:54But if engine three came off first,
32:57it could fly back and the spinner would hit right here.
33:03As in an automobile accident,
33:05if you find paint of one color on a device made of another color,
33:10there's an indication that they struck each other.
33:13In other words, engine three knocked engine four out.
33:18Engine three knocked engine four off the plane.
33:32What the hell?
33:34The four-ton engine would have hit with the force of a small bulldozer.
33:40So far, what can you tell me?
33:43Engines three and four are out.
33:46It's a critical discovery,
33:48but it leaves a huge question unanswered.
33:51Why did engine three fall off in the first place?
33:56To try to solve that mystery,
33:58investigators need to find the lugs and bolts
34:01that connected that engine to the wing.
34:05In terms of finding the evidence,
34:09the physical parts of the airplane,
34:11so that you could find out what broke and how it broke,
34:16was going to be difficult.
34:19The engine fittings could have fallen to earth
34:22at any point during the mid-air crisis,
34:25or they could be buried in the rubble from the crash site.
34:30You never have any guarantee that you will find all the parts
34:35which are needed to determine this most likely cause.
34:39Almost three weeks after the crash,
34:42the investigation has hit a major hurdle.
34:45Though it's clear why the Al-Al crew declared a mayday,
34:50investigators still can't explain
34:53what started the deadly chain of events.
35:00Then they get a lucky break.
35:03A painstaking search through the crash debris
35:05has recovered some key components from the fitting
35:08that held engine three to the plane,
35:11including one of four crucial bolts, or fuse pins,
35:14that secure the pylon to the wing
35:17and support the weight of the engine.
35:20There was luck involved, definitely.
35:23And that was really, for us,
35:26the point where pieces are falling into place.
35:30Investigators study the pieces in search of clues.
35:34A metallurgical scan leads to a stunning discovery.
35:39There's a four-millimeter crack
35:42on the inside of the hollow fuse pin.
35:45We discovered that it had pre-existing fatigue cracks.
35:49If there's a micro-crack in it,
35:52it weakens the entire structure and makes it easier to break.
35:57Investigators theorize that as soon as one pin fails,
36:00the entire engine fitting broke apart.
36:04They suspect the crack is the result of simple wear and tear.
36:09Every take-off and landing puts stress on the crucial pin.
36:13Rotate.
36:16Eventually, a tiny crack formed.
36:22Climb power set.
36:25Over time, the crack grew worse.
36:27It can grow slowly and slowly and slowly for years
36:31until finally the part breaks.
36:41I have control.
36:44Fatigue cracking is almost like a ticking time bomb going off.
36:48There could be many more of those time bombs.
36:52Investigators studying the engine mountings
36:54from the China Airlines crash
36:57determined that it too failed from metal fatigue.
37:00These fuse pins were developing fatigue problems
37:03at a certain rate which was much faster
37:06than anybody had anticipated.
37:09Just one final question remains for von Santen and his team.
37:16The 747 has four engines.
37:19Even with two engines gone,
37:21the El Al jet had enough power to fly back to the airport.
37:25Of course, it's an emergency.
37:28It has the power, but the aircraft is designed to do it
37:31and we are practicing it in the simulator
37:34every time that we are making simulator.
37:37Why was Captain Fuchs able to descend to within sight of the runway...
37:41No, no, no! Come on!
37:44...but not able to land?
37:52NTSB technicians have been able to repair
37:55the damaged tape from the flight data recorder.
37:58Investigators scour the data, searching for answers.
38:02It gave us a wealth of data.
38:05Airspeed, altitude, what control surfaces were doing,
38:09what hydraulic systems were still operating, a myriad of things.
38:14With the new information,
38:17investigators hope finally to understand
38:19why El Al flight 1862 never made it back to safety.
38:25Pim von Santen pieces together the fatal flight.
38:29OK, let's get started.
38:32He combines flight data...
38:35Engines are working fine at take-off.
38:38...with the recordings captured in the tower.
