- 6/12/2025
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TVTranscript
00:00What's going on?
00:02In Miami, a 140-ton cargo plane pitches up suddenly on takeoff.
00:07I don't know how much weight was on the airplane.
00:10It might have affected the pitch control of this aircraft.
00:13When a packed commuter flight crashes,
00:16it reveals that passengers are at risk every day.
00:19It was sitting low when it tacks it out. It looked heavy.
00:23Baggage, people said it was hard to shut the door
00:26because they thought bags were going to come out.
00:28And a jumbo jet heavily loaded with armored vehicles...
00:32Get the nose down!
00:34...mysteriously falls from the sky.
00:37Holy crap, one of those things actually moved?
00:40If that cargo shifts, you'll wind up with a potential pitch problem.
00:44Three planes with perilous payloads
00:47force investigators to question every calculation.
00:50We know what to do. We just don't do it.
00:58What's going on?
01:00No!
01:03I need a 1-0-3.
01:04I need a 1-0-3.
01:05Go ahead, take your part.
01:06I need a 1-0-5.
01:07That's a 1-0.
01:08August 7th, 1997.
01:09August the 7th, 1997.
01:22Fine Air Cargo Flight 101 prepares for a flight from Miami, Florida to the Dominican Republic.
01:30Fine Air 101, cleared to Santa Domingo. Where are you parked?
01:34Captain Patrick Thompson is a former Marine and highly experienced pilot specializing in cargo flights.
01:43Okay, 1407 on the squawk and we're up in the northeast corner, thanks.
01:48First Officer Steve Petroski will be the pilot flying during this leg.
01:53All good out there.
01:55Okay, thank you.
01:57Flight Engineer Glenn Millington just finished his walk around.
02:01He still needs to check the cargo.
02:05They still got the belly open?
02:07Yeah, I'll go back and check out what's going on.
02:13Fine Air is the largest cargo airline flying into and out of Miami, a hub that's rapidly expanding.
02:23Miami-Dade and literally all the South Florida area.
02:27The 90s was a heyday.
02:29There was this big economic boom from trade with Latin America.
02:37Today's route to Santo Domingo is a two-hour and ten-minute flight southeast over the Atlantic.
02:46In the cargo hold, Millington checks to see if the pallets holding the cargo are secure.
02:51Looks like we're good to go.
02:57The DC-8 is loaded with more than 87,000 pounds of denim.
03:03Howdy.
03:04Cargo so valuable, it requires a security escort.
03:07At 12.30 p.m., flight 101 taxis to its runway.
03:23Fine Air 101, fly heading 270, cleared for takeoff.
03:28Takeoff 27 right.
03:29Fine Air 101 heavy.
03:30Force cooled and stable.
03:36Max power.
03:39Okay, coming up on 60 knots, power set.
03:4580.
03:46The takeoff is going smoothly.
03:49V1, rotate.
03:51V1, rotate.
04:00Easy, easy, easy, easy.
04:04Suddenly, the nose pitches up.
04:09Something is wrong.
04:14The air traffic controller is alarmed by what he now sees.
04:18What's going on?
04:20Whoa, whoa.
04:21The crew fights to get the plane under control.
04:26But they can't.
04:28V1, rotate.
04:29What's happening?
04:33Hold the power.
04:38No!
04:49Where is your emergency?
04:51Yes, sir.
04:51There's been a plane crash at 72nd and 25th.
04:55You need to roll everything, because it's right down across the street.
05:00It's the unthinkable.
05:02A plane crash in the heart of Miami.
05:05Everybody needs to move all the way back off the sidewalk.
05:08All the way back.
05:10We need to go across the street, please.
05:11Hundreds of people have witnessed the catastrophe.
05:13I saw a plane coming directly at me.
05:16When it crossed one of the freeways, by chance, the traffic lights were red.
05:24And so it managed to cross the freeway with not a huge amount of loss of life.
05:31The plane's three-man crew and an onboard security guard are confirmed dead.
05:39And one victim on the ground is killed in his parked car.
05:43The National Transportation Safety Board in Washington rushes their go team to Miami.
05:52Former Air Force pilot Bob Benzon is the lead investigator.
06:02More than 48,000 pounds of jet fuel turned the plane into a mass of smoking debris.
06:08There weren't a lot of large parts left.
06:11The engines were recognizable, pieces of the tail perhaps.
06:15But the rest of it was a burned up mess.
06:19Bob Benzon is eager to get data from the plane's black box recorders.
06:24I got them both.
06:26Good work.
06:27They're sent to Washington for analysis.
06:38As investigators wait for the flight data, a witness account from the plane's air traffic controller gives them immediate insight.
06:47Just after takeoff, he went steeply nose up.
06:51I could see the tops of the wings.
06:52What this told us early in the investigation was that we either had a problem with the airplane,
06:59something that the pilots did during the takeoff, or there may have been something wrong with the load.
07:06They were definitely spinning.
07:09Benzon and his team quickly rule out a mechanical problem with the plane's engines.
07:14We looked inside them and it looked like they were all operating at high power settings, just from visual examination.
07:23They begin scouring the scorched cargo hold in search of answers.
07:29Got something.
07:31Picking through layers of torch debris, Benzon makes a shocking discovery.
07:36This bear claw's unlocked.
07:38Bear claws physically clamp pallets to the cargo hold.
07:43We found a lot of these bear claws or cargo locks open.
07:48So they wouldn't have been restraining cargo.
07:50Every pallet in the hold is supposed to be locked before takeoff to prevent cargo from shifting.
08:00But at the crash scene, investigators find even more bear claws that are open.
08:06We found 60 bear claws, and like 57 or so were actually open.
08:12And that was not a good thing.
08:14It's a disturbing discovery, indicating the possibility that cargo shifted on takeoff.
08:21Easy, easy, easy.
08:26A plane's cargo must be carefully positioned to keep its front and rear balanced.
08:31The balancing point is called the center of gravity.
08:36The center of gravity of an airplane is a theoretical point at which the airplane balances.
08:44If you could hold up the airplane by your finger, it would be the one place that it would be totally balanced.
08:50If the center of gravity shifts mid-flight, then the plane becomes unstable and might be impossible to fly.
09:00It's very important that the center of gravity stays within its specified range.
09:05If you have too many pallets shifting in the rear of the airplane, it's going to be too tail-heavy.
09:12If they're in the forward part of the airplane, it'll be too nose-heavy.
09:17If the cargo on flight 101 shifted during takeoff,
09:21the change in the plane's center of gravity could have been catastrophic.
09:27Easy, easy.
09:28The airplane may pitch up very rapidly and they would have to react very quickly
09:32so that it doesn't pitch up into a stall condition.
09:36What's going on?
09:37Whoa!
09:38And that's exactly what the air traffic controller reported seeing.
09:44Just four days after flight 101 came down,
09:47investigators are now confident that shifting cargo caused the crash.
09:52Now all they have to do...
09:54Oh no!
09:54No!
09:56...is prove it.
09:58Investigators need to confirm if the cargo on board Fine Air Flight 101 wasn't properly secured,
10:10shifting the center of gravity of the aircraft.
10:14Easy, easy.
10:15Let us start talking to the folks that actually loaded the cargo.
10:21Benzen discovers that Fine Air had a partnership with a Dominican freight company,
10:26Aeromar.
10:30There's no doubt, most of them are left unlocked.
10:34Investigators expect the supervisor to admit fault.
10:37But it's almost the opposite.
10:40We only logged the first and last pallets.
10:44The supervisor shows investigators another DC-8, which is being loaded with 18 pallets.
10:53Each pallet is wheeled into place along a rail built into the floor.
10:57All of the spaces in the hold get filled with either empty or loaded pallets.
11:06If the pallets at the front and the back of the plane are locked, the cargo can't shift.
11:11Records show that all 18 positions on flight 101 were filled with either full or empty pallets.
11:20I can't see how it would have shifted.
11:22We knew that there wasn't enough space for the cargo to have shifted.
11:29The tidy theory of cargo shifting is shot down.
11:36The investigation needs a new angle.
11:39If the cargo was secure, Benzen and his team wonder if the pilots misconfigured the plane according to its load.
11:49Let's get started.
11:50That could have caused the plane to pitch up and suddenly go out of control.
11:55Before takeoff, pilots pre-select the pitch of the plane by adjusting the rear horizontal stabilizer.
12:03The angle of the stabilizer is determined according to the plane's weight and balance.
12:08All good out there.
12:09Okay, thank you.
12:11Now in possession of the black box data, investigators listen to the cockpit voice recording.
12:182.4 indicated.
12:19They confirm the pilots had configured the jet according to the reported load.
12:25So why the extreme pitch up?
12:28Again, investigators are stumped.
12:33If the stabilizer setting was configured according to its weight and balance.
12:38Max power.
12:39Investigators need to develop a new theory.
12:43Was the plane too heavy to fly?
12:45We were focusing on how much weight was on the airplane as it might have affected the pitch control of this aircraft.
12:57Benzen and his team compare the cargo weight against the manufacturer's maximum weight specifications.
13:03The plane was 32,000 pounds underweight.
13:07The plane was 32,000 pounds underweight.
13:08It's a dead end.
13:10The plane wasn't overweight.
13:12But Benzen knows something isn't adding up.
13:16A lot of little things built up to have us believe that Fine Airlines wasn't living up to its name.
13:23Desperate to find a new clue, Benzen's team reviews all of their evidence, including security footage of the plane loading.
13:36Everything seems to be routine until Benzen is struck by the sight of cargo coming off the plane.
13:45Take a look.
13:46Any idea what's going on?
13:54Me neither.
13:56Adding to the mystery, the Aeromar and Fine Air supervisors are in a heated discussion.
14:01Something was amiss.
14:04We didn't know what, but something was going on.
14:09Benzen needs to find out what.
14:11So they pay another visit to the loading teams.
14:16Why did you remove those pallets at the last minute?
14:19The pallets didn't fit.
14:21Investigators now learn that two of the pallets couldn't fit their assigned space,
14:25because their pre-wrapped cargo spilled over the side.
14:28They don't fit.
14:33The Fine Air supervisor is asked how he fixed the problem,
14:37and his solution shocks investigators.
14:41Get these ones out, so you can push those ones back.
14:46They moved several loaded pallets back into the spaces designated for empty pallets.
14:51So all the pallets were just moved back?
14:55Yes, sir.
14:56But what's even more troubling is that no one thought to tell the flight crew
15:01that the center of gravity had shifted to the back.
15:04Looks like we're good to go.
15:07To investigators, it looks like the plane's center of gravity was now dangerously wrong.
15:13They zero in on a new theory.
15:16You can move cargo around as much as you want,
15:19but the flight crew needs to know what the final configuration is.
15:24Knowing the configuration...
15:262.4 indicated.
15:28...allows the pilots to properly set their rear stabilizer for takeoff.
15:32They just weren't thinking.
15:35Now investigators must prove whether the careless act caused the accident.
15:39They review the plane's actual weight distribution.
15:4913 moves to 14.
15:52That's an extra 5,854 pounds to the back.
15:57This shift of heavy pallets to the rear became a rather big deal
16:04because it ended up putting the center of gravity very, very far to the rear,
16:08probably past the safe point.
16:15Investigators head to a flight simulator
16:17to do flight tests with the actual cargo arrangement on flight 101.
16:22OK, good to go.
16:23The conditions at takeoff are recreated as accurately as possible.
16:41Too low. Terrain.
16:43In the end, we were able to determine that the actual center of gravity
16:47for the accident airplane was just beyond the safe limit.
16:51Pull up.
16:51That's what allowed the airplane to pitch up so aggressively
16:55just after takeoff.
16:58They didn't stand a chance.
17:01Had the pilots known of the change in balance to the load...
17:052.4 indicated.
17:07...they could have adjusted their stabilizer setting appropriately
17:10prior to takeoff.
17:11Set for departure.
17:14Instead, flight 101...
17:16Easy.
17:17...is configured for disaster.
17:19What's going on?
17:20Whoa! Whoa!
17:21Whoa!
17:21Whoa!
17:24No!
17:26No!
17:32The NTSB's conclusions are a wake-up call for the cargo industry in southern Florida.
17:40Fine Air is ordered to overhaul their supervision of the cargo loading process.
17:44Weight and balance are so fundamental to flight that the lessons learned from the Fine Air crash
17:52should last throughout the industry.
17:56But they don't.
17:58It's stunning that they keep happening because that's no mystery.
18:02That one has been solved.
18:04We know what to do.
18:06We just don't do it.
18:07In North Carolina, just six and a half years later, an out-of-balance commuter plane crashes.
18:17You've got this!
18:17It's okay.
18:19And investigators uncover how another perilous payload takes the lives of everyone on board.
18:24January 8, 2003.
18:33Charlotte Douglas International Airport.
18:38Captain Katie Leslie is at work early.
18:42Only 25 years old, this Texas native is one of the youngest flight captains at her airline.
18:48Air Midwest runs a bustling commuter service out of the airport.
18:58Today, Captain Leslie commands a Beechcraft 1900D
19:02on a 30-minute hop to Greenville-Spartanburg Airport in Greer, North Carolina.
19:11At 8 in the morning, 19 passengers board the flight.
19:15Meanwhile, as part of the standard checklist before takeoff,
19:21the crew calculates the weight of all the baggage, passengers, and fuel on the plane.
19:29So, we got a full house back there?
19:32You can count 19 people in the back.
19:38Cool. 17.018.
19:4017.120 is our weight, huh?
19:42Yeah, is our max.
19:43So, we're cool.
19:46So, yeah.
19:50Good morning. Welcome aboard U.S. Airways Express Service to Greenville-Spartanburg.
19:55It's a very short flight, and we'll have you there in a few minutes.
19:59Ready for departure, the pilots taxi out to the runway.
20:05Air Midwest 5481, turn right, heading 230.
20:10Cleared for takeoff.
20:11Set takeoff power, please.
20:2080 knots, cross-check.
20:23To air traffic control, flight 5481's takeoff roll is perfectly normal.
20:28Gear up.
20:30Gear up.
20:39What?
20:40Go.
20:40Without warning, the plane's nose pitches dramatically upward.
20:47Push the nose down!
20:49Oh, my God.
20:50We have an emergency on Air Midwest 5481.
20:52The plane stalls, rolls to the left, and begins falling from the sky.
21:03Captain Leslie tries to get the plane to climb, but it's too late.
21:10The plane dives towards a U.S. Airways hangar, with hundreds of people working inside.
21:16It's a total loss.
21:34All 21 people on board, including the flight crew, are dead.
21:40Remarkably, only one person on the ground is injured in the disaster.
21:53It falls on NTSB lead investigator, Lorenda Ward, to figure out what happened to the plane.
21:59Due to the post-crash fire, when you initially walked up to it, it was hard to identify that you had an airplane that could hold 21 people.
22:13Within hours of the crash, investigators find the black boxes from the charred remains of Air Midwest Flight 5481.
22:21While they wait for the black box data to be downloaded, they begin interviewing ground workers at the airport.
22:31And did you notice anything unusual before takeoff?
22:34Well, it was sitting low when it tacks it out.
22:38It looked heavy.
22:41We had a couple of witnesses that were implying that we had a very heavily loaded airplane.
22:46Every plane has a maximum weight it can handle before the engines can't get it off the ground.
22:54Before takeoff, it's the pilot's job to calculate the on-board weight.
22:59So, we got a full house back there?
23:01You can count 19 people in the back.
23:04When investigators review the cockpit voice recorder, they get confirmation that the crew of Flight 5481...
23:11Cool. 17-0-18.
23:12...did perform that calculation.
23:14So, we're cool.
23:17So, yeah.
23:19On any plane, large or small, the weight of cargo and passengers has to be distributed evenly.
23:26And pilots work closely with the loading team to monitor the weight and balance of the cargo.
23:32We don't think we're going to have to take anything off.
23:34Air Midwest pilots are trained to make weight calculations using average weights.
23:39175 pounds per passenger and 20 pounds per bag.
23:46Due to using the average weight and average calculations, the paperwork showed them being within the range that they needed to take off.
23:56But Ward needs to know if the plane really was within the proper range of weight and balance.
24:04What we did is we looked at the weights of the actual baggage itself and then the weight of the passengers and the crew.
24:10Yes, could you tell me please what the last recorded weight of your patient is, please?
24:13Ward learns that most passengers are now heavier than the average weight that's guided pilots for decades.
24:20And when all the numbers are in, Ward discovers the real weight of Flight 5481 is 17,700 pounds, some 580 pounds over its maximum takeoff weight.
24:36They would not have been able to take off if they had used actual weights.
24:41They would have had to pull either passengers or bags off.
24:45The excess weight meant the plane was tail heavy and its center of gravity was too far to the rear.
24:54Gear up.
24:55The discovery explains the plane's sudden pitch upwards.
24:59But flight data reveals the pitch was at an angle from which the pilots should have been able to recover.
25:06For Lorenda Ward, something doesn't stack up.
25:10She needs to know what other factors contributed to the catastrophic crash.
25:23Investigators need to understand why the pilots of U.S. Airways Flight 5481 didn't regain control when their plane pitched violently upwards.
25:31Sifting through the crash site wreckage, they make a critical discovery.
25:39The shredded remains of the plane's elevator control cables, vital to flight control.
25:46They looked unusual.
25:49They weren't in like the normal position that you would find them.
25:53In this case, we had one adjusted all the way out and then one adjusted all the way in.
25:57The state of the elevator cables is alarming.
26:02These cables link the pilots' control columns to the flight elevator,
26:07an aerodynamic panel that helps pilots climb and descend.
26:11Ward now believes that the pilots' ability to control the plane's pitch could have been severely compromised.
26:22But she doesn't know why.
26:28Puzzled, investigators dig into the plane's maintenance history and interview the aircraft mechanics.
26:34Once you have the rig pin set, adjust the turnbuckle barrels for more tension in the cable.
26:47In the days before the crash, during maintenance of the plane's elevator cables...
26:52Got it.
26:53...mechanics in training skipped some vital steps.
26:56What about the other steps?
26:58Yeah, uh, don't worry about those.
27:00Skipping critical steps...
27:05Oh, help me!
27:06...put the elevator cables out of alignment...
27:08Oh, my God.
27:09...and crippled the pilots' efforts to adjust the plane's pitch.
27:12Ow!
27:13They lost the ability to control the aircraft.
27:16Oh, my God!
27:17They had no elevator movement enough to bring the nose back down.
27:23Push the nose down!
27:24Oh, my God!
27:25We have an emergency on air, Midwest 3481!
27:28Alert 3, standby. Runway 1-8, right.
27:35In her report, Ward concludes that before takeoff, flight 5481 was 580 pounds overweight and slightly tail heavy.
27:45Then, careless maintenance meant pilots did not have sufficient control of the elevators to fight the problem.
27:53All right, got it. Good.
27:56Loaded with a perilous payload, the plane was doomed the moment it left the ground.
28:02They didn't know that they had these two hitting, latent failures that were waiting for them.
28:07The NTSB states the need for more thorough and supervised maintenance of small aircraft.
28:15Ward's investigation also makes the stunning revelation that average weight calculations put passengers at risk.
28:23She recommends the Federal Aviation Authority review how the weight of people and their baggage is calculated.
28:29When you see a weight-and-balance accident, it's a failure of the system.
28:34We have the knowledge to safely load airplanes.
28:37It's an accident type we've seen before, and those are the worst type for an investigator.
28:47Bagram Airfield in northeastern Afghanistan.
28:50The U.S. military base is a hive of activity, with troops, weapons, and heavy machinery constantly on the move.
29:02Bagram, ground, ISAF.
29:049-5, Africa, back, ready to taxi.
29:07The crew of National Airlines Flight 102 is flying cargo in a converted Boeing 747.
29:15Air is billowing out of here.
29:17Yeah, sure is.
29:18They're on the last leg of a gruelling shift.
29:23After flying from Chateau-Rue, France, to Camp Bastion, where they loaded 207,000 pounds of cargo, it was a quick hop to Bagram.
29:34Once the plane is refuelled, they'll fly two and a half hours to Dubai.
29:40Captain Brad Hassler is heading home to his pregnant wife.
29:45Beside him is first officer, Jamie Brokaw.
29:49Augment Captain Jeremy Lipka is in the jump seat.
29:53Is Sheets back there?
29:54I haven't seen him.
29:55I hope he's in the back.
29:58Yeah, he's back there.
29:59In a cabin behind the cockpit is loadmaster Michael Sheets, along with three other crew members.
30:09The loadmaster is double-checking that the flight cargo is properly stowed and ready for the flight.
30:15At 3.25 p.m., the flight crew are cleared for take-off.
30:239-5 Alpha Quebec, runway 3, full length.
30:28Prepare for departure.
30:29At that same moment, military journalist Stephen Hartoff is returning to the base from a day's work taking photographs for a magazine.
30:41I saw, off to the left of the truck, a white and purple 747.
30:49And I remember thinking, this is a beautiful airplane, because it looked brand new.
30:52B-1, rotate.
30:58Positive climb.
30:59What's going on with that aircraft?
31:05It was almost stuttering in the air.
31:07And I immediately said to Chris, what's going on with that aircraft? Is he taking fire?
31:11Keep on that.
31:15The plane is suddenly uncontrollable.
31:17Get the nose down!
31:19I'm trying!
31:21The nose won't drop.
31:25My airplane!
