- 7 months ago
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00:00It's a pilot's last resort.
00:04Oh, hell. Dispatch, we're ditching. Ditching!
00:07That's an extreme emergency.
00:09Turn with me!
00:10When a narrow river in Indonesia becomes a runway.
00:13Face!
00:14I felt that death was really upon us.
00:17We're in the land immediately conditioned.
00:19And the icy Atlantic is a crew's only chance for survival.
00:23If you hit perpendicular to the waves, it's like hitting concrete.
00:27I don't think you're gonna make it.
00:29And the Mediterranean...
00:30Boats. I see boats.
00:31...proves to be a pilot's best option to land a powerless plane.
00:35I woke up in the water.
00:37Investigators must crack three different cases...
00:40Strip plane.
00:43...to discover why pilots were forced to make an emergency landing on water.
00:49Mayday, mayday.
00:51On a sunny afternoon, a Boeing 737 cruises high above the Indonesian archipelago.
01:05Garuda, Indonesia Flight 421 is almost midway through a short domestic trip.
01:22At the helm is Captain Abdul Rozak.
01:27He's a senior pilot with the country's national carrier.
01:30How does the weather look in Yogyakarta?
01:33His first officer is Harry Gunawan.
01:37Should be fine, but there might be a bit of rain.
01:39I had flown several times with Harry Gunawan, so it was nothing new.
01:45We knew each other quite well.
01:48Today, the cabin crew is looking after 54 passengers.
01:56Everything was normal. We offered food and drinks for the passengers.
02:05The flight is a 60-minute journey from Mataram, on the resort island of Lombok,
02:10to Yogyakarta, on the main island of Java.
02:17As the pilots near their destination, storm clouds appear in their path.
02:22What do you think?
02:27I could see the green, yellow, and red on the radar.
02:31And I knew that the safest route would be towards the green.
02:35I think we just veer a little to the left into that green gap.
02:39We should be fine.
02:44Prepare the cabin for a little turbulence.
02:46Hopefully it won't be too rough.
02:47I see bones.
02:49Please can you do the piercing?
02:50I am.
02:52Caruda 421, request clearance to descent to flight level 190.
02:56Caruda 421, you are clear to 190.
02:59Flight 421 is set to begin its descent.
03:04But the weather is deteriorating quickly.
03:10Where did this come from?
03:11Where did this come from?
03:14Well, we're in it now.
03:16Strap in.
03:20I was extremely surprised.
03:22We'd already entered the cloud.
03:23So like it or not, we had to go through the storm.
03:30The engines!
03:31Yes, sir.
03:32One or two are dropping.
03:38Increasing thrust.
03:43Nothing.
03:44Engine one flamed down.
03:46Conflamed.
03:51And engine two flamed down.
03:54With both engines gone, the plane has no thrust.
03:58Primary electricity is lost.
04:01All systems switch to backup power.
04:04Captain Roszak struggles to keep the plane steady
04:07while its altitude begins to drop.
04:10I immediately yelled for the emergency checklist.
04:13Emergency checklist.
04:14Perform engine flame-up procedure.
04:16Engine start switches to flight.
04:18Engine start switches to flight.
04:20The pilots try to reignite the engines.
04:22We timed it for 30 seconds, as is the protocol,
04:27and waited for them to light up.
04:31By now, the engines should have restarted.
04:38But both are still dead.
04:44The Boeing 737 is dropping 1,000 feet every 15 seconds.
04:49Try it again!
04:53That's an extreme emergency.
04:55Time! 30 seconds!
04:58Minutes from crashing to the ground,
05:00Captain Roszak is running out of options.
05:07I knew we still had our auxiliary power unit, the APU.
05:11Uh, auxiliary power unit, APU.
05:14The APU is a fuel-powered generator
05:17which can be started with the plane's battery.
05:19It's the crew's last hope to regain power.
05:22Start APU!
05:24Start APU!
05:27Then...
05:31We've lost our power!
