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00:00International air crash investigations depend on teamwork.
00:06See what we have to work with.
00:07It does not advance safety to get the wrong cause.
00:10Sometimes the investigators disagree.
00:12Two different people listening to the same voice recording
00:15might come up with two different interpretations.
00:17They didn't want the plane to land.
00:19Stakes ramp up when the victims are high profile.
00:22A crash kills the president of Poland.
00:27Was it sabotage?
00:29Conspiracy theory sprung up immediately.
00:32Therefore you have no evidence of terrorism.
00:34On the east coast of Canada...
00:35Airspeed!
00:36U.S. military personnel die in a fiery blaze.
00:40Crash investigators are always under pressure
00:42to come up with an answer sooner than they would like.
00:45The crash of a flight carrying the Manchester United football team...
00:48Christ, we're not going to make it!
00:51...sparks an international dispute.
00:53It's nonsense.
00:54Political and public pressures complicate the process.
00:57This investigation appears to involve a cover-up.
00:59Finally, I have to decide whose experts do I trust.
01:02A light snow falls on Munich Airport, West Germany.
01:05A light snow falls on Munich Airport, West Germany.
01:06A British European Airways Airspeed Ambassador waits on the time...
01:07...to stop.
01:08A light snow falls on Munich Airport, West Germany.
01:12A British European Airways Airspeed Ambassador waits on the tarmac.
01:19The luxurious twin-engine aircraft is also known as the Elizabethan.
01:20The captain is 36-year-old James Thane.
01:21He's a former RAF pilot with an impeccable service record.
01:22Happy there.
01:23Happy there.
01:24Happy there.
01:25Happy there.
01:2638-year-old co-pilot
01:2738-year-old co-pilot Kenneth Raymond is a World War II ace.
01:29He's a former RAF pilot with an impeccable service record.
01:31Happy there.
01:32Happy there.
01:33Happy there.
01:3438-year-old co-pilot Kenneth Raymond is a World War II ace.
01:35They're bringing home an extraordinary group of passengers.
01:36The British European Airways Airspeed Ambassador waits on the tarmac.
01:37The British European Airways Airspeed Ambassador waits on the tarmac.
01:39The luxurious twin-engine aircraft is also known as the Elizabethan.
01:42The captain is 36-year-old James Thane.
01:45He's a former RAF pilot with an impeccable service record.
01:48Happy there.
01:4938-year-old co-pilot Kenneth Raymond is a World War II ace.
01:55They're bringing home an extraordinary group of passengers.
02:02The Manchester United football team.
02:05In the 1950s they are some of the most famous sportsmen on the planet.
02:10Only the day before they've met Red Star in Belgrade in their European Cup tie.
02:16Manchester United is probably the most premier team, most famous team this country had ever seen before.
02:22Harry Gregg is the team's star goalkeeper.
02:25We're a young and wonderful team, which I am very proud to have been part of.
02:31After qualifying for the European Cup semi-final,
02:34the 17 players are among the 38 passengers heading back to the UK.
02:41Munich, 609 Zulu uniform, I am ready to take off.
02:45B-line 609, your clearance expires at 3-1. Time now is 3-0.
02:51Cleared for take off. Right turn out.
02:54Thank you. Rolling.
02:59With the temperature hovering around the freezing mark and the snow continuing to fall,
03:03Thane starts his take off run.
03:06Full power. Full power.
03:12I've been reading a book that one of the lads had passed to me.
03:15I was reading that and we sat off down the runway.
03:18And I looked out the window. No big deal at all.
03:22Temperatures and pressures okay.
03:2790. 100.
03:29100.
03:33They're not getting enough thrust. The plane can't lift off.
03:37Abandon take off.
03:41All of a sudden I watched the wheels.
03:43Lock and unlock.
03:45And the plane started to spin.
03:47We stopped slightly side on.
03:50Sorry about that. Engine fluctuating.
03:53609, we are abandoning the take off.
03:56Tower, please say again.
03:57We are abandoning the take off.
04:00May we backtrack. Over.
04:02Engine boosting.
04:04I would think so, yes.
04:06The problem was with boost surge and it happened with that particular engine on that particular aircraft.
04:10It was a Bristol Centaurus engine.
04:12It was prone to doing this, especially at airports which are at high altitudes.
