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Air Crash Investigation Series S20E02 Detroit Metropolitian Airport Collision (Taxiway Turmoil)
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TVTranscript
00:00A DC-9 crew lost in the fog at Detroit Airport...
00:05What runway is this?
00:07...ends up on the wrong end of an active runway.
00:11Auto-clock! Or damn!
00:19The horrifying collision kills eight people.
00:23A tragic event occurred, but that's just really the tip of the iceberg here.
00:28When investigators dig into the crew's background...
00:31Power controller said, you were on fire eject. Bam! Like, wow.
00:36He's a little brash, a little cocky.
00:38They are shocked by what they uncover.
00:40It's clearly embellishing.
00:43Does the sequence of events leading up to the crash start with the relationship between the pilots?
00:48Are you sure you're on 217?
00:49We're not sure.
00:50Yes, we are.
00:51Exit that runway immediately, sir.
00:57Detroit Metropolitan Airport.
01:22Parking brake set.
01:27The crew of Northwest Airlines Flight 299 prepares to depart for Memphis.
01:34Throttle, idle.
01:37Captain Bob Ouellette, First Officer Bill Hagedorn and their flight engineer have been delayed
01:44for more than an hour by a last minute change of aircraft.
01:49Pass the seatbelts is on, checklist complete.
01:56They're finally getting underway.
01:59Northwest 299 was a non-stop flight to Memphis, about a two-hour flight.
02:04One of your bread and butter routes for Northwest Airlines at that time.
02:08Detroit's airport is one of the biggest in the U.S., servicing millions of passengers every year.
02:16It's also the hub of the nation's fourth largest airline, Northwest.
02:23I would describe Wayne County as a pretty busy airport.
02:36Man, I don't think I've ever seen fog this bad.
02:38In the tower, controllers are dealing with fog that's blanketed the entire airport.
02:45It's so thick they can't see the planes they're guiding.
02:48The only way they could know where the aircraft were on the airport was to have the pilots give them positions as to where they were.
02:57Northwest 299 ready to taxi.
03:01Northwest 299 Metro ground taxi to runway 3 center via Oscar 6 Fox and X-Ray.
03:08Oscar 6 Fox X-Ray going to 3 center, Northwest 299.
03:12The ground controller clears flight 299 to taxi to the active runway 3 center.
03:24It will follow a series of taxiways known as Oscar, Foxtrot and X-Ray that will take it to the runway's threshold.
03:33The whole purpose of taxiways is to provide movement for aircraft, kind of like highways to and from the runways themselves.
03:40Basically roadways for aircraft to move around on an airport.
03:43Northwest 299, what's your position now?
03:56Okay, we just turned down onto X-Ray 299.
04:01Roger, switch to tower control 118.4.
04:04Roger.
04:06As flight 299 nears the runway threshold, control of the plane passes from the ground controller to the tower controller.
04:15The 727 is now at the runway threshold, preparing for takeoff.
04:24All set to go back there?
04:29Yes, sir.
04:30Ready to go.
04:31Okay.
04:32Tell them we're ready to go.
04:34Tower Northwest 299 is ready on the center.
04:37If an aircraft is ready for departure, they will call the tower.
04:41I'll say, we're at the end of the runway, we're ready.
04:45Northwest 299, Metro Tower.
04:47Runway 3, center, clear for takeoff.
04:50Roger.
04:52Flight 299 is cleared for takeoff.
04:56The 727 is seconds away from leaving the ground.
05:1380 knots.
05:15When a flight crew is in departure mode, dancing the throttles, speed is increasing.
05:21But danger lies ahead.
05:25A DC-9 is stopped halfway down the runway.
05:32It's carrying 40 passengers.
05:38In the cockpit, Captain Bill Lovelace and First Officer Jim Schiffens are lost in the fog.
05:48This is a runway.
05:49Yeah.
05:50This is a runway.
05:51Yeah.
05:52Oh, no.
05:53Oh, damn!
05:54There's very little time to avoid a collision.
06:09The pilot turned to the left.
06:10Maybe he was actually trying to lift that right wing up over the DC-9.
06:16Oh God!
06:17Oh God!
06:18Oh God!
06:19Oh...
06:20Oh!
06:26Haaaaaaaah!"
06:27Inside the DC-9, it's chaos.
06:35John Izzo, one of the flight's 40 passengers, has no idea what's happened.
06:41It was an explosion, and all I thought was the engine blew up.
06:47He's in shock and unsure what to do.
06:51I sat there for a second. I was kind of dazed.
06:53And then all of a sudden I hear click, click, click.
06:57I said, oh yeah, I guess I better get out of here.
07:00He's stunned by what he sees.
07:03I saw a light, thin light between the fuselage, like it was sliced.
07:09I looked back, and I saw fire coming in the back of the plane, like a blowtorch.
07:16Coming up, I said, I can't stay here.
07:24Northwest 299 aborting. There's an aircraft on the runway, and we struck through the right wing.
07:30Incredibly, damage to the other plane is limited to the wing.