05:33Catastrophe strikes.
05:35When he tried to turn on the standby generator,
05:38everything shut down.
05:40Electricity was gone.
05:45Flight instruments, gone.
05:47Everything went dark.
05:49I had no tools to fly the plane.
05:51The crew struggles to maintain control
05:55as the 56-ton jet continues to lose altitude.
05:59Mayday, mayday, mayday!
06:01Garuda, four, two, one, mayday!
06:03We were still within the severe turbulence.
06:06We had tried everything in the book.
06:08But Captain Roszak and his first officer aren't willing to give up.
06:12No power, no radio.
06:15What do we have? We're just instruments only.
06:18They would have the standby attitude indicator or horizon,
06:21the standby airspeed indicator,
06:24and a magnetic compass.
06:27At just under 8,000 feet,
06:30Garuda Flight 41 finally breaks out of the storm.
06:36Okay, let's figure out where we are.
06:41I didn't even know where we were,
06:44because my instruments were dead.
06:46We're near the solar river, sir.
06:49We're near the solar river, sir.
06:52We have to land somewhere.
06:53Let's see what we've got.
06:57We had to decide in seconds
06:59where we could land the plane.
07:06The right field, sir!
07:08Negative, too risky.
07:11With no alternative, Captain Roszak decides
07:14to do something few pilots have ever tried before.
07:17Okay, the river then.
07:19It's our best chance.
07:21Yes, sir. Tell me what to do.
07:23No gear, no flaps.
07:25What's my speed?
07:27Successfully ditching on the narrow, twisting solo river
07:30may well be impossible for the pilots to pull off.
07:32But I believe the plane would suffer less from the impact,
07:42and we'd have a better chance of surviving.
07:47The pilots now spot an obstacle.
07:50Bridge!
07:52Can we go under it, sir?
07:54No.
07:56I wanted to pass under the bridge,
07:59but I could make out that there were concrete pillars underneath it.
08:02Yeah.
08:043,000 feet!
08:06Captain Roszak makes a split-second decision.
08:09Let's circle around and put it down over there.
08:11Turn with me!
08:13Turning!
08:15Looping back could give the pilots
08:17a longer stretch of river to land on,
08:19but they're running out of time.
08:21Bank angle, sir!
08:22Look!
08:24I see, I see, I see!
08:26Keep turning, or we don't make the river!
08:29Turn hard!
08:36My co-pilot shouted out because he felt the turn was too sharp,
08:40but I told him we have no choice.
08:42If we don't do this, we will not make it to the river.
08:50Speed!
08:52One stop and zero, sir!
08:54That'll do.
08:56As they line up with the river, they face yet another hurdle.
08:59There's another bridge!
09:01Altitude, 250!
09:04The bridge can't be more than 80 feet.
09:06We're good.
09:08It turns out I had to land the plane between two bridges.
09:11150!
09:13We're on the cabin. Brace for landing.
09:15The pilots prepare to do something extraordinary.
09:17Brace for landing! Everyone! Brace for landing!
09:19Everyone! Brace for landing!
09:20The 737 clears the first bridge.
09:23Okay, okay, okay! Here we go!
09:26Can they stop before the second?
09:2850!
09:3040!
09:32Hope is gone!
09:3330!
09:3430!
09:3530!
10:01When the plane finally stopped after the emergency landing, I was very relieved and grateful.
10:08Flight attendant Tuhu Wassano helps shocked and injured passengers out of the wreckage and to shore.
10:15Of the 60 people on board, all but one survive.
10:21The job of discovering what brought down Garuda Flight 41 falls to a team of Indonesian soldiers.
10:28My first big question is what caused the engines to play out simultaneously.
10:35The plane's nosecone, or radome, is found among the wreckage. It provides the first critical clue.
10:43Come see this for a sec.
10:45It almost looked like someone had gone out with a ball-peen hammer and took aggression out on the radome of the aircraft.
10:51Look at these. There's only one thing this could be.
10:54Hail.
11:01Investigators determined that the extreme weather the crew encountered was a violent hailstorm.
11:06The hail was estimated to be the size of tennis balls, which is enormous and detrimental to the aircraft.
11:17Engines on Boeing 737s can withstand considerable amounts of hail.
11:24The engine is designed to handle 10 grams per meter cubed, a fairly large amount of precipitation.
11:32Investigators wonder, could the hailstorm have thrown more at the airplane than it was built to take?
11:38They analyze the sound of the precipitation hitting the Garuda cockpit at the moment the engines flamed out.
11:48And compare it to recordings of other flights hit by severe rain and hailstorms.
11:53How do these numbers match up?
11:58The discovery is astonishing.
12:00Garuda Flight 421 flew into precipitation heavier than any storm ever recorded.
12:08The storm's intense noise, along with the engine's performance data, tell investigators how much rain and hail the 737 encountered.
12:16That's insane.
12:17And based on our tests, we conclude that the amount of ice was more than 18 grams per cubic meters.
12:26These engines were well in excess of the manufacturer's tested criteria. It was almost double.
12:34The evidence gathered leaves no doubt. A violent hailstorm caused Flight 421's dual-engine flameout.
12:44It's all in for you.
12:46But that doesn't explain the loss of the 737's power.
12:50We've lost all power.
12:54If they hadn't lost power, they could have restarted the engines once they were outside the storm.
13:01What happened?
13:03Investigators hope Captain Rozak can provide the answers.
13:07Take us through exactly what happened.
13:10As soon as the engines died, we followed the relight procedure.
13:14They followed procedure to the pinny.
13:16When the engines didn't relight, they tried the auxiliary power unit to restore electricity.
13:21And then what happened?
13:22Disaster.
13:23We've lost all power!
13:25After two attempts to restart the engines and trying to start the APU, it depleted the battery.
13:33The battery was the only thing that could ignite the APU.
13:37Once it failed, the plane lost nearly all its standby instruments and any hope of relighting the engines.
13:45Heavy-duty aircraft batteries almost never die mid-flight.
13:49Investigators are baffled why this one did.
13:52The captain provides an important clue.
13:57The battery voltage was low.
13:5922 volts.
14:05Even before we initiated the restart sequence.
14:0722 is within the limit, but it's the lowest value.
14:12So it's considered to be weak.
14:15A fully charged battery in a 737 has 24 volts.
14:20Are you sure it's 22?
14:21Not 24.
14:2222 volts.
14:24I remember.
14:26Another 2 volts might have made the difference in getting the engine started.
14:32Four weeks after the crash, searchers recover what could be the last piece of the investigative puzzle from the Solo River.
14:38Flight 421's battery. One of its 20 cells shows damage that occurred prior to the accident. This discovery matches the captain's observations.
14:51We found the cell condition was one of the most damaged.
14:56And it has reduced the battery capability quite significant.
15:02Investigators now understand all the factors which led to the hair-raising river ditching.
15:07It was Captain Rozak's quick response and outstanding airmanship that enabled the crew to avoid a complete catastrophe.
15:25By landing their powerless jet on a narrow river.
15:29He saved so many lives on board the plane.
15:33For that, I salute Captain Rozak.
15:37They don't do live ditching tests. A manufacturer just can't afford that.
15:42Well, here we have an instance that was an actual event.
15:46And everybody looked closely at the outcome and how that aircraft was able to touch down at the right angle, at the right speed, for a pretty safe outcome.
16:03But when a flight crew is misled by their instruments...
16:06We should be getting smells, vibrations.
16:08...over the frigid North Atlantic, survival is far from certain.
16:12Ditching! Ditching! Ditching! Ditching! Ditching! Ditching!
16:15Ditching! Ditching! Ditching! Ditching! A Sikorsky S-92 helicopter prepares for liftoff from St John's International Airport in Newfoundland, Canada!
16:24Ditching! Ditching! Ditching! Ditching! Ditching! Ditching! Ditching! Ditching! Ditching! Ditching! Ditching! Ditching!
16:26to offshore platforms in the Hibernia oil fields.
16:29Captain Matthew Davis is at the controls of Cougar Flight 91.
16:34Next stop, C-Rhodes.
16:36His first officer is Tim Lanouette, a veteran Navy helicopter pilot.
16:42Ground, Cougar 91, request takeoff.
16:45Cougar 91, depart to the south, then on course.
16:49Clear for takeoff.
16:56For oil rig workers headed to ocean platforms,
17:01helicopters are the primary mode of transportation.
17:07Boiling in here.
17:10High visibility survival suits are mandatory
17:13on all helicopter flights over open sea.
17:1928 minutes into the flight, Cougar 91 levels off at cruising altitude.
17:269,000 feet.
17:289,000 feet, copy.
17:32Three weeks on, three weeks off.
17:36Life on a rig.
17:37I don't know what's worse.
17:39Three weeks off, I'd get bored.
17:41Gearbox pressure.
17:42Gearbox pressure.
17:44MGB oil pressure.
17:47Oil is the lifeblood of a helicopter.
17:49It lubricates its critical moving parts.
17:52Emergency checklist.
17:58Autopilot off.
18:00Gander Center, Cougar 91, mayday.
18:03Cougar 91, go ahead.
18:04Sir, we have a main gearbox oil pressure problem.
18:07Request immediate clearance back to takeoff.
18:10Cougar 91, roger.
18:11You can make a right turn heading 3-0-0.
18:16Flight 91 is 54 miles out.
18:19It'll take 30 minutes to return to land.
18:24I'm taking her down to the water.
18:26Roger.
18:28Checklist?
18:29Yeah, I'm still trying to find it.
18:31It might be at the back of the book.
18:34Main gearbox failure.
18:36We should be getting smells, vibrations.
18:39I don't smell anything.
18:40Captain Davis brings the helicopter just below 1,000 feet.
18:47Gander Center for Cougar 91.
18:49Which runway would you like me to set you up for?
18:52I'm going for the nearest piece of terra firma I can get to,
18:54whatever I see first, if it's Cape Spear or a parking lot.
18:58Cougar 91, Gander.
18:59Search and rescue has been notified.
19:03This is the captain.
19:04We've had a major technical problem,
19:07and at this time I'd ask for everyone to prepare your survival suits.
19:10We are heading for the closest land.
19:12The passengers follow the steps they were taught
19:15in the emergency survival training.
19:21Ten minutes later, Cougar 91 is still 35 miles from land.
19:29Suddenly...
19:30Oh, hell.
19:32The crew...
19:32Dispatch, we're ditching.
19:34Ditching!
19:34...runs out of options.
19:35Airspeed 122, Matt.
19:44I think it just kicked on me.
19:46Okay, nose up, nose up.
19:52All right, we're turning.
19:53Call it in.
19:54We're getting prepared to ditch.
19:57Ditching!
19:58Ditching, ditching, ditching, ditching.
20:00Ditching!
20:01Five hundred feet.
20:03Get it pointed downwind.
20:09Race!
20:10Race!
20:11Race!
20:11Race!
20:11Race!
20:17Cougar Flight 91 slams into the freezing water.
20:23Seventeen people are killed in the accident.
20:25Only one passenger makes it to the surface alive and is rescued after spending 75 minutes in the water.
20:35Within hours of the crash, Canada's Transportation Safety Board assembles a team to investigate the tragic accident.
20:42While salvage teams try to recover the wreckage, resting 554 feet beneath the surface of the Atlantic.
20:51There was no indication of any problems until the mayday came in.
20:55Lead investigator Mike Cunningham speaks to the air traffic controller who had the last contact with the doomed helicopter.
21:02Gator Center, Cougar 91, mayday.
21:05Cougar 91, go ahead.
21:06Sir, we have a main gearbox oil pressure problem.
21:09Cunningham gets his first clue.
21:11The main gearbox uses power from the engines to spin the main and tail rotors.
21:20Like the transmission of a car, the gearbox requires a constant supply of oil to keep the moving parts lubricated.
21:27A Sikorsky S-92 should be able to fly without oil for at least 10 minutes before its essential parts seize up.
21:34The main gearbox in a helicopter is a very critical piece of equipment.
21:42The failure of the gearbox would mean a loss of lifting power from the main rotor, the loss of directional control to the tail rotor.
21:53What was the problem with this vital piece of equipment?
21:57With so many Sikorsky helicopters in operation all across the globe, many more lives could be at risk.
22:03Ditching!
22:04Ditching! Ditching! Ditching! Ditching!
22:07After five days of calm seas, Cougar Flight 91's wreckage is pulled from the ocean floor.
22:15The team hopes it will help explain the accident.
22:20Investigators focus on the main gearbox.
22:22Here we go!
22:23They immediately discover a problem with the oil filter bowl.
22:28Wow, two of the studs are gone.
22:29It was very obvious once we pulled back the panels that surround the main gearbox that two attachment points had definitely been compromised.
22:39So it wasn't a slow leak.
22:41Poured out all at once.
22:43The discovery confirms that broken studs caused the oil to rapidly drain from the gearbox.
22:49What made the studs fail?
22:52What does it mean?
22:52And these ones?
22:54Titanium.
22:56Metallurgical analysis reveals the studs were subject to metal fatigue that led to cracking.
23:01This type of fatigue is the result of two different types of metal rubbing against each other.
23:06In the case of the Cikorsky 92, the studs are made of titanium, but the nuts that hold them in place are steel.
23:16Repeated tightening of the two ultimately led to disaster.
23:21Once fatigue cracking began, well, it's just a matter of time until failure.
23:26The team knows that once the oil flowed out, friction would have worn away mechanical parts critical to controlling a helicopter.
23:38Stripped clean.
23:40The evidence is clear.
23:42The pilot's only option at that point is to land the helicopter with no engine power.
23:47Oh, hell.
23:50Dispatch, we're ditching.
23:52Ditching.
23:53Airspeed 122, Matt.
23:54Investigators now understand why continuing towards land was no longer an option.
24:00Race!
24:01Race!
24:01Race!
24:02Race!
24:05But they need to find out if Sikorsky knew about the weakness in the gearbox, and if it took action to address it.
24:12They study the communication between Sikorsky and operators like Cougar.
24:18Here, take a look at this.
24:23Alert to operators of the S-92 replace all titanium studs within a year or 1,200 flying hours.
24:33Six weeks before the crash, Sikorsky issued an advisory to swap the titanium studs for steel studs.
24:40Sikorsky had known there was a problem with these studs previously.
24:46But Sikorsky didn't urge companies to make immediate replacements, because none of the previous incidents resulted in accidents.
24:55Cougar got the replacement parts, but maintenance didn't think that it was urgent enough to replace the studs immediately.
25:01Investigators now know what caused the crash.
25:03But a vital question still worries the team.
25:07Why did the water landing go so wrong?
25:12Investigators now look at the transcript of the final communications between the captain and the first officer.
25:18FO says checklist is complete. We're in a land-immediately condition.
25:23Land-immediately means put the helicopter down, even if you're over water or not very flat terrain.
25:30To control a ditching, a pilot must reduce airspeed and lower altitude to 200 feet above the water.
25:38But the captain says, I'm going to stop descent at 1,000 feet.
25:43The team is astonished.
25:45First officer is telling him that they should put it down in the water.
25:48We're in a land-immediately condition.
25:50Yet Captain Davis remained at 800 feet and didn't slow the engines.
25:54The captain had a very strong personality, and as the situation developed, he became more and more intent upon making it to land.
26:04I'm going for the nearest piece of terra firma I can get to, whatever I see first.
26:07Investigators need to know why Captain Davis insisted on flying to shore, instead of ditching safely while there was still time.
26:15At 0948.32, the captain says, you know, I'm thinking this is a sensor problem.
26:22Why does he think that?
26:23The captain's belief that there was something wrong with the sensor and not the gearbox provides an important clue.
26:32They now check the flight data to understand why he thought the sensor was the problem.
26:37No, the oil's reading is normal range.
26:42Oil temperature sensor in the main gearbox of the S-92s is a wet sensor.
26:47If there's no oil present, it's just sensing the ambient temperature within that gearbox.
26:54It's reading the air temp.
26:56It's reading the air temp.
26:57Because the oil temperature was normal, the gauge led Captain Davis to think it was only the sensor malfunctioning, not the gearbox itself.
27:06They felt no strange vibrations.
27:07No.
27:09No smell.
27:11And they saw the temperature was normal.
27:14Yeah, that makes sense.
27:15That's why the guy kept flying.
27:16They had no idea how much trouble they were in.
27:19The team now understands why the captain waited too long to ditch safely.
27:25Convinced there was a malfunction with the sensor.
27:28Main gearbox failure.
27:30We should be getting smells, vibrations.
27:33I don't smell anything.
27:34He dismissed the first officer's instruction.
27:37We're in the land immediately conditioned.
27:39And continued to fly just below 1,000 feet towards shore until a tail rotor failure forced a water landing.
27:49Oh, help.
27:51Dispatch, we're ditching.
27:52Ditching.
27:53Airspeed 122, Matt.
27:55But the aircraft was flying too fast and too high for the captain to perform the emergency maneuver safely.
28:02God, the engines.
28:03Shut them down.
28:04Shut them both down.
28:05Shutting down.
28:06One and two.
28:07Okay, nose up.
28:08Nose up.
28:12The out-of-control Sikorsky slammed into the Atlantic and then sank like a rock.
28:21This gave all but one of the passengers and crew little hope of escaping.
28:26In the wake of the accident, the Canadian Transportation Safety Board makes many recommendations,
28:31including reviewing how long helicopters should be able to run without oil in the main gearbox and improving survival suits for flights over water.
28:41It was a broad and deep investigation that uncovered every safety issue that there was to uncover about that helicopter and made flying in the offshore much, much safer.
28:55And when high above the Mediterranean, a plane's engines inexplicably flame out, a veteran pilot...
29:02We're not going to make it.
29:03...holds in his hands the fate of everyone on board.
29:06You're with me, Elliot.
29:07Bari International Airport in southern Italy.
29:20Captain Shafiq Garbi is in command of Tunintare Airlines Flight 1153.
29:25The 45-year-old Tunisian is a military-trained pilot.
29:32Garbi's co-pilot is 28-year-old Ali Kebair.
29:36How much fuel are you adding?
29:38400 kilograms.
29:402700 total?
29:41Yes.
29:43The pilots flew the ATR-72 from Tunis to Bari this morning to collect 34 Italian passengers.
29:49Now they're headed to Djerba, a Tunisian resort island.
29:57Among the passengers is 31-year-old police officer Lucas Scuicciarini.
30:02His girlfriend Paola is travelling with him.
30:06It was my first trip with Paola.
30:08We met the previous winter.
30:10We had plans to marry the following year.
30:12Lift-off is smooth, and the skies are clear.
30:25It's a textbook flight until...
30:30We've lost engine number two.
30:33Let's get to 17,000 feet.
30:35Fuel supply check.
30:39Toma lever, flight idle.
30:41Start button.
30:42The crew tries to restart the engine.
30:45Negative.
30:47Fuel supply check.
30:50But the situation only worsens.
30:57Stop.
30:58Stop.
30:58Engine number one, it's flamed out.
31:00Within two minutes, both engines are dead.
31:04The engine shut off.
31:07We tried to figure out what was happening.
31:08Thank you there.
31:10The plane is falling towards the Mediterranean Sea.
31:14Mayday.
31:15Mayday.
31:16Mayday.
31:17DUI-1153.
31:19We have lost both engines.
31:20Request immediate landing at Palermo.
31:22Flight 1153 is 70 miles from the nearest land.
31:26Both engines flame out checklist.
31:29Fuel supply check.
31:30Power lever, flight idle.
31:33Start button.
31:34Engine relight.
31:37Negative.
31:38The closest airport is in Palermo, on the Italian island of Sicily.
31:51Using the manufacturer's guidelines, the pilots calculate how far their plane can glide without power.
31:57I don't think we're going to make it.
32:01If they can't restart their engines soon, the pilots will be forced to ditch in the sea.
32:13Get Shokri.
32:16The captain asks for the onboard flight engineer, Shokri Harbui, to come to the cockpit.
32:24You've run the checklist?
32:26Yes.
32:26Attempt to restart the engines.
32:30Right engine first.
32:31Fuel supply.
32:32Check.
32:33Engine two start.
32:34Power button.
32:35On.
32:36Engine relight.
32:38Negative.
32:40The gauges show there's plenty of fuel in the tank.
32:43Yet neither engine will restart.
32:47They're not doing anything.
32:50Palermo approach.
32:51TUI-1153.
32:53Any closer airport where we can land.
32:56Negative.
32:57Negative.
32:57One, one, five, three.
32:59Palermo airport is the closest airport to your position.
33:02We're not going to make it.
33:04Though ditching at sea is rare.
33:06Prepare to ditch.
33:07There is a checklist for how to execute the emergency maneuver.
33:11Oh, my God, be merciful.
33:13The plane is now only 7,000 feet above water.
33:20Confirm distance, please.
33:21Your distance is now 20 miles.
33:26Boats.
33:26I see boats.
33:27Choosing to ditch near a ship is not written in any checklists.
33:32It's just good airmanship because the rescue can start immediately.
33:36And it increases your chances of survival.
33:40Palermo approach.
33:42It's TUI-1153.
33:44We can't make it to the airport.
33:45We see two boats on the left side.
33:49We're going there.
33:53Captain Garbi turns his plane towards the boats.
33:57Emergency.
33:58All marine units aircraft in distress 20 nautical miles of Palermo.
34:03Auto press.
34:05Dump.
34:06Pax one, two.
34:08Off.
34:10Vowel full closed.
34:11The crew ensures the landing gear is retracted to help smooth the ditching.
34:15Landing gear lever up.
34:17Pilots assess the sea conditions below.
34:21If you hit perpendicular to the waves or swells with the aircraft,
34:27it's like hitting concrete.
34:28The plane will break up.
34:30Passengers can see what's coming.
34:32I was hanging on tight to the seat in front of me.
34:38And through the window, I could see the impact was imminent.
34:44The plane is now 700 feet above the sea.
34:47You're with me, Ali.
34:49Careful.
34:52Shakri, ready?
34:53Ready.
34:54Here we go.
34:55TUNINTAIR flight 1153 is about to ditch into the Mediterranean.
35:03TUNINTAIR flight 1153 is about to ditch into the Mediterranean.
35:05I woke up in the water.
35:14I was two or three meters underwater.
35:17I came up to the surface wearing only my pants.
35:22I had lost my life jacket and clothes on impact.
35:25I got to the surface and grabbed onto a bag.
35:28My thoughts were constantly with Paola.
35:33I was in shock.
35:35A few more survivors, including both pilots, make their way to the surface.
35:4046 minutes after impact, rescuers pull 23 people from the sea.
35:52But 16 have died, including Paola Di Ciaula.
35:57Investigators from Italy's National Flight Safety Agency, the ANSV, examined the engines
36:06and central fuselage for Leeds.
36:10The main challenge of the investigation was the fact that the flight recorder and the copy
36:15of the voice recorder and also the front fuselage were 1,500 meters under the sea.
36:21While efforts to retrieve the rest of flight 1153 continue, investigators interview the captain.
36:29What were your fuel readings?
36:31The fuel quantity indicator said 1,800 kilograms of fuel.
36:36According to Captain Shafiq Garbi, lack of fuel was not the problem.
36:43Then why had the engines failed?
36:46When the flight logs come in from Tunisia, the team gets an important clue.
36:51They learned that the day before the accident, Captain Garbi noted a problem with the plane's
36:57FQI, or fuel quantity indicator.
37:01This gauge tells pilots how much fuel is in the tank.
37:06We were able to see that the fuel quantity indicator was changed the day before the event.
37:13But when investigators cross-check the FQI replacement in the maintenance records,
37:18they discover the model number is wrong.
37:21Was the wrong fuel quantity indicator installed in the ATR-72?
37:29Or was there an error in paperwork?
37:32It could have been mismatched in the aircraft documentation, so we need to prove that.
37:38When the cockpit is recovered from the seabed, investigators find the evidence they need.
37:49The FQI installed on the plane was the wrong model.
37:53I realized that, as a matter of fact, the fuel quantity indicator for an ATR-42 was installed.
38:00It was like we found the smoking gun.
38:03The FQI for a smaller ATR-42 was installed on Captain Garbi's ATR-72.
38:11Because the fuel tank on the ATR-42 is smaller than the ATR-72s,
38:20the incorrect indicator misreported the amount of fuel.
38:24Power button on.
38:25In Bari, they took on less fuel than what was needed for the journey to Gerber.
38:29Engine relight.
38:31Negative.
38:32They're not doing anything.
38:33Investigators have now identified the cause of Flight 1153's dual-engine flame-out over the Mediterranean.
38:48Mayday.
38:49Mayday.
38:50Mayday.
38:51TUI-1153 request immediate landing at Palermo.
38:54We've lost both engines.
38:55But one troubling question remains.
39:09We're not going to make it.
39:12Prepare to ditch.
39:14Did the pilots do everything possible to get the plane to Palermo before deciding to ditch?
39:19According to manufacturer data, an ATR is able to glide three miles for every thousand feet of descent.
39:29With the help of a tailwind that day, Flight 1153 should have been able to glide the 70 miles to Palermo.
39:38What did the pilots do wrong?
39:44The team recreates Flight 1153 on an ATR simulator in France.
39:49With pilot Eric De La Salle.
39:52Okay, we are now in big trouble because the second engine has gone off.
39:57Both engines out.
39:59The priority is to keep the plane gliding as far as necessary.
40:03To maximize glide performance, the pilots can change the angle of the propeller blades to reduce wind drag.
40:10When you want to feather the propeller in flight, you first have to reduce the power lever to idle
40:15and put the condition lever back to feather position.
40:19By feathering the props, the simulator pilot is able to glide the plane as far as Palermo.
40:29The simulation confirms that Flight 1153 might have been able to make it to shore
40:34had Captain Garbi feathered his props as soon as the second engine flamed out.
40:39It was theoretically possible to reach the coast, but it was also very difficult to achieve that result.
40:48Engine two start.
40:49But since Captain Garbi didn't know he was out of fuel, he focused on restarting the engines instead of maximizing glide.
40:57Once the crew realized the engines wouldn't restart, only one option remained.
41:04Boats. I see boats.
41:10Following the accident, investigators urge airlines to train their pilots to ditch without engine power.
41:16But it's the pre-flight fueling error that ultimately led to Flight 1153's tragic outcome.
41:23I would think that most pilots would not like to be in a situation where they have to be a hero.
41:34All I can say is, in a challenging situation, a pilot will fall back on his professional training
41:41and deal with the emergency the best he knows how.
41:49Perform engine flame-up procedure.
41:51Three last resort water landings.
41:53All handled differently.
41:59You're with me, Ellie, huh?
42:03Yet each one crucial to improving the outcomes of ditching on water.
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