04:16And one of the problems was that the thrust sometimes opened too fast.
04:22We've been getting a boost surge in the port engine.
04:25They received an explanation that this was a fairly common phenomenon when operating the Elizabethan from Munich because of the high altitude.
04:34That it was nothing to worry about and they were given advice when advancing the throttles if they got the surging was to just retard the surging engine slightly, reduce power and then take it up again to full power more slowly.
04:48And wings? Still look good?
04:53No need to de-ice.
04:55With no change in the weather conditions, Thane and Raymond try again.
04:59The Munich Tower, B line 609 Zulu. Uniform, I'm ready to taxi. Over.
05:10The runway is more than 1900 metres long.
05:13Even with their plan for a gradual acceleration, the Elizabethan should be able to lift off just past 1200 metres.
05:23Both engines sound an even note and we're going down the runway now for take-off. Everything seems OK.
05:28105. V1.
05:37Velocity 1 is the point of no return.
05:40The plane is moving too fast to stop, but not fast enough yet to take off.
05:45Raymond now is waiting, is anticipating now thing to call out 190 knots, which is V2.
05:50At 119 knots, the plane can become airborne. But something goes wrong. They suddenly lose speed.
05:59Christ, we're not going to make it!
06:11Darkness and daylight and sparks and thumps and smacks. You can't describe it.
06:20An end that was just complete and total darkness. I thought it was dead.
06:36The Elizabethan has crashed through a fence hitting a house and a fuel shed 300 metres beyond the end of the runway.
06:45Out! Everyone out! Now! It's going to explode!
06:48Coming to his senses, Harry Gregg crawls out of the wreckage.
06:54Within minutes of the crash, help begins to arrive from the airport and nearby farms.
07:02Two German rescuers climb up on the wing and free Kenneth Raymond from the wreckage. He's badly injured.
07:08Twenty-one people are dead. Ten are Manchester United players and staff.
07:17Many more passengers are gravely injured.
07:22Manchester United, one of the world's greatest football teams, is devastated.
07:33It was a wonderful thing.
07:37Sadly went wrong.
07:38Six hours after the crash, with the press converging on the scene, Germany's chief accident investigator, Hans Reichel, begins his hunt for answers.
07:52Of course, uppermost in his mind was the possibility of ice on the wings.
07:58So he went looking for that and sure enough he found it.
08:01Ice on the wing would have prevented the plane from gaining enough lift to get airborne at take-off speed.
08:06Direct aircraft was covered by a layer of snow about eight centimeters thick.
08:14Reichel finds the only surfaces free of ice are near the engines.
08:18He assumes the entire wing was coated in ice before the crash and that during the take-off attempt, the propellers blew away the ice behind them.
08:26As the investigation develops, co-pilot Kevin Raymond dies from his injuries, leaving pilot James Thane to face the official German inquiry into the crash on his own.
08:44Shall I begin?
08:46The German investigation, straight away, it seemed to be into this adversarial role of somebody being on trial and having to prove his innocence.
08:56Hans Reichel draws on witness testimony of snow on the wings and Thane's own account that he did not de-ice.
09:05And the wings still look good. No need to de-ice.
09:13James Thane explains that the temperature the afternoon of the crash hovered around the freezing mark.
09:18James Thane saw the water actually dripping off the leading edge.
09:25So he knew the snow was actually melting, so obviously that convinced him again that it just didn't require the icing.
09:31But then Hans Reichel presents a controversial piece of evidence, a photograph taken the day of the crash.
09:39It appeared to show a white area on the top of the wings, which certainly was interpreted as being a layer of snow or ice.
09:49Every other aircraft that left Munich that day was de-iced, but not the Elizabethan.
09:56For investigator Hans Reichel, the crew's failure to de-ice is the leading cause of the accident.
10:03Apart from this icing, I could find nothing which might have been a cause for the accident or to have contributed to it.
10:12In March 1959, a year after the tragedy at Munich, the German government releases its official report.
10:22It lays the full blame on Captain James Thane.
10:28Ice. Ice on the wings, which they say was there before the accident. Simple.
10:35And they said, Captain Thane, he's the one responsible for the deaths of 23 people
10:39and they're decimating the Manchester United football team.
10:42That is one hell of a burden to take on.
10:45He was definitely badly treated. He was made the scapegoat.
10:47But Captain Thane is certain ice on the wings did not cause the crash.
10:53He launches his own investigation.
10:56I can remember mum and dad sitting up for all hours of the night talking about this
11:01because dad was convinced that there had been some external force that had affected the takeoff run.
11:09In 1959, there are no flight data or cockpit voice recorders.
11:14Thane's co-pilot has died.
11:17Numerous witnesses back up the official German report condemning him.
11:22The odds against Thane seem insurmountable.
11:28Blamed by German authorities for a terrible crash, Captain James Thane fights to clear his name.
11:34Dad was a man of great integrity and fortitude.
11:38And he was determined that he would make sure that he found the cause of the accident.
11:44Thane suspects the real cause of the crash might be slush on the runway.
11:51He discovers that nine years earlier, a Trans-Canada Airlines plane failed to take off on a slushy Vancouver runway.
11:57They did some research and found that as little as five centimeters of slush could really adversely affect the aircraft's ability to reach takeoff speed.
12:11So imagine you're driving on a dry road during the winter and you suddenly enter an area of slush.
12:21Immediately you're going to notice resistance on the vehicle from the slush and the same thing happens on the aircraft.
12:28Thane believes other planes didn't have slush problems that day because they took off on the first two-thirds of the runway.
12:35He had to accelerate more slowly to compensate for a boost pressure problem.
12:40Because of this, the plane reached the unused part of the runway with deep slush.
12:46It takes more power to overcome that slush.
12:49In the course of Thane's research, buried evidence comes to light.
12:52Eyewitness accounts from the air traffic controllers also support the slush theory.
12:58V-line 609, your clearance expires at 3-1. Time now is 3-0.
13:04The most crucial eyewitnesses saw the aircraft start the takeoff run as normal.
13:09About halfway down the runway, they saw the nose lift, which would be standard procedure.
13:15But then, unusually, they saw it go back down onto the runway, which of course should not happen.
13:25Then Captain Thane uncovers another shocking lapse.
13:30He quite fortuitously came across a witness who had made an inspection of the wreckage immediately after the accident.
13:38Carl Heinz Sefer was among the first at the scene. He says he saw no ice on the wings.
13:46I climbed over the right wing.
13:48I climbed over the right wing.
13:50There was no ice on the wing or on the wing.
13:54I wore gummies.
13:56There was no ice, otherwise I would have fallen out.
14:00But when this report was read out to the first German commission,
14:05only part of it was read out.
14:07That part, which included the evidence that he couldn't find any ice, was left out.
14:13Thane submits the new evidence to the German authorities, but they refuse to reopen the investigation.
14:20It's nonsense.
14:26In 1961, BEA officially fires Thane.
14:31Well, they sacked him, and he was devastated by this.
14:35Thane becomes more determined than ever to clear his name.
14:39He appeals to the German and British governments to reopen the investigation.
14:45In 1965, the Germans agree.
14:48This is the report here that I gave to the German authorities.
14:53Well, there s no doubt about it.
14:54The aircraft ran into a pool of slush and or water during the takeoff run.
15:00Initially, with the second German inquiry, it was felt that, yes, there could be a glimmer of hope.
15:05But once again, the Germans discount Thane's slush theory and take no responsibility for the crash.
15:13Thane's hopes for vindication seem crushed forever.
15:17Then, in 1967, Prime Minister Harold Wilson sets off a media frenzy when he says he believes James Thane was a victim of injustice.
15:26In 1968, British investigators re-opened the case and challenged the German conclusion.
15:34A photograph the Germans claimed showed ice on the wings is examined by the British team.
15:39A new picture was taken from the original negative, which showed clearly that the markings on the aircraft said there couldn t have been ice.
15:50British thinking is backed up by a star witness, Reinhard Meyer, a pilot who was first on the scene of the crash.
15:56It turned out, when he was called to give evidence, he said, well, I spoke to Reichel personally, face to face, and told him what happened.
16:05I had gone to the aircraft, I had looked for ice immediately after within minutes of the crash, and I found no ice, just melting snow only.
16:11And that was it. So everyone was astonished at this.
16:14Reichel has no explanation for the glaring omission.
16:16The slush on the runway is going to be June Airport Authority's fault, and they're not going to accept that.
16:24In March 1969, the British government accepts the slush theory and formally clears James Thane.
16:34Well, of course, my family are very pleased indeed.
16:37But BEA does not give him his job back. Captain Thane never flies again.
16:44In Germany, Hans Reichel and the aviation authorities never exonerate him.
16:50I think there was a huge amount of stress and strain and tension, and he died a young man. He was 54.
16:58Thane's refusal to accept a flawed report eventually led to a greater understanding of the deadly effects of slush on runways.
17:10The problem is tackled now, and I would suggest it was probably a direct result of the Munich accident.
17:17Airport authorities approached the problem very, very differently.
17:24Watch the trees!
17:25When a plane carrying U.S. soldiers crashes in Canada,
17:30investigators argue over the cause. Was it bad weather, or were terrorist forces at work?
17:36Therefore, you have no evidence of terrorism. This proves nothing.
17:46Arrow Air Flight 1285 is nearing the end of a 10,000-kilometer journey from Egypt to the United States.
17:53On board are eight crew members and 248 passengers. Most of them are U.S. soldiers with the famed 101st Airborne Division, the Screaming Eagles.
18:07The soldiers have been on a peacekeeping mission in the Sinai for five and a half months.
18:11They're heading home for the holidays. The military has hired the civilian charter carrier, Arrow Air, to take the soldiers to Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
18:21The Douglas DC-8 lands to refuel in below freezing temperatures at Gander International Airport, on the eastern edge of Newfoundland, Canada.
18:31Okay, guys. I'd like to be refuel checked and wheels up in 90 minutes.
18:37Roger that.
18:38Captain John Griffin has been an Arrow Air pilot for four years.
18:43First officer John Connolly will be at the controls when flight 1285 leaves Gander.
18:49We're good to go.
18:56Big A950, you are cleared for takeoff.
19:02With light snow grains coming down, the DC-8 accelerates to takeoff speed.
19:0780 knots. Check.
19:13B1.
19:15Rotate.
19:17Arrow Air, 1285, lifts off from Gander Airport at 6.46 a.m.
19:23But just seconds later...
19:25She's flying like a pig.
19:29Come on.
19:31Watch your altitude. Pull up.
19:33Come on, airspeed.
19:34Airspeed!
19:36Airspeed!
19:40Watch the trees!
19:41Airspeed!
19:42Airspeed!
19:44Airspeed!
19:46Airspeed!
19:47Airspeed!
19:49Airspeed!
19:51Airspeed!
19:53Airspeed!
19:54Airspeed!
19:56Airspeed!
19:58Airspeed!
20:00Airspeed!
20:02The crash has claimed the lives of all 256 people on board.
20:06the investigators David McNair and Peter Bogue of the Canadian Aviation Safety Board or CASB
20:15arrived to a scene of complete devastation the sights and smells it's always unpleasant but
20:24you just have to you have to do this part of your job being from the Northeast they wonder
20:27if the weather played a part in the crash during the time that the forecast was for icing they
20:33discover that despite the freezing temperatures did you see the flight engineer inspect the
20:37aircraft the crew of flight 1285 had not de-iced the wings before taking off could ice have caused
20:45the crash there were two other takeoffs this morning one de-iced one didn't and they took
20:51off within two hours of each other at this point it's hard to say whether ice played any role in
20:57this crash investigators turn to the plane's black boxes for answers but they hit a dead end the
21:08cockpit recorder was malfunctioning and failed to record the cruise conversations with the absence
21:15of copy voice recorder we don't know exactly what the crew is doing or what they were facing the flight
21:20data recorder is an old design providing little information the recorder for the air or accident was
21:28extremely limited we were able to determine first of all speed a little bit of altitude and heading of
21:34the aircraft there was no indication on there of engine power bank angle pitch angle then with the
21:42investigation only hours old it takes a dramatic turn an overseas US consulate receives word from a
21:49terrorist group claiming responsibility for the crash did a bomb take down flight 1285 a royal
22:00Canadian mounted police forensics lab tests pieces of the wreckage for bomb residue they find no traces
22:07the team also searches for any fallen debris between the runway and the point of impact the aircraft
22:15exploded before hit the trees one would expect something that would come off the aircraft and we would have
22:20found it we didn't find anything nothing at all investigators dismiss the terrorism angle and take a
22:28closer look at the flight data something unusual catches their eye liftoff happened 1000 feet or four
22:37seconds after it should have 4300 feet 100 knots 6300 feet 144 knots they should be lifting off now 167 knots
22:55extra thousand feet to get off the ground
22:59why did it take them so long what delayed the liftoff be one was there something wrong with the plane
23:09rotate or are the investigators looking in the wrong place
23:15determined to find out why arrow air 1285 was so slow to take off
23:25investigators turned their attention to the weight of the aircraft
23:30it's 101,000 pounds for fuel passengers and cargo unchanged the crew had calculated that each passenger
23:41plus their baggage would weigh 170 pounds but this was no ordinary commercial flight all 256 passengers were
23:51adults almost all of them large men hauling military gear we estimated that the more realistic weight would
23:59have been 220 pounds per passenger that includes the passenger everything they were carrying and uh and
24:06the equipment they had investigators estimate the weight at more than 54 000 pounds that's 12 000 pounds heavier
24:14than the weight recorded on the load sheet it's not even close but this plane had been flying with that
24:21weight all night taking off from cairo then from cologne without any problems
24:29what was it about gander that made the difference
24:31okay this has to be it ice and weight why didn't it fly we had two powerful reasons one was weight the
24:42other was even probably more powerful as a small amount of ice contamination on the aircraft
24:47investigators can only theorize no one in gander saw the ice on the wings
24:52that's one problem but now they must confront another some colleagues at the canadian air safety
25:00board are raising serious doubts about the findings one of those with questions is board member and
25:07aviation expert les philotas they said the aircraft i believe that the exact phrase was destroyed by a fuel
25:14fed fire the early reports everybody who was around there mentioned the massive explosion on the mushroom cloud
25:25philotas joins those speculating that arrow air flight 1285 was the victim of a terrorist plot
25:33philotas points to photographic evidence to bolster his case
25:37many photos that seem to indicate that there was some kind of an explosion on board another key piece
25:48of information for philotas comes from autopsies of some of the victims that indicate there were extremely
25:53high levels of carbon monoxide in their blood so if they have combustion products in their lungs natural
26:00inference is that they must have breathed in some combustion products before the crash
26:07the hell was that smoke smoke in the cockpit smoke
26:18but the lead investigators dismissed the sabotage theories
26:23the extreme intensity of the fire could have caused the abnormally high level of carbon monoxide in the
26:29victim's blood it's got nothing we had no indication that terrorism was a player
26:37but we did have a lot of indication that there was an aircraft performance problem and there were icing
26:41problems as part of the investigation we did a lot of research on the effects of ice on aircraft
26:46using a wind tunnel investigators spray a wing with ice to see how that affects the lift
26:53the results are startling just a small amount to save the size of some sandpaper if that's the type of
26:59surface you have it can seriously degrade a large aircraft that was a surprise to me what's your
27:05altitude pull up come on airspeed airspeed if you take one of the factors out if you take the ice out
27:13and have the same weight maybe you won't have the action if you take out the heavy weight and still have
27:18the icing maybe you won't have the accent but if you have them combined together you have the accident
27:23investigators believe they have a convincing report that explains the complex cause of the crash of
27:29flight 1285
27:32ice and weight
27:34but four of the nine members of the board disagree with the report's conclusion the dissenters take
27:42the unprecedented step of releasing their own minority report citing an onboard explosion as the
27:48cause it's impossible that ice would have been a factor it does not advance safety to get the wrong
27:54cause of an accident the fact that there was a lot of controversy around this investigation was very
27:59unfortunate because basically it took away from the safety message a lot of people have a hard
28:04time believing that a little tiny bit of ice on a large wing will have a big effect but it does
28:09the official report still stands but to this day the two sides disagree about the cause of the crash
28:16in this particular case of course what we had was an extraordinary outcome
28:20where you have a majority and a minority report which are deeply divergent
28:25which raise very different kinds of pictures about uh what the outcome of this crash would be
28:31it's likely the controversy will never be resolved
28:35i think that if there's a debate there's always going to be a debate a lot of the people that
28:39question a lot of these theories will never ultimately be satisfied with the results
28:47continuing our approach if we're unsuccessful we'll go around on autopilot
28:51sometimes the immediate cause of a crash is not the only thing in dispute the pilot made decisions
28:58or took actions based on a lot of other things that happen i just don't think we should bring him
29:02in it makes no sense right now it becomes a question of who is ultimately to blame and two
29:09different people listening to the same voice recording might come up with two different
29:13interpretations they didn't want the plane to land
29:15flying from poland to russia polish air force flight 101 is carrying 89 passengers including polish
29:29president lech kaczynski the passengers are on their way to mark a grim and controversial event
29:36this anniversary was on april the 10th it was a great polish tragedy the murder of polish soldiers
29:51in world war ii by stalin in 1940 stalinist forces marched 22 000 polish officers and intellectuals into
30:03russia's kateen forest to be executed for the first time the russian government was acknowledging the
30:12crime committed and the pain that the poles still feel for that crime by visiting a memorial near the
30:20site of the massacre the polish president is taking an important step towards reconciliation
30:26a huge responsibility lies on the shoulders of captain arkadyush protashuk and his crew of elite military
30:34airmen from poland's special aviation regiment they're flying a tupolev tu-154m an extremely popular
30:42russian-built plane throttle down one hour into their flight from warsaw just after 10 o'clock the plane begins to
30:52descend to smolensk russia polish 101 good morning polish 101 acknowledge polish air force we have fog visibility
31:06is 400 meters understood polish air force 101 heavy fog visibility is only 400 meters the fog was so dense
31:17nothing was visible you couldn't see your hand in front of your face or the person standing next to you
31:22smolensk air base doesn't have the equipment needed for a radio guided landing the pilots will first
31:30have to descend to 100 meters then look for the runway once they spot it they will have to land manually
31:38captain protashuk takes his plane lower to get a first-hand look at landing conditions
31:43but as they get closer the fog gets even thicker
31:52approaching outer marker on course and on glide slope as they descend suddenly a ground warning sounds
32:00100 meters 90 meters the captain decides to abort the landing
32:1340 he needs to climb but it's a struggle
32:1920
32:27no one on board flight 101 has survived
32:38one of the darkest days in polish history a day that was to have been commemorated by the president
32:44himself will now be remembered for yet another tragedy
32:47news of the polish president's death on russian soil stuns all of poland
32:57because of the deeply hostile relationship between poland and russia conspiracy theory sprung up immediately
33:03many poles are convinced the world has just witnessed an assassination
33:08a targeted killing orchestrated by president kaczynski's political adversaries
33:12russian air accident investigators arrive at the crash site
33:21they are members of the interstate aviation committee known as the mak
33:27we need to map every quadrant it's not every day that they have to investigate a plane crash and it's a matter
33:34of top political importance at the crash site the evidence is pointing in a direction that will not sit well with the poles
33:42why would they even try to land in this fog some claim the polish pilots should not have tried to land in the heavy fog
33:52the suggestion raises anger in poland for the partisans of the conspiracy theory it was just another russian whitewash
34:07the polish government sends their own investigators to work alongside the russians
34:13whatever you got so far
34:14they launch a painstaking search for any evidence that the flight may have been brought down by assassins
34:27careful analysis by russian and polish experts comes up empty
34:31they find no explosive residue on the wreckage and no sign that the plane was shot down
34:37for now investigators on both sides agree the crash is a tragic accident not a political assassination
34:46but what could have caused the accident
34:50investigators examine the flight data recorder to search for any sign of onboard mechanical failure
34:58looks like everything was functioning flight data confirms that until the moment the plane struck the
35:03first tree there was no malfunction whatsoever we'll send you copy of the data it's beginning to look like
35:09the initial speculation from the russian team is true heavy fog visibility is only 400 meters the polish pilots may
35:16be at fault only by combining all the parameters could we answer the questions did the crew follow procedures
35:26was the plane working properly to the end both teams turn their attention to the cockpit voice recorder
35:42mr director fogg has rolled in and the conditions we have right now we'll not be able to land
35:48we'll make an attempt but it probably won't work then we have a problem polish investigators recognize the voice in the cockpit
36:16sounds like kazana the director of protocol what he's doing in the cockpit
36:21protocol director marius kazana needs to know if the plane will land on time
36:28sir i have some news from the cockpit
36:33we could hear voices of people who were definitely not crew members and this meant that the cockpit was
36:38accessible to people who were not part of the flight crew
36:41safety rules forbid visitors in the cockpit at key points in the flight
36:47there's a rule that below a certain altitude pilots should be isolated from the rest of the plane
36:52so they can concentrate on their tasks
36:57it now appears the presence of so many top officials on board influenced the decision to land
37:02we described it as indirect pressure the pressure resulting from the weight of the task and the
37:10mission the air crew was completing którą załoga wykonywała mr director the fog is rolled in we'll
37:17make an attempt but it probably won't work though protasio knew the landing was risky he may have
37:24wanted to show his passengers that he was willing to try no one wants to disappoint a president
37:30to be clear this person did not give any instructions but just his presence in the cockpit
37:41interrupted the workflow the decision making and communication among the crew
37:49turn on your landing lights
37:52investigators uncover another puzzling moment in the cockpit
37:55they hear a warning that the plane is dangerously low
38:01but strangely the pilots don't seem to react to it you can't see a thing
38:07why aren't they concerned about their altitude now they should be
38:11investigators compare the plane's intended flight path to the altitudes called out by the navigator
38:1640 30
38:2520
38:28stop
38:30just after the navigator calls out 20 meters
38:34the unmistakable sound of the plane hitting the first tree 20 meters
38:39they hit the tree at 11 meters not 20 something's not right the navigator is calling out 20 meters
38:49but the plane is only 11 meters from the ground they didn't know the altitudes
38:55why didn't the crew know how low they were flying
38:57investigators wonder if there was an altimeter malfunction what happens here what they discover is shocking
39:12someone reset the altimeter
39:16one of the altimeters was reset and would now give incorrect altitude readings
39:27why would a pilot do that
39:34polish investigators take their questions to pilots from the same special regiment that flew the president
39:41you're telling me you actually change the altimeter to the wrong setting
39:46they find out pilots sometimes reset the barometric altimeter to silence the constant warnings of the terrain
39:53altitude warning system or tours
39:58start playback
40:0390 meters stop way back
40:06he was using his radio altimeter instead the crew was relying on the radio altimeter
40:12it uses radio waves to measure the distance between the plane and the ground below
40:16but the terrain near smolensk air base is uneven planes have to fly over a valley to reach it
40:24look what happens here
40:27when the radio altimeter read 100 meters the air force jet was not a hundred meters above the airport
40:34it was a hundred meters from the bottom of the valley
40:36the radio altimeter the radio altimeter was giving them misleading information
40:49using the radio altimeter at this early stage of approach is a serious mistake
40:54both sides agree the polish crew mishandled the approach but polish investigators argue that
41:08russia should bear some of the blame
41:14approaching outer marker on course and on glide slope
41:17polish investigators focus on the role played by russian air traffic control
41:27polish air force are you at 500 meters we are 500 meters
41:34i just don't think we should bring him in it makes no sense right now before the president's plane reached
41:40the airport the russian controllers knew the fog would make landing a very high risk but they didn't
41:46have the authority to turn the jet away we have to find an alternate for the pole
41:53we just don't have the weather they didn't want the plane to land the controller was waiting for
41:58captain prutasiuk to make the decision not to land we do not have landing conditions
42:04continuing our approach if we're unsuccessful we'll go around on autopilot
42:08i think that the same indirect pressure that was experienced by the captain of the tu-154 aircraft
42:25was shared by the atc controllers because of the nature of this flight
42:29polish investigators produce a separate report criticizing the smolensk airport for not turning
42:39away the plane and for not being properly equipped
42:46in turn the russians dispute the report's conclusions
42:50this failure to reach a consensus only fuels suspicions that the president of poland was assassinated
42:56you have people who are desperately trying to understand what happened and they're given
43:03information they're not qualified to assess i mean i'm not qualified to assess information of the russian
43:11or of the polish commission or of the counter experts i'm not an expert so finally i have to decide
43:17whose experts do i trust and perhaps no official report could ever satisfy the critics on either side of
43:24the russian polish divide every accident must teach us a lesson
43:32unfortunately learning that lesson has come at a very high cost
43:47sometimes there are political differences and other challenges but ultimately
43:50theoretically theoretically everyone is on the same team everyone wants safer skies
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