07:35And none of the passengers or crew are injured.
07:39The 727, it was virtually intact, except for a pretty good chunk of one wing.
07:44It's a different story on board the DC-9.
07:55John Iso realizes to his horror that the passenger opposite him did not survive the accident.
08:04Everyone sitting in window seats on that side of the plane is severely injured or dead.
08:09Went to the emergency wing exit, and I was just starting to dismantle it, and a person jumps in front of me, and he's flailing around there, and says, hey, easy, easy.
08:22So I took it out, I threw the door on the wing, I said, go ahead, buddy.
08:25And he went out, starts walking down the wing.
08:27In the tower, controllers are trying to get help to the two damaged airplanes.
08:36Northwest 299, copy. Emergency vehicles are on the runway.
08:40Northwest 299, monitor.
08:42When you hear about something like this, your heart goes out for the folks that are involved,
08:46not only the passengers on the aircraft and their families, but also the air traffic facility that was involved.
08:52It's devastating for them.
08:53John Iso has escaped the burning plane through the emergency wing exit.
09:02All right, come on, let's go, let's go.
09:03Now he's helping others get away.
09:07I'm on the ground, and I saw a gentleman that must have either jumped or pushed.
09:11He could tell he broke his leg.
09:13So I went over, and I got him, moved him away from the plane.
09:20As the inferno rages on,
09:22Firefighters and emergency response teams race to the scene.
09:32But the heavy fog makes their job much harder.
09:39The aircraft was virtually burned out.
09:42The passenger department was gutted.
09:44We knew we were going to lose a lot of evidence because of the fire.
09:47The accident site is a scene of complete devastation.
09:55Good evening.
09:56It was a nasty day at the Detroit airport.
09:58Rain and fog and confusion.
10:01Confusion that ended with a collision and death.
10:04Two Northwest airliners trying to take off clipped each other.
10:06John Iso survives, but eight other passengers are killed,
10:13making it the deadliest incident of its kind on U.S. soil in almost two decades.
10:17A collision on a runway is known as a runway incursion,
10:26since one of the planes is clearly not where it should be.
10:31Runway incursions are a particularly difficult problem.
10:35The reason is that aircraft on runways are travelling at such high rates of speed.
10:39If the aircraft come into contact there, there's going to be many fatalities.
10:50The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, or NTSB,
10:54opens an investigation into the accident.
10:57727th wing sliced right through the fuselage.
11:00Bob Benzen will lead the investigation.
11:04We obviously knew what happened in a gross sense.
11:06Two aircraft came together, and a tragic event occurred.
11:11For Benzen, the incident is an eerie reminder
11:14of an investigation from 13 years earlier.
11:21It was the worst accident in aviation history.
11:28March, 1977.
11:30Two Boeing 747 Jumbo jets collided on the resort island of Tenerife.
11:40The crash occurred when a KLM jet initiated its take-off run,
11:45while a Pan Am jet, caught in thick fog,
11:48was taxiing on the same runway.
11:50The crash occurred when a KLM jet initiated its take-off run,
11:57while a Pan Am jet, caught in thick fog,
11:59while a Pan Am jet, caught in thick fog.
12:00The crash occurred when a Pan Am jet, caught in thick fog.
12:01The accident at Tenerife affected everybody in aviation.
12:20It's always in the back of your mind that this could happen,
12:23that an airplane can inadvertently take off on a runway.
12:26That's not clear.
12:27Since fog was a significant factor in the Tenerife disaster,
12:34investigators need to find out what role the weather played in the Detroit accident.
12:39Operations investigator Richard Rodriguez joins the investigation.
12:44From the Weather Service reports,
12:46the visibility was a big problem at Detroit on this morning.
12:50Visibility was three-quarters of a mile an hour before the accident,
12:54but then it drops to a quarter of a mile.
12:57A quarter of a mile was the minimum.
13:00We did understand that it was very, very foggy out there,
13:03so our job was to try to figure out the overall condition of the weather at the airport,
13:09and then most specifically at the departure end of the take-off runway.
13:12He learns that in the minutes before the collision,
13:16visibility dropped to the minimum level allowed at the airport.
13:21Everybody agreed that the visibility was at least one-quarter mile.
13:25That would allow operations to continue.
13:29Before the accident, every other aircraft that took off had no problem at all finding the end of the proper runway and departing.
13:36But our men in the DC-9 didn't do this.
13:42Investigators need to find out exactly how the DC-9 ended up in the path of an oncoming 727.
13:49Did air traffic control lead them astray?
13:52We're hoping to find out from the controllers what they are thinking as they issue instructions to the crew.
13:59I cleared them to use an Oscar 6 box trot and x-ray to runway 3 center.
14:06The ground controller gave Captain Lovelace and First Officer Schiffen's specific instructions on how to get to the runway.
14:15Part was 1482. Taxi to Oscar 6 to Foxtrot. Report making the right turn on x-ray.
14:22Oscar 6 to Foxtrot. Report x-ray.
14:27They learned that the DC-9 and the 727 were both supposed to follow the same route.
14:33It seemed to be going smoothly at first.
14:38If it was 1482, what's your position now?
14:41But when asked for an update from the DC-9's crew...
14:46We're headed eastbound on Oscar 6 here.
14:51Ah, eastbound on Oscar 6.
14:54Their position report didn't make any sense.
14:57They announced that they were eastbound on Oscar 6, which was an impossibility.
15:04It's a northwest, southeast-oriented taxiway.
15:07You can tell by the comments that were made by the crew that they had no idea where they were.
15:12Okay, I think we might have missed Oscar 6.
15:15The folks in the tower realized that the pilots in the DC-9 were probably becoming a little confused about where they were.
15:33Instead of going straight down Oscar 6, the aircraft turned left and approached taxiway Oscar 5.
15:46The controller pinned down their location to be on the outer taxiway at Oscar 5.
15:51I realized they had made a wrong turn, so I gave them directions to get them back on track.
15:56Northwest 1482 at Oscar 4.
15:59Make the right turn on to x-ray.
16:00Report crossing 927.
16:02The DC-9 was then directed to continue straight to Oscar 4, turn right onto x-ray, cross inactive runway 927,
16:14and then follow x-ray back to the runway for takeoff.
16:20Roger.
16:20At Oscar 4, make the right turn onto x-ray.
16:24The DC-9 radioed back.
16:25Okay, I understand.
16:27There was something to that effect.
16:28And everybody calmed down and thought that they had to straighten everything out.
16:33But somehow, five minutes later, flight 1482 ended up right in the middle of the active runway.
16:39An airplane to be on an active runway, uh, when they shouldn't, um, somebody did something wrong.
16:54Investigators need to know what happened in those five minutes.
16:57They interview the crew, starting with Captain Bill Lovelace.
17:04The captain was kind of a mild-mannered fellow.
17:07He loved to fly.
17:08We hoped we would find out, why did you miss all this and wind up on an active runway?
17:13I wasn't familiar with the layout of the taxiways and runways.
17:19They learn he was new to the airport in Detroit.
17:22So, I asked my first officer, where have you been flying out of?
17:29Where have you been flying out of?
17:31Uh, Memphis and...
17:32Detroit.
17:33Good.
17:33You can help me find my way around these taxiways here in Detroit.
17:36I sure can.
17:37I thought, great, someone in the co-pilot's seat who knows where he's going.
17:42But, uh, we still got lost somehow.
17:46The first officer had bragged about his knowledge of the airport.
17:48That would have enhanced the likelihood that the captain would have trusted the first officer to help navigate in Detroit.
17:56So, why wasn't the first officer able to guide the DC-9 across Detroit airport?
18:05The investigators hope Jim Schiffens, the first officer on the DC-9, can give them the answer.
18:12He was a little brash, perhaps a little cocky.
18:14Uh, I wouldn't say a know-it-all, but he'd been around a horn.
18:20Captain Lovelace misunderstood.
18:21What I meant was, I knew the procedures for pushing back from the gate, not the physical layout of the airport.
18:31They learned the first officer was also inexperienced with the taxiways at Detroit.
18:36It's hard to look at what the first officer did.
18:39Feigning confidence about his knowledge that was clearly unsupported when he himself wasn't sure.
18:45Investigators conclude the first officer misled the captain, intentionally or not,
18:50about his knowledge of the airport.
18:53The captain can be faulted for excessively trusting the first officer.
18:58The first officer clearly contributed by claiming expertise that he did not have.
19:03How did we end up with two guys in the cockpit who don't know the way around?
19:07Investigators now wonder why neither pilot knew the layout of Detroit's airport,
19:11a major hub for Northwest Airlines, the company where they both worked.
19:16Our DC-9 crew was really not familiar with the Detroit airport.
19:23And then you bring in all the other things, like low visibility,
19:27it all comes together to create a dangerous situation.
19:38Investigators try to understand why neither of the pilots of Flight 1482
19:42knew the layout of Detroit airport.
19:45Are there gaps in their training or experience that could account for it?
19:56They study the personnel files of the DC-9's crew.
20:02Medical leave.
20:04The captain has been on medical leave for six years.
20:08Six?
20:09Yeah.
20:10He just started back to work.
20:12In fact, Flight 1482 was his first unsupervised flight since resuming his duties.
20:22He was very grateful to get back to work.
20:25He knew he had catching up to do because the procedures had changed, modernized.
20:33Investigators then look into First Officer Schiffen's background.
20:36They discover he was an ex-military pilot who had joined Northwest earlier that year.
20:43The first officer had an Air Force background, B-52s and T-38 Talons, and quite an extensive experience.
20:51He also was an experienced pilot, except not in the DC-9.
20:55He only had a few hundred hours at most in the right seat of a DC-9.
20:59Both pilots had tons of experience, but they were both new recruits to Northwest.
21:08That doesn't explain how they got lost on a routine taxi.
21:11The pilot's experience alone doesn't provide enