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TERRIFYING Dive!! United Airlines 1722 seconds from impact! united airlines flight 1722
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00:00Days before Christmas in 2022, a United Airlines Boeing 777 careens towards the ocean just seconds after takeoff from Hawaii.
00:10Alarms player in the cockpit, but the pilots are utterly confused as to what is happening.
00:15Will they be able to pull their massive plane out of its terrifying dive, or is it already too late for them under 271 passengers?
00:23This is a story of confusion distraction, and above all, it's a story about what can happen when our expectations don't match reality.
00:32This is the story of United Airlines Flight 1722.
00:37Before proceeding, please subscribe to our YouTube channel.
00:41Thank you. On the afternoon of December 18, 2022, 271 passengers and 10 crew boarded a United Airlines Boeing 777 at Maui's Kahului Airport in Hawaii.
00:51They were bound for San Francisco, a five-hour journey across the blue expanse of the Pacific Ocean.
00:58A lot of these kinds of videos, even some of my own talk about how the ill-fated flight in question started out just as any other, that always routine and so on, but with fight 1722.
01:10That was not the case. In fact, by the time the pilots had reached the aircraft that afternoon,
01:15they already knew that they were in for an unusual departure before even arriving at the airport.
01:20The captain had received a thorough briefing from the dispatcher about the severe weather which had been battering the island so bad was this weather,
01:28that as the first officer was carrying out his external inspection of the aircraft,
01:33he received a text message from a friend telling him that another aircraft on its way into Honolulu that morning had declared an emergency.
01:40After experiencing turbulence so severe that the pilots had temporarily lost control of their aircraft,
01:48when that plane finally landed, 20 passengers were taken to hospital, 11 of whom were in serious condition.
01:56In other words, from the very outset of this flight,
02:00the pilots knew that things were a little out of the ordinary when they reached the aircraft.
02:04They told the fighter tenants that they should remain seated throughout the climb for their own safety.
02:11The captain of Flight 1722 had been with United Airlines for years now.
02:16Aged 55, he had accumulated almost 20 000 flying hours.
02:22Five thousands of which were in the Boeing 777 20,000 hours,
02:26is a lot even for a pilot of his age before upgrading to the position of 777 captain,
02:31he had spent a few years as a captain on United's short-haul Airbus fleet,
02:36and this switch from Airbus to Boeing will end up being an important consideration.
02:41In the events which we're about to see,
02:43the first officer by comparison was new to United Airlines,
02:47and new to the 777.
02:49He had just 120 hours on the aircraft,
02:52and just over 5,000 hours on all planes in total,
02:55before joining United.
02:57He had been with Hawaiian Airways,
02:58and he was familiar enough with the weather around Hawaiian Islands
03:02to know that this day was particularly rough.
03:05At about half-past two that afternoon,
03:08Flight 1722 pushed back from the gate at Maui.
03:11The 271 passengers settled in for the five-hour journey to San Francisco.
03:17Despite the weather,
03:18they had every reason to believe that they were in safe hands.
03:22United Airlines and the Boeing 777
03:24both had excellent safety records.
03:26The passengers had no idea that just moments after takeoff,
03:31things would start to go very wrong in the cockpit
03:33as the captain taxied through the lashing rain out to runway zero.
03:38Two at Maui,
03:40he and the first officer discussed the weather
03:42they would be facing once they got airborne.
03:45The real danger on this day was not the rain,
03:48but the wind.
03:49Or more specifically,
03:50Windshear Windshear is a dangerous weather phenomenon,
03:53whereby the wind rapidly changes its speed or direction.
03:58Over a short distance,
03:59it can be deadly to aircraft,
04:01because the whole reason planes fly in the first place
04:03is by going fast enough through the air
04:05that the air can support them.
04:07If the wind suddenly starts coming from behind the aircraft,
04:11its speed can get so slow
04:13that it simply falls out of the sky like a dead weight.
04:16If this happens low to the ground,
04:19like just after takeoff,
04:21there may not be enough room for the pilots
04:22to save their aircraft.
04:25And sure enough,
04:26as the pilots made their way to the runway,
04:28the controller relayed that he had received
04:30multiple reports from
04:31pilots of low-level Windshear,
04:34that is Windshear close to the ground.
04:37This phenomenon has taken many lives over the years.
04:40The pilots run high alert.
