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Transcript

00:00the world's largest commercial airliner is coming apart in midair we're losing an inch

00:09there was fuel leaking from the aircraft was damaged to the aircraft flight controls

00:16pilots face an avalanche of warnings what have you got for me now critical systems are failing

00:21throughout the gigantic plane what's going on up there the lives of 440 passengers are at risk

00:29and the crisis quickly escalates from bad it's one system after another to catastrophic

00:35computer says we can't make it damn it this is like the simulator exercise from hell

00:41amazing

00:59Qantas flight 32 is making a refueling stop in Singapore the airbus a380 is more than halfway

01:18through a marathon 22-hour flight all the way from London to Sydney Australia after two hours on the

01:26ground the crew is nearly ready to get the plane back in the air very few pilots are trained to

01:34captain an a380 former fighter pilot Richard de Crepney is in that elite rank everyone ready for

01:41takeoff the a380 is the latest generation of innovation automation and excellence and it's

01:50the largest most complex aircraft in the sky the main duty on this flight for first officer Matt Hicks is

02:01to monitor the vast number of electronic gauges and computer displays needed to fly this state-of-the-art

02:07plane everything's looking good here Richard all of us had flown together at some stage it just makes it

02:14easier because there's no first day greetings or you know personality uncertainties everyone knew each other

02:20pretty well

02:21Mark Johnson is the second officer

02:23Mark any worries all good back here

02:28the three pilots will take turns flying the plane during the remaining seven hours of the flight

02:33the gigantic a380 is a true double-decker the first jet ever built with two decks running the entire length

02:42of the plane it dwarfs every other airliner in the sky with enough space for as many as 525 passengers I

02:51hadn't realized the enormity of how large a 380 was the cabin the inside of the a380 just everything seemed

02:59bigger but more roles and upstairs on today's flight captain de Krebny's performance is being evaluated

03:10it's a yearly requirement for every Qantas pilot the check captains performing the task are veterans

03:18Harry Wobben and Dave Evans some people are affected by checks they get a bit nervous so we try to keep

03:26that as easy as possible okay so everyone's happy Richard obviously just being checked he's a bit

03:41you know tentative taxing out so when he asked if everything's everyone happy I said yeah just don't

03:49crash Qantas 32 clear for takeoff okay on the roll

04:09thrust set 80 knots the more automated aircraft get it doesn't necessarily make them easier to fly just

04:17makes them different to fly the a380 is powered by four massive Rolls-Royce engines each can deliver

04:2472,000 pounds of thrust they design wonderful engines very reliable V1 broken at 9 57 a.m local time

04:36Qantas 32 lifts off right on schedule passengers get a unique view of the takeoff

04:44thanks to a camera mounted on the a380s tail

04:49the atmosphere in the cabin was was perfectly casual we were chatting away the whole time since we since

05:06we were seated there are two hundred and fifty thousand sensors monitoring every flight function

05:11on the aircraft auto pilot on this is by far the most automated passenger jet in the skies climate

05:21checklist please auto thrust is set and e cams clear the e cam or electronic centralized aircraft monitor

05:32keeps watch over the myriad of onboard systems and alerts the crew to even the slightest malfunction

05:37it's 10.01 a.m. the pilots are just four minutes into the flight

05:47we're losing an engine boom boom it's like a backfire in your car

06:04there was a loud explosion huge explosion and everybody just

06:08said what was that my reaction immediately i think was oh my goodness maybe this is it

06:18the first thought when you when it goes bang is uh engine failure possibly severe damage

06:25we've lost number two holding 7400 feet de crepenny wastes no time taking over control from the autopilot

06:3735 years of flying tells him what to do next i press the altitude hold button which would cause the

06:42nose to lower an aircraft level matt ecam actions on it the captain assigns hicks to decipher the ecam data

06:51he needs to evaluate every message and figure out how best to react to each one we had to work our way

06:59through and build up a picture of what was going on with the airplane while the captain summons all his

07:05skills as a pilot hicks needs to quickly master the plane's ecam computer he's facing a barrage of

07:11error messages from seemingly unrelated systems throughout the plane you can't really tell how many messages

07:18you've got pending you know there's more coming because the screen will give you an arrow at the

07:22bottom indicating that there is another message it became very confusing initially as to why we were

07:28seeing so many of them captain de crepenny needs room to maneuver pan pan pan one is 32 engine failure

07:37maintaining 7400 and current heading one is 32 copied please let us know how to assist

07:44i declared a pan call and what that does is tell everyone who's listening we have a problem tells

07:53air traffic control clear the airspace and to not annoy us with transmissions let us solve the problem

08:02but the ecam warnings just keep coming number two is overheating their damaged engine is dangerously hot

08:09this state-of-the-art plane is now in very real danger of becoming a fireball but we couldn't actually

08:16see the engine itself because it was under the wing oh my god but we could see the stream of the fuel

08:23coming out the wings of an a380 are filled with tons of highly flammable jet fuel we were all just

08:30wondering what was going to happen next the crew wants to cut the flow of fuel before the damaged engine

08:37catches fire number two master switch dwarf confirm but it's too late an alarm warns the crew the engine

08:49is on fire an in-flight fire is one of the most dangerous and unpredictable emergencies any crew can face

08:57it's nearly always disastrous july the 11th 1991 smoke begins seeping into the cabin of a dc-8 moments after

09:08takeoff from jeddah saudi arabia as the pilots try to land flames sweep through the entire cabin

09:16and consume the plane killing all 261 people on board

09:25on quantus 32 the crew's only hope of putting out the fire is to activate the emergency extinguishers

09:31inside the burning engine fire number two push button confirmed

09:36and keep their fingers crossed that it works

09:45warnings off i think the fire's out let's find a way to confirm that please

09:53it was stressful it was difficult i mean if you had a fire burning out on the wing for the duration of

10:00the flight you'd be landing pretty quick smart rather than taking your time flying around trying to solve

10:06other problems marion carol is sitting over the left wing giving her a front row seat to the unfolding

10:13calamity i could see the hole that was in the wing that had been made by the explosion and it seemed

10:20from what i could see quite a large hole like for a couple of feet across and all the metal was jagged

10:25and sticking up 6 300 kilometers away the quantus operation center in sydney is getting data transmitted

10:34live from the plane it's like nothing engineer alan mill has ever seen before getting some old messages

10:40of flight 32 when we saw the messaging coming in from the airplane it was so diverse so many systems we

10:47couldn't we couldn't just put a finger on it meanwhile on batam island indonesia locals are finding

10:53evidence of an air disaster the wreckage sparks media speculation that a quantus plane has fallen from

11:02the sky at the australian transport safety bureau kevin chapman gets word of disturbing media reports

11:13if true he knows he'll soon be facing the biggest investigation of his career australian transport

11:20safety bureau monitor media and we were well aware through the media coverage that there was

11:26some sort of event the initial event described in the media was an airplane had crashed off indonesia

11:32damn nay 380 has gone down in indonesia quantus so we were quite concerned at that point

11:44explosive engine failure has led to fatal tragedy in the past

11:49july the 19th 1989 a united airlines dc-10 bound for chicago loses an engine mid-flight

11:56shrapnel severs hydraulic lines making the plane nearly impossible to control

12:05the crash landing in sioux city iowa kills 111 of the 296 people on board

12:20back aboard the a380 first officer matt hicks has begun working his way through a growing avalanche

12:26of computerized warnings the crew must correctly react to each and every message before moving on

12:31to the next okay i've cleared slate one and two what have you got for me now hydraulics it was like

12:39taking plates off a serving machine in a restaurant where you do one checklist and there's another one

12:43you do that and there's another one and another one another one another one another one in a training

12:49environment you probably only do two or three consecutive failures and in this case i think we had 58 so

12:56it was a lot more than i'd ever worked through before it's been five minutes since the plane's number

13:01two engine exploded quantus 32 is 70 kilometers south of singapore and heading out over the open ocean

13:10the pilots want to turn back but making a u-turn is risky without knowing how badly damaged their plane is

13:16the list of failures continues to grow taxing the pilots abilities to respond one wrong move on their

13:28part could lead to one of the deadliest air disasters the world has ever seen

13:37engineers at the operations center are also trying to make sense of the cascade of errors

13:42quantus 32 seems to be failing in almost every conceivable way no one knows how long the plane

13:50can stay in the air it's one system after another my initial impression was that it might have

13:54actually been an indication problem that the airplane was sending us false error messages

13:58what's going on up there degraded pneumatics hydraulics electrics power to the left wing shut down flaps

14:12slats and ailerons are damaged but operable

14:19dave i need you to get on the horn to the passengers let them know our situation

14:23ladies and gentlemen we're just sorting out some engine problems he was very calm and very reassuring

14:31and i mean it was his tone of voice that was very reassuring captain de crepney knows he's running out

14:37of time the failures are mounting his plane may soon be unflyable he needs to get the damaged plane on the

14:45ground that means turning around and heading back to singapore singapore quantus 32 we

14:52require left turn back towards singapore quantus 32 singapore turn left heading 020

15:01are we stable enough for this turn we'll know pretty soon

15:06de crepney takes it inch by inch

15:12knowing that he could lose control at any moment

15:16it takes time to prepare the aircraft to land to understand the airplane that we're going to land

15:23but as the time goes on things are getting worse so we don't want to stay one minute more in the air

15:31than we have to singapore is the largest airport within 350 kilometers its massive runway offers the best

15:41chance of landing the plane safely singapore runway is four kilometers long and we would normally need 1800

15:48meters to land on the runway if we're at maximum landing weight but we are 40 tons over our maximum

15:53landing weight de crepney completes the turn back to singapore the maneuver gives the crew confidence

16:00that they have some control over this juggernaut making a left turn is one thing landing the crippled a380

16:08will be quite another the pilots need to know more about the damage and its possible effects

16:14mark why don't you go back and take a look at that wing on my way we couldn't see the wings from the

16:20flight deck we can't see the engines so mark would be our eyes and ears to the aircraft

16:26after a couple of minutes the uh one of the pilots came out and was looking down each window and i called

16:36to him and said well if you come down to my row you'll get a much better view of the the hole in

16:40the wing the second officer gets a sobering view johnson can clearly see that the wing has been

16:47punctured straight through from below the cause of the damage is obvious the inboard left side engine

16:53is blown to pieces is it bad oh we'll be fine no worries at all

17:00what can you tell me mark number two's blown apart cut holes through the wing i'm a leaking fuel

17:13good to know it was invaluable to send someone back to physically eyeball

17:18the damage uh on the wing and to have a pilot come back to you and say hey look this is the situation

17:27and especially someone you trust that's as good as you having a look yourself

17:33the news helps explain why so many systems are failing vital flight controls run through the wing

17:39shrapnel from the demolished engine has likely destroyed many of them there's obviously a lot

17:44of hydraulic components that run through the wings so that would make sense that we'd have damaged

17:48the hydraulic system it sort of clarifies a lot of the information that you see we had so many

17:54checklists 100 in the air that it took about 55 minutes to stabilize the aircraft so that this

18:00aircraft situation didn't get worse that is unprecedented in aviation history knowing why the plane is

18:08failing doesn't make it easier to fly the damaged electrical and hydraulic systems could cause an

18:13unexpected failure while the crew is trying to land the pilots decide to circle near the airport until they

18:21can work out a plan dave i need you to run the numbers on this landing check captain dave evans is

18:26called into action three engines full load all that he uses the a380 landing software to calculate how

18:34much runway they'll need to bring the huge plane to a stop the computer says we can't make it runway's too short

18:42with the nine failures that i'd put into the system and the surface conditions in singapore

18:49um at our maximum landing weight i couldn't come up with an answer the a380 is weighed down with fuel

18:58the plane has burned almost none of the 105 tons it took on for the flight to sydney can we dump some

19:05fuel that's a good idea but we can't fuel transfer pumps are down damn it can someone tell me what is

19:12working the heavy load of flammable fuel means any landing attempt will be extremely dangerous

19:19we were some 40 tons above our maximum landing weight and the heavier you are the more runway and the

19:26higher speeds will be on your approach evans tries his calculations again the computer has assumed a

19:32worst case scenario he now plugs in some more optimistic numbers there is a belief in part of

19:40the industry that computers are infallible and you always believe a computer now we've used our

19:46computers at home to know that's not true okay looks like we can do it 139 meters spare 139 meters

19:54surplus on a 4 000 meter runway is is a slim margin but it's better than a minus 139 meters

20:02what do we need for our approach speed 146 knots 146 knots it can't be right it's just too slow he gave us

20:13that speed to input into our um flight management computer and uh before i input it i thought just

20:20had to think about nothing i thought that just can't be right it's just too slow maintaining the right

20:24speed on landing is critical too slow and the plane will lose lift and plummet to the ground

20:31too fast and they could run off the end of the runway and crash at 20 knots can we still stop in time

20:42we catch back yep 166 works i'd like to think that we suck the brains drive all the parts in the in the

20:51cockpit to make one massive brain and we used that intelligence to resolve problems on the fly because

20:58these were these were unexpected events the unthinkable events at the qantas operation center

21:04mill sees that qantas 32 has begun its final descent now all he can do is hope the crew can safely execute

21:11this treacherous landing they're doing it qf-32 is coming in he alerts personnel at the airport to prepare

21:19for the emergency landing of the biggest airliner on earth a landing that could end in disaster for 469

21:27passengers and crew we know these guys personally we know the cabin crew uh and you know it's a it's

21:34it's a worry

21:37singapore approach what is 32 we're going to need a long approach and uh

21:44better have fire services standing by we're leaking fuel

21:47roger partners 32 you're cleared straight in on final 20 miles

21:50the five seasoned pilots now use everything they've ever learned about flying flaps three to try to

21:57land their plane safely here we go

22:09de crepenny still doesn't know if his plane is capable of the precision needed for a landing

22:144500 feet he decides to find out while there's still room for error okay i'd like to do a control

22:21check

22:24an aircraft where the aerodynamic ability is unknown you have to prove the aircraft to be safe to fly

22:31before you land and they are called control checks okay let's see what you can do

22:37captain de crepenny rolls the plane carefully left to simulate lining up with a runway we had degraded

22:44roll control we had lost 65 of our roll control so i knew that we had to certify the airplane ourselves

22:51to fly before we landed okay as he rolls the plane to the right there's barely enough control to achieve

22:58the maneuver he's quickly learning the limits of his damaged plane if the few flight controls that we

23:04have remaining are working to the limit then clearly we have very little margin for maneuvering when

23:10we're coming to land when we did those control checks i thought it was a bit sluggish at the time

23:16and i think richard did as well the crew knows they'll only get one shot at lining up with the middle

23:22of the runway there can be no last minute adjustments now the crew discovers a potentially catastrophic

23:29obstacle landing gear hydraulics are still offline the automated system for lowering the landing gear

23:37is damaged they can only release the gear and hope it falls hard enough to lock itself in place

23:43landing gear down confirmed if the gear doesn't lock the crew has no hope of landing safely

23:50for the landing gear we just needed enough wheels to hold the aircraft with enough brakes to stop us

23:55it takes a full two minutes for gravity to pull the landing gear into position four green confirm gear

24:02down you can hear the air noise change as the wheels extend that's always a comforting sound to hear them

24:10come out we're always told anyway that the takeoff and the landing are more critical so one was um

24:18um one was conscious that uh we were moving into a more dangerous time coming into land

24:27quantus flight 32 is now just two minutes from touchdown better watch the speed richard okay just a

24:34little bit slower de krebny adjusts the throttle so that he'll touch down at the slowest speed possible

24:40making it easier to stop here's the airbus is getting close to stalling the plane will lose lift

24:52and drop like a stone if the airspeed falls any lower too fast and the plane won't stop before reaching

24:58the end of the runway it's a precarious balancing act there it is speed is stable we sped up three knots

25:07we would run off the runway we slow down one not we get a speed warning de krebny's ability to keep

25:12his plane lined up with the runway is severely limited singapore what's the surface wind 170 degrees

25:23if the crew misses the runway there's no way the crippled plane can go around for another try

25:29everybody ready at the end of the day it just came down to i think we've covered everything can anyone think

25:34of anything no okay let's go and do it confirm fire services standing by affirmative 100

25:52you think about your kids you think about your wife and that's just what you do and then it was game on

25:59again 50 40 30 20 just a few feet from the ground flight 32's stall alarm again warns of impending

26:11disaster so that three questions up in my mind what is our performance is our performance correct it

26:17doesn't appear to be we as passengers were not aware that so many things have gone completely wrong

26:29the plane is gobbling up 80 meters of runway every second we had lost one reverse we had half the

26:40spoilers on the wings not working we had the ailerons not making a speed break action if they don't slow

26:46down quickly they risk overshooting the runway and hitting terrain that could rupture the plane's heavily

26:52laden fuel tanks we just weren't slowing down get into it matt yelled out get into it brakes brakes brakes

27:01brakes rich put on the brakes pump them push them brakes full brakes right i think i prompted him to

27:06brake harder and he said my feet are flat to the floor keep it in rich hammer them finally after a grueling

27:18two-hour ordeal quantus 32 comes to a stop on the same runway it took off from with 150 meters to spare

27:40beautiful oh welcome to singapore guys i'm truly proud

27:47of everyone in in the aircraft that day the technical crew the pilots and the cabin crew

27:52and i'm really proud of the decisions we made the way we worked as a unified cohesive team

28:08i thought all as i'm sure all the other passengers did too that the the crisis was over that we'd back

28:15landed back safely it seemed like that was the end of the problems but with fuel leaking beside red hot

28:22brake discs the danger is far from over there was smoke coming from the left-hand undercarriage and there

28:30was fuel pouring all around it passengers could see the fuel coming out of the wing we had alarm bells

28:39in the cockpit now

28:42the situation was almost as bad as of what it's in flight after that engine exploded

28:48a plane that made a narrow escape in the air is now in grave danger of going up in flames on the ground

28:56i kept looking at my watch at that point it was quite tense for me inside in the in that i

29:07couldn't see why we couldn't get off this is the captain i want the passengers in

29:13their seats until the fire crew does his job why are they taking so long so it was important at that

29:23tense moment to lay foam and reduce the possibility of fires best we could while the fire crew lays down

29:31fire retarding foam the crepenny faces a difficult decision keep the passengers on board or evacuate the

29:38massive plane and the only answer i can give to anyone saying why did or didn't we evacuate is with

29:45someone in your home are they safer in your in your home or they safer somewhere else the argument for

29:51getting them off british air tours flight 28 in 1985 a 737 abandons takeoff after an engine overheats

30:03and bursts into flames the pilots break and steer onto a taxiway an evacuation gets underway in seconds

30:18but the fuel-fed fire is filling the cabin with smoke firefighters respond quickly for many on board

30:27though it's already too late they've been overcome by toxic fumes of the 137 people on the plane only 82 survive

30:44de crepenny knows that the plane's 16 escape slides can get all the passengers off the plane in 90 seconds

30:50he also knows there's a high price five to ten percent of his passengers will likely suffer a serious injury

30:58and an evacuation once that starts you can't stop it and we decided to keep them on board because the

31:05environment outside the aircraft was toxic for the time being de crepenny thinks his passengers are safer

31:12on the plane than on the fuel-soaked runway turning engine master switches to off the crew begins the

31:21routine of shutting down their engines a radio call from the fire chief alerts them to yet another problem

31:33uh we have we've shut them all down

31:39damn it he's right number one is still running shut it down uh it's no

31:48i can't shut it down the damage to the left wing has cut through the controls that should have shut down

31:53the outboard engine we now had an engine that we could not shut down and the situation is now just getting

31:59more toxic outside it's not meant to happen this way this is like the simulator exercise from hell

32:10firefighters can't do their job with one of the largest airplane engines in the world still running

32:16a few meters away they call quantus engineer alan milne in sydney for advice on getting it shut down

32:23blast with all the water you can they fired one of their high rate water cannons straight down the front

32:29of the engine remembering of course these engines are designed to fly through some pretty torrential

32:35rainstorms and no matter how hard they tried they could not get that engine to shut down

32:42it takes a full hour but emergency crews finally lay down enough foam to eliminate the risk of a fuel

32:48fire they move stairs into place which are safer than escape slides

32:53this will no longer be an emergency evacuation ladies and gentlemen thanks for your cooperation

33:03the aircraft is now secure and we can let you off

33:09it's finally safe for the passengers to get off the plane

33:12when we finally finally walked off the plane there was a great sense of relief and i noticed my legs

33:25were shaking uh which i kind of thought oh why are my legs shaking i guess maybe i must have been a bit

33:30more nervous than i was aware all the passengers make it off the plane safely but engine number one

33:38still refuses to shut down yeah we're not having any luck with the fire hose what else can we do

33:46try firefighting fun see if that will shut it down eventually we had really no option other than to

33:51switch to the foam the firefighting uh extinguishing foam and fire that down the front of the engine and

33:58that uh that managed to shut it down three hours after their dramatic landing the pilots get the all clear

34:07quantus 32 i'm happy to confirm that the engine is finally shut down thank you singapore see you on the runway

34:19good job well done well done michael

34:21minutes later the flight crew gets its first look at the damage

34:32i was shocked i had never seen such extraordinary damage to an airplane before

34:36later that day quantus ceo alan joyce makes a stunning announcement we would suspend those a380

34:43services until we are completely confident that quantus safe requirements have been met

34:49it was our ceo himself that asked the question can you assure me that we won't have this failure

34:56again on one of our airplanes and we couldn't answer yes to that the future of the entire quantus fleet

35:04of a380s now depends on understanding what went wrong inside one single engine there's really only very

35:11select number of companies that produce the large engines the large turbofan engines and rolls royce is

35:17up at the top what a disaster i've never seen anything like it simon grummet is a materials

35:23engineer with the australian transport safety bureau everywhere you looked there was there was shrapnel

35:30debris um and and holes in this thing so it was quite significant and that was the initial response

35:37and from that point onwards we knew that this was going to be a big investigation particularly for

35:41the atsb yes the severity of the damage adds pressure to find answers an uncontained engine failure is

35:48a pretty rare event even for an investigator to um that it's forming this line of work to actually

35:54this is the job okay this is the one that counts the debris that fell to the ground includes a broken engine

36:03turbine disc

36:10it's made of nickel alloy and is one of the most robust parts of the airplane let's get this back to

36:16rolls royce see what they guys think we knew that we had a turbine disc failure the next stage was to

36:22find out why the turbine disc had actually failed the 160 kilogram disc is one of the most critical parts

36:29of the engine its massive fan blades can reach the speed of sound as they move air through the engine

36:35for combustion

36:39in the lab at rolls royce engineers compare the disc to its manufacturing records and notice something odd

36:48the disc is larger than it should be it tells investigators that it was spinning at an almost

36:54unbelievable speed so fast that it actually began to stretch and grow wider and it gets wider and

37:02wider and wider until the ultimate strength of the material is reached and the disc will generally fly

37:07apart it occurs with with with such violence that the fragments are released with an infinite energy

37:14and what that means is that there will be nothing which can stop those engine pieces

37:19they're ripped through everything in its path wires hydraulics everything investigators trace the path of

37:28the debris through the plane pieces from the engine have clearly sliced through the fuselage and the left

37:33wing no wonder they had so many failures severing fuel lines hydraulics and flight controls

37:40the damage explains why the pilots received so many error messages after the engine exploded

37:53but it doesn't explain why the disc was spinning so fast in the first place

38:00investigators take the engine apart searching for anything that could explain the catastrophic failure

38:06of the turbine disc the disc had failed from over speed and that there was no uh contributing factors in

38:16regards to the manufacture or design of the disc itself um at that point the focus went back onto the engine

38:27they discover something disturbing oil fire in a rolls-royce engine

38:34the inside of the engine is burnt black and covered with soot and oil the evidence tells grummet that the fire

38:41was fueled by oil the engine must have suffered an oil leak grummet examines the engine further searching

38:50for the source of that leak kev it's at that point that actually the iac walked in to the disassembly

38:58uh area and i called him over and i said kev i think we got it

39:12at that point it was it was oh wow this is this is a really important moment of the investigation

39:18a narrow pipe has snapped off releasing oil into the area around the turbine disc

39:24the broken part is called a stub pipe

39:30this nearly brought down an a380 jeez man investigators believe that oil from the broken stub pipe ignited

39:39and burned at more than 1 000 degrees celsius

39:42fire number two the fire damaged the drive shaft allowing the turbine disc to spin faster and faster

39:54until it broke apart and tore through everything in its path there was nothing the crew could have done

40:00to prevent it once the fire is established inside a gas turbine engine it's nearly impossible to put out

40:06um other than physically shutting down the engine in this case the the internal oil fire happened so

40:14quickly and accelerated that the crew had absolutely no opportunity to shut down that engine before the engine failure

40:25investigators now have a prime suspect but what caused a simple stub pipe made by one of the world's

40:32most esteemed engine manufacturers to break and nearly destroy a 400 million dollar airplane

40:44investigators send what's left of the stub pipe to its manufacturer rolls-royce where a disturbing discovery is made

40:51one side of the pipe is much thinner than the other that's what allowed it to break apart spraying

41:03the engine with oil and causing a near catastrophic fire it's no wonder it cracked we're only talking it was

41:110.35 millimeters in thickness it's a couple of sheets of paper

41:15investigators study the manufacturer's report they learn why one side of the stub pipe was so dangerously thin

41:28it was due to a manufacturing error the investigation was actually quite surprised that such a mature

41:34organization such as the engine manufacturer rolls-royce could be in that situation

41:38the atsb immediately take steps to alert other airlines that their a380s are at risk

41:47just 29 days after the accident they issue a report warning that a faulty stub pipe caused a fire that led to

41:56uncontained engine failure on quantus 32 they advise airlines to inspect their fleets

42:04the question that was put forward was what are you going to do about this

42:11atsb chief martin dolan soon has an answer from rolls-royce and if the problem is detected in any of

42:19the engines those engines will be taken out of service

42:24there are 20 a380s with the same rolls-royce engine in service around the world

42:2934 engines are found to have suspect oil pipes

42:35as a result of this investigation all engines that had non-conforming oil feed pipes have been removed

42:41from service rolls-royce have made significant changes to their quality management system

42:49they introduced a software program which basically removes fuel from the engine in a similar event

42:59investigators conclude that flight 32 ended safely because the well-trained crew responded quickly

43:05and effectively even when aviation's most sophisticated technology failed them

43:16matt ekam actions

43:20he kept his calm he followed the procedures we worked the checklist

43:25what do we need for our approach speed 146 knots can't be right it's just too slow at 20 knots 166 works

43:36yeah they would have stalled at 146 and then there's this gutsy move

43:44okay i'd like to do a control check

43:48the captain's decision to get a sense of what his plane was capable of at a safe altitude

43:53gave the crew valuable information about how their aircraft would perform on landing

43:59what a crew a modern aircraft like the a380 is full of automation but like any piece of automation

44:07it can fail so the the human element is is always necessary you can see the whole team working

44:15together to deliver an outcome under adversity in situations such as this and it's the right outcome

44:21it's not about me as a pilot in command of qf32 it's about aviation that for the last 110 years has

44:30shared their knowledge and experience to make aviation safer for the traveling public

44:35i think in every regard the qf32 story is one of aviation's finest hours

44:46remember the headlines about the pilot who crash-landed on a river in new york

44:50survivors tell their incredible story in brand new miracle landing on the hudson next

44:55you

44:58go

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