38:41Roger.
38:43Engines are looking good.
38:46Climb power is set.
38:50Then, right here, the pylon fails.
38:56Engine three breaks away.
39:07What the hell?
39:09The sound had to be very, very loud,
39:12perhaps half a second or so when both pylons failed.
39:15Engine three moves sideways, tears off the leading edge
39:19and damages hydraulic lines before hitting engine four.
39:23We're losing hydraulics on system three.
39:26No, three and four.
39:28Need to level off.
39:30Working on it.
39:32They have a lot of damage, but they're still controlling the plane.
39:36When you've lost half of your hydraulic power,
39:41that makes the controls heavier.
39:43And slower than they were before.
39:46Hello, 1862. Mayday, mayday. We have an emergency.
39:50The damage also causes a false alarm.
39:54We have a fire in engine three.
39:57Engine three and four in operative.
40:00There never was any fire.
40:03They would have an indication in the cockpit
40:08that they would have a fire,
40:09but they couldn't verify that by looking at the engines,
40:13because you can't see them.
40:20They put out the flaps to slow down.
40:23Flaps two.
40:29The flaps are designed to add lift
40:32at the lower speeds needed for landing.
40:35Flaps don't go out on the right side.
40:37With the plane's right-side hydraulics so badly damaged,
40:41the right wing flaps can't extend as they should.
40:46When the speed drops, so does the wing.
40:49Easy. No, no, no, no.
40:52We're losing it.
40:55More lift on the left, less on the right,
40:58causing a roll to the right.
41:00And as the aircraft slowed down,
41:03this rolling tendency of the wing flaps
41:05got harder and harder to counteract.
41:09I can't hold it, I can't hold it!
41:12It's a lethal imbalance of aerodynamic force.
41:15Oh, no, no, come on!
41:17Going down!
41:19We could see that the airplane
41:21went into an uncontrolled rolling motion.
41:24Come on!
41:26Going down, 86, we're going down.
41:28Going down.
41:30As soon as they extended their flaps,
41:32it was all over.
41:41In the aftermath,
41:43some wonder what might have happened
41:46if the El Al crew had known their true situation.
41:50That there could be no engine fire,
41:53because they had no engines at all on the right side.
41:56There's a skipper at three o'clock.
41:59Got it.
42:01Their only option would have been a desperate one,
42:04choosing not to deploy their flaps on final approach.
42:08It would have meant trying a high-risk landing
42:11at nearly 350 miles an hour.
42:13The likelihood of the airplane and the crew
42:17surviving a landing at that speed,
42:20which is more than twice the speed
42:22that airplanes normally land at,
42:24the likelihood of their surviving was practically zero.
42:2743 dead because of one small part.
42:31Investigators conclude that the accident
42:34that killed 43 people
42:36is the result of the faulty fuse pin.
42:39It's very rare for the failure of one tiny little part,
42:42like a fuse pin,
42:44to actually bring down an airplane.
42:46The Dutch-led team immediately calls on Boeing
42:49to redesign the critical engine fastener.
42:52They very quickly went back to the drawing board.
42:55New, stronger fuse pins are installed
42:58on every single 747 around the world.
43:02Boeing stepped up to the plate,
43:04did a massive redesign of the pylons,
43:07very expensive at the time,
43:09but to its credit, the company knew they had a problem
43:13and they fixed it.
43:15The safety record of subsequent generations of airplanes
43:19says that problem has been solved.
43:22Today, in Amsterdam,
43:24there's no sign of the jagged wreckage
43:26that once scarred the Beelmemeer apartment complex.
43:30But the painful memories of the El Al disaster
43:33will never be erased.
43:36The aircraft, the building,
43:38everything can be rebuilt or restored,
43:41but the lives are the most important things.
43:44It's the most important thing.
43:46It's the most important thing.
43:48It's the most important thing.
43:49It's the most important thing.
43:51So, this is a tragedy.
Recommended
42:21
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