04:43Prepare for a possible encounter
04:44with a phenomenon the captain briefed the first officer
04:47on the Windshear escape maneuver,
04:49which involved pushing the engines to maximum thrust.
04:53And pulling the plane's nose to 15 degrees above the horizon,
04:56they fully expected that they may have to carry out
04:59this maneuver after takeoff.
05:01But preparing for Windshear involves
05:03more than just carrying out briefings as well as this.
05:07The captain decided to extend the flaps
05:09to 20 degrees for the takeoff.
05:10Generally, 777 pilots use flap 15 for takeoff.
05:15But on this day,
05:16the extra notch of flaps would give the plane
05:18an additional margin of safety,
05:20allowing it to fly more slowly
05:22if the wind suddenly changed on top of this.
05:25He opted to use maximum power for takeoff
05:28rather than the reduced power setting
05:30normally used to save wear and tear on the engines.
05:33He would need every ounce of power
05:35he could get for this takeoff
05:37as far as the story of Flight 1722 goes.
05:41This flap-and-thrust setting is not just a minor detail.
05:45Rather, it will play a crucial part in the events
05:48which we're now about to see
05:49at about a quarter to three that afternoon.
05:51The captain lined the massive 777 up on the runway,
05:55he put the windshield wipers on high,
05:57and turned on the weather radar,
05:59which scanned a cone-shaped section of sky
06:01in front of and above the aircraft,
06:03and the picture it painted told him
06:06that things wouldn't get easier.
06:09Once he was airborne,
06:10the two pilots were now poised
06:12to go strapped to the wings of their 777
06:14were the two most powerful jet engines ever built,
06:19giving almost four Titanic's worth of thrust
06:21once he had received takeoff clearance.
06:24The captain spooned the engines
06:25up to their maximum thrust setting,
06:27unleashing this incredible power.
06:29Things were now about to happen really quickly,
06:31way more quickly, in fact, than the pilots were used to.
06:35Within moments, the engines soaking in
06:37seven metric tons of air per second
06:39powered the aircraft to its takeoff speed
06:41of about 260 kilometers per hour.
06:45The captain pulled back in his control column
06:47and lifted the plane into the murky sky
06:49for the first few seconds.
06:51The climb was normal.
06:54As expected, the pilots saw
06:55that their airspeed was fluctuating.
06:57This meant that the air was becoming more unstable.
07:00The captain was primed to carry out
07:02the winter escape maneuver at a moment's notice
07:04while he flew the plane.
07:06The first officer was busy acting
07:07as the so-called pilot.
07:09Not flying in this role,
07:11his duties were to handle radio communications
07:14with air traffic control
07:15to monitor the captain's flying
07:17and to clean up the aircraft as it climbed out.
07:20Cleaning up the aircraft involves things
07:22like raising the gear and the flaps
07:24to make the plane more streamlined
07:25for high-speed flight
07:27after many hours of flying the same aircraft.
07:29Pilots settle into a kind of a rhythm
07:32for this process.
07:33There is a cadence they come to expect
07:35in terms of what's called
07:36the flap retraction schedule,
07:38but on this flight
07:39because the pilots were using
07:41maximum engine power and flaps 20.
07:44This rhythm had been thrown off
07:46and the pilots with their focus
07:48centered on the possibility of wind shear
07:50were not ready to face that.
07:52As the plane reached about 1,000 feet,
07:56the captain lowered the nose slightly
07:57to allow the aircraft to accelerate.
08:00But if the plane got too fast,
08:02as indicated by these red markers here,
08:04the force of the air would damage the flaps
08:07to prevent this.
08:08And to allow the plane to accelerate further,
08:11the captain told the first officer
08:12to raise the flaps.
08:14And it is here where things started to go wrong.
08:17Pilots normally use flaps 15 for takeoff
08:20on the 777, and they're used to retracting them
08:23one notch at a time,
08:24first to flaps 5, then to flaps 1,
08:26and then fully up.
08:28But according to the Bowen 777's manuals,
08:31when taking off with flaps,
08:3220 pilots should first retract
08:34the flaps two notches directly
08:36to flaps 5 and to bypass flaps 15 altogether.
08:40But on this flight,
08:41it's disputed whether the captain
08:42told the first officer
08:43to raise the flaps to 15 degrees
08:45or to 5 degrees.
08:47The captain thought he had said flaps 5
08:49while the first officer thought
08:50he said fast 15.