31:28If they can't get the nose down fast, the plane will stall.
31:34For a moment, they hang in the air, suspended.
31:37And then the aircraft seemed to sort of careen in our direction.
31:46Stop the car.
31:47Now you're looking at a big 747 coming at you.
31:56A 747 cargo plane falls from Afghan skies.
32:00And in a very slow motion, it just went straight down and pancaked into the ground.
32:11It was a mushroom cloud, like a small atom bomb.
32:14It was huge.
32:15The entire base thundered under our feet.
32:19National Airlines Flight 102 is obliterated.
32:23It's the worst aviation accident ever at Bagram Airfield.
32:31Remarkably, no one on the ground is hit.
32:34But the entire flight crew is dead.
32:38Watching those people die was tough.
32:40It was tough.
32:41Amid the specter of a terrorist attack, the NTSB is assigned to lead the investigation.
32:55This investigation was a lot different, because we were flying into a war zone.
33:00When we first got there, we were given bulletproof vests and Kevlar helmets to wear into the accident site.
33:07So what do you got for me?
33:07The NTSB will have to work closely with the military.
33:12A sweep of the crash site has already turned up the black boxes.
33:18But there's not much else for investigators to work with.
33:23Except for the tail section, much of the plane has been consumed by the inferno.
33:27Soon after the team starts sifting through the wreckage, a video of the accident appears on the internet.
33:39Holy cow.
33:41There it is.
33:43It reveals a huge clue about the plane's erratic climb and fall.
33:48Looks like a problem with the cargo load.
33:53The aircraft's movement in the video suggests the flight may have been out of balance.
33:58Some of the early questions were, you know, what was the cargo in the airplane?
34:04How heavy was the cargo?
34:07By examining the cargo manifest, investigators discover that the plane was carrying an unusual load.
34:14Five armored vehicles called MRAPs, or mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicles.
34:21These massive, heavily armed cars, each weigh between 12 and 18 tons.
34:30Each vehicle was chained to a custom-built pallet and secured with straps to the plane's main deck by the loading crew.
34:38The cargo in this particular case was very heavy.
34:41It was the first time they'd ever flown five vehicles this heavy.
34:44Investigators calculate the precise weight carried on board.
34:52Max takeoff weight is 870,000 pounds.
34:56We have 207,000 pounds of cargo plus fuel.
35:00They learn that with the heavy cargo and fuel load, the plane was not overweight.
35:06Weight was definitely not an issue.
35:09But it's not just the on-board weight that investigators need to analyze.
35:13The balance of the load could be the problem.
35:20Bring up the schematics.
35:23We fill it with our cargo.
35:29After a few calculations, the investigators have their answer.
35:34The airplane actually could carry the weight, and as loaded, was within the center of gravity.
35:40It's a dead end.
35:45Investigators explore another angle.
35:49Even if the load was balanced before takeoff, it could have shifted as the plane left the ground.
35:55The focus now turns to the loading procedures.
36:02Specifically, were the MRAPs properly secured by the loadmaster and his crew?
36:08I flew transports for the U.S. Air Force for many, many years, 23 years, in the Lockheed C-141.
36:14We were totally dependent on our loadmasters to get it right.
36:17They were the ones who would kill us or not if they put the load in the wrong position.
36:20Investigators study the manual the loadmaster used to calculate how many heavy nylon straps are needed to secure the vehicles.
36:32And seeing his rationale for calculating those numbers all seemed to make sense to me.
36:38But it adds yet more mystery to the investigation.
36:45If the plane was underweight, with the cargo secured and balanced in line with company standards,
36:53what else could possibly have caused the crash?
36:55Desperate for a new theory, the investigators hope the data retrieved from the 747's black boxes
37:04will shed some light on the horrific crash.
37:07Flight data recorders record what the elevator and the ailerons and what the control pitches are doing.
37:14You have the readouts?
37:15And so we were very hopeful that we would get good information from those recorders
37:18that would help explain why the airplane had crashed.
37:23But the team is hit with another problem.
37:27The cockpit voice recorder stopped recording mere seconds after take-off.
37:33Bring up the CVR. Stand by.
37:36Fortunately, it was recording during the crew's hour-long wait on the tarmac.
37:42There's your trouble, Brad. What is it?
37:44Sounds like the first officer is showing something to the captain.
37:47One of the damn straps is the bus.
37:49Pause it there.
37:50The CVR suggests the first officer found a broken strap inside the cargo hold.
37:57Did the track move?
37:58Yeah. Just tighten up on the straps.
38:00Holy crap. One of those things actually moved?
38:04So from that information, we know that they had a load shift when they came in and landed,
38:09and that was very important to us in our investigation.
38:11Investigators now wonder whether the loadmaster properly tied down the MRAPs.
38:18How far did it move? A couple inches?
38:20Yeah, they just moved a couple inches because it's nylon, you know?
38:23They have no idea how serious this really is.
38:25That cargo shifts during rotation, you'll wind up with a potential pitch problem.
38:30The discovery changes the face of the investigation.
38:34Did the MRAPs shift after take-off?
38:37Get the nose down!
38:38I'm trying!
38:39Throwing the 747 dangerously out of balance.
38:46Searching for evidence that the cargo of National Airlines Flight 102 shifted on take-off.
38:51Take a look at this.
38:52Investigators look more closely at the wreckage from the rear of the aircraft.
38:57Bam!
38:57What became obvious was that the tire from the aft, Matt V, had impacted the aft pressure bulkhead and left that tire impact.
39:07The metal antenna box from the rear of the same MRAP provides another big clue.
39:13Look at that. Paint transfer.
39:17Orange paint on the box comes from the flight recorders.
39:20That looks like a direct hit.
39:23The flight recorders are located at the rear of the plane.
39:26To hit them, the MRAP would have had to shift at least 12 feet.
39:32Where the CVR and FDR are located is 104 inches above the floor of the aircraft.
39:39That's exactly the same height as the metal antenna box from the rear of the MRAP.
39:45Now you're starting to see a chain of events that this vehicle had to be moving in an aftward direction.
39:51Could the shifting cargo bring down a huge 747?
39:59To find out, investigators take another look at the few pieces of salvaged wreckage they have.
40:05Including the horizontal stabilizer from the rear of the plane.
40:09The horizontal stabilizer is a large control surface that adjusts the pitch of the plane during flight.
40:18It's controlled by a jack screw, which lowers and raises the edge of the stabilizer in response to the pilot's commands.
40:26What we were surprised to find out was that the jack screw had actually been pushed aft and had broken loose from the airplane.
40:36Without the jack screw, pilots would have had no control of the horizontal stabilizer.
40:42And therefore no ability to balance the jet.
40:46I wonder.
40:47The question now is, did the jack screw snap before or during the crash?
40:56Closer analysis reveals it snapped in the opposite direction than if it were broken in the crash.
41:03Just over here.
41:05Investigators wonder what could have caused the jack screw to snap off.
41:10They take some careful measurements and make a vital discovery.
41:14Straight hit.
41:17I was able to determine that the bumper of the Mat-V lines up directly with the motor of the jack screw in the area where it detached from the lower fuselage.
41:28The results point to a clear suspect.
41:31Okay, let's play it.
41:33And based on this new evidence, investigators finally have a theory to prove.
41:39As the jet began its take-off roll, the weight of the vehicle strains the nylon strap.
41:47An 18-ton MRAP comes loose and hurtles to the back of the plane.
41:54It smashes the rear jack screw, destroying the pilot's control of the horizontal stabilizer, making the plane impossible to fly.
42:02Back in Washington, D.C., the theory is examined using a detailed simulation.
42:18One MRAP at the back.
42:21See, two elevators down.
42:26Equals one uncontrollable plane.
42:28Investigators finally know that an MRAP crashing into the jack screw crippled the plane.
42:35Keep on that.
42:38You take away the horizontal tail, you're not going to be able to control this airplane in pitch.
42:44This was an uncontrollable event.
42:46In the wake of the accident, the NTSB recommends mandatory certification of all cargo handling personnel.
43:05A move that would standardize their procedures, training, and workloads.
43:10The organization had looked at the capacity of the 747 and said, we can put five MRAPs in there.
43:19And without considering not only the weight, but how they were going to safely secure it.
43:26History shows that a plane that flies with a perilous payload flirts with catastrophe.
43:35But it's a flight risk that's entirely preventable.
43:38You can't take weight and balance for granted.
43:42Oh my God!
43:42We have an emergency on Air Midwest 5481!
43:45We're aiming for zero accidents.
43:48Humans can't do that.
43:49But humans with systems and backup systems can.
43:52That's what makes aviation safe when it's safe.
43:54And that's what screws it up when we don't do it the right way.
43:57litres 2
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