08:53In any case,
08:54as the plane accelerated,
08:55the first officer raised the flaps
08:57by one notch to 15 degrees
08:59and then contacted departure control
09:01on the radio.
09:03This miscommunication about the flap setting
09:05was fundamentally a pretty minor one.
09:08After all,
09:09it would only be a few moments
09:10before the captain would tell
09:11the first officer to move the flaps
09:13up to the next notch.
09:14But what made this error
09:17so insidiously consequential
09:18is that the captain
09:20now had a completely false picture
09:22in his head
09:22about the plane's configuration.
09:25His expectations
09:26were now diverging from reality,
09:28and the confusion this would create
09:30would now endanger the lives
09:32of all 281 people on board.
09:35When the first officer
09:36raised the flaps to 15 degrees,
09:38the red overspeed markings
09:40on the captain's primary flight display
09:42only went up by a few knots.
09:45Look here, a flaps 20.
09:47The captain couldn't fly faster
09:49than 190 knots
09:50without risking damage to their flaps.
09:53When the first officer
09:54raised the flaps to 15 degrees,
09:56the overspeed section
09:57only went up by 20 knots
09:59to about 210 knots,
10:01meaning that the captain
10:02would risk damaging the flaps
10:04if he just went 20 knots faster.
10:07The captain was expecting
10:08this red overspeed section
10:10to go up significantly
10:11because with flaps 5,
10:13which he thought he had called for,
10:15it takes a lot more speed
10:16to cause damage to the flaps.
10:19So now the captain
10:20was in a situation
10:21where his plane was accelerating
10:22and was about to go too fast
10:24for the flaps.
10:25He didn't understand
10:26why this was happening.
10:28Was there a problem
10:28with the flaps?
10:30Were the violent wind conditions
10:31outside playing a role?
10:32To prevent the plane
10:34from going too fast,
10:36he pulled back
10:37and the thrust lever slightly.
10:38But this only helped so much,
10:41the plane continued to accelerate
10:42as all of this was happening.
10:44The first officer
10:46was dialing in
10:46the air traffic controller's clearance
10:48for the flight to climb
10:49to an altitude of 16000 feet.
10:53The controller also told him
10:54that there was heavy rain
10:56in every direction
10:57around the aircraft
10:57and that he could deviate
10:59as needed to avoid the weather.
11:02But just as the first officer
11:03was focusing on the weather
11:05and the instructions
11:05from the controller,
11:07the captain's confusion
11:08was growing.
11:10The plane had started
11:11to exceed the safe speed limit
11:13for the flaps.
11:14The captain quickly checked
11:15the flap indicator
11:16on his central display
11:18and saw that they were set
11:19not at five degrees,
11:21as he had recalled asking for,
11:23but at 15 degrees,
11:24he immediately told
11:25the first officer
11:26to retract the flaps
11:27to five degrees,
11:28which he then did.
11:30But this didn't solve the problem.
11:33In fact,
11:33the plane kept accelerating
11:35deep inside the clouds
11:36with no way to see
11:38outside their plane.
11:39There was only one way
11:40for the pilots
11:41to see the terrifying truth.
11:44Their primary flight display here
11:45showed that their aircraft
11:46was beginning to pitch down.
11:48In fact,
11:49its nose had just begun
11:50to dip below the horizon.
11:52Their 777 had started
11:54to enter a rapid descent,
11:55and this is where we return
11:57to a small detail
11:58I mentioned at the beginning
11:59of this episode,
12:00which may not be
12:01such a small detail after all.
12:03The captain of Flight 1722
12:06had been flying Airbus aircraft
12:08for United Airlines
12:09for a few years
12:10before switching
12:11to the Boeing 777.
12:13A big difference
12:14between Boeing and Airbus aircraft
12:15is in how they handle
12:17pitch inputs
12:17from the pilots
12:18on an Airbus plane
12:19when a pilot wants
12:20to reduce the pitch attitude
12:22from, say,
12:2310 degrees nose up
12:24to 5 degrees nose up.
12:26They simply push
12:27their side stick forwards
12:28until the plane
12:29is at 5 degrees pitch altitude
12:30and return the side stick
12:32to neutral.
12:33The plane will then maintain
12:35that pitch attitude
12:36all by itself.
12:37For this reason,
12:39Airbus aircraft
12:39are said to be pitch stable,
12:41but Boeing aircraft
12:42like the 777
12:43are not pitch stable.
12:45They do not automatically
12:46maintain the pitch attitude
12:47set by the pilots.
12:49What this meant
12:50for Flight 1722
12:51is that as the captain
12:52focused his attention
12:53on the central display
12:55trying to see
12:56whether there was a problem
12:57with the flaps,
12:58he was without realizing it,
13:01easing his control column
13:02forwards towards
13:03the neutral position
13:04in an Airbus.
13:05This would be no problem
13:06as the plane
13:07would maintain
13:08the pitch attitude
13:09he had previously said,
13:10but in the Boeing 777,
13:13this more neutral
13:14control input
13:15allowed the plane's nose
13:16to lower in all probability
13:18in the stressful
13:18and unfamiliar situation.
13:21The captain simply reverted
13:22to basic flying instincts
13:24he had been honing for years
13:25on Airbus aircraft
13:26and without realizing it
13:28he allowed the plane's nose
13:29to drop.
13:31The first officer
13:32saw the plane's nose dropping,
13:34but he was confused.
13:36Clearly the captain
13:36was having trouble
13:37controlling the plane's airspeed
13:39as the overspeed warning
13:41was still sounding.
13:42But what about
13:43the pitch of the plane?
13:44Why did the captain
13:45appear to be lowering
13:46the plane's nose
13:47and putting it into a dive?
13:49Could the first officer's
13:50instruments be broken?
13:52The captain was also perplexed.
13:54He was hyper-fixated
13:56on the overspeed warning
13:57and trying to diagnose
13:58its cause.
13:59The plane was now
14:00more than 20 knots
14:01faster than it should
14:02have been going,
14:04and the flaps were
14:04at serious risk
14:05of being damaged.
14:07Second by second,
14:08the nose got lower
14:09and the plane's
14:10descend quickened.
14:12The captain ordered
14:13the first officer
14:14to retract the flaps
14:15further to one degree
14:16completely oblivious
14:17to the true cause
14:18of his ever-increasing speed.
14:20He was now inadvertently
14:22beginning to push
14:23the nose over,
14:25powering the massive plane
14:26towards the ocean below.
14:28The first officer
14:29retracted the flaps
14:30to one degree,
14:31but the warning continued.
14:33He was utterly confused.
14:36What was the captain
14:37doing with the plane?
14:38Why was he over-speeding it?
14:41And yet keeping the engines
14:42nearly at climb-thrust
14:43was the storm causing
14:45the plane to behave
14:46in this way
14:47where his instruments wrong?
14:48He looked over
14:50at the captain's instruments,
14:51but they told the same story
14:53as his own.
14:54The plane was now
14:55in a dramatic
14:56nose-down position,
14:58pointing more than
14:5810 degrees below the horizon
15:00and ascending at a horrific rate
15:02of 8000 feet per minute.
15:06At this rate,
15:06they will plunge into the ocean
15:08in less than 10 seconds.
15:10In the cabin,
15:10the passengers were oblivious
15:12to what was happening up front.
15:14They didn't know
15:15that their lives
15:16were now in grave danger,
15:17not because of turbulence,
15:19but because of
15:20a terrible confusion.
15:23Up in the cockpit,
15:24the massive plane
15:25screamed down
15:26through the clouds,
15:27diving for the ocean below.
15:29Just at that moment
15:30as the first officer
15:31was looking over
15:31at the captain,
15:33he caught sight
15:34out of the corner
15:34of his eye
15:35of a cloud
15:36moved rapidly
15:37past the aircraft
15:38to both pilots' horror.
15:40They were now face to face
15:42with the Pacific Ocean.
15:44They were powering towards it
15:46at a speed of more than
15:47550 kilometers per hour.
15:49The first officer shouted
15:51the captain
15:51to pull the plane off.
15:53Captain had mere seconds
15:54to react.
15:56He yanked back
15:56in his control column,
15:58heaving the gargantuan aircrafts.
16:00In the result,
16:01he quickly pulled
16:02the power back to idle
16:03to allow the plane
16:04to round this vertical corner
16:06as quickly as possible.
16:08The passengers and crew
16:09were pressed violently
16:10into their seats
16:11as the plane bottomed out
16:13just 750 feet
16:14from the surface
16:15of the ocean.
16:16The length
16:17of the 777 is 210 feet.
16:20Flight 1722
16:22was less than
16:23four times
16:23its own length
16:24from smashing
16:25into the Pacific Ocean.
16:27The terrain alarm
16:28sounded loudly
16:29in the cockpit
16:30alerting the pilots
16:31that they were just
16:32moments away
16:33from colliding
16:33with the sea.
16:35They watched
16:36their instruments anxiously
16:37as the plane
16:38pulled out of its descent
16:39and began rocketing skyways.
16:42Captains slammed
16:43the engines
16:44to maximum thrust
16:45and brought the plane's nose
16:46to 20 degrees
16:47above the horizon.
16:49He was now carrying out
16:50the terrain escape maneuver.
16:52A close cousin
16:53of the winter escape maneuver
16:55he had been planning
16:56to use all day,
16:57the passengers clung
16:58to their seats,
16:59some screaming
17:00as the plane
17:01shook its engines
17:01roaring within seconds
17:03the plane was shooting upwards
17:04at a rate of more than
17:058000 feet per minute.
17:08It was pandemonium
17:09for everyone on board
17:11after a few tense moments
17:12the plane was safely
17:13away from the water.
17:15The captain's forwards
17:16on the control column
17:17reduced power
17:18on the engines
17:18and re-established
17:20the plane
17:20on its normal
17:21climb profile.
17:22The two pilots
17:23were shaken.
17:24They were the only ones
17:25on board
17:26who had a full sense
17:27of what had just happened.
17:29The past news
17:29and flight attendants
17:30knew that something unusual
17:32had taken place
17:33but they had no idea
17:34quite how close
17:35they had come
17:36to disaster
17:36once the captain
17:37had the lead
17:38flight attendant
17:39confirmed that
17:40none of the passengers
17:41were injured
17:41and that there appeared
17:43to be no damage
17:44to the aircraft.
17:45He decided to continue
17:46the flight to San Francisco
17:47four and a half hours later
17:49after landing
17:50at San Francisco.
17:51The pilots reported
17:52the incident
17:53to United Airlines
17:54but incredibly
17:56we wouldn't even
17:56know about it
17:57were it not
17:58for the fact
17:58that it was stumbled upon
18:00two months
18:00after it had taken place
18:02on flight radar 24
18:03and reported on
18:05by the aviation news site
18:06the air current
18:08United Airlines
18:09had determined
18:09that the incident
18:10didn't need
18:11to be reported
18:11to the National
18:12Transportation Safety Board
18:14because it didn't meet
18:15their reporting criteria
18:16which stated
18:17that somebody
18:18had to have been injured
18:19or that there had
18:19to have been damage
18:20to the aircraft.
18:22By this point
18:23the corporate voice recorder
18:24had long been overwritten
18:25as a result of this incident
18:26the pilots of the fight
18:28were given additional training
18:29but a question remains
18:31as to whether
18:32this is enough
18:32to prevent similar occurrences
18:34in future
18:34is this near disaster
18:37A1's off
18:38or combined
18:39with a strikingly similar event
18:41involving a Qatar Airways
18:43Boeing 787
18:44in January of 2023
18:47and in Emirates
18:48777 incident
18:50in December of 2021
18:51which I've covered
18:53on this channel
18:54is it reasonable
18:54to ask whether
18:55these failures
18:56in basic airmanship
18:57are symptoms
18:58of a broader issue
18:59in pilot training
19:00and airline practice
19:01is this
19:02just the tip
19:04of the iceberg
19:04the near crash
19:05of flight 1722
19:07is a lesson
19:08in how quickly
19:09things can go wrong
19:10in an aircraft
19:11even with all
19:12of the modern safeguards
19:13against accidents
19:14a simple loss
19:16of situational awareness
19:17by the captain
19:18combined with poor
19:19weather
19:19somewhat unusual
19:20aircraft configuration
19:22and the miscommunication
19:23around flap setting
19:25nearly caused a disaster
19:26if this fight
19:27had taken place
19:27at night time
19:28or if the cloud base
19:30had been lower
19:30or if the captain
19:32had reacted
19:32even just seconds
19:34later than he did
19:35this could very well
19:36have become
19:37the single worst
19:38air disaster
19:38in U.S. history
19:39by passenger fatalities
19:41it's an open question
19:43as to whether
19:43the right lessons
19:44will be taken
19:45from this
19:45and other similar incidents
19:47in recent years
19:48or whether it will
19:50take something
19:50more serious
19:51to spur the action
19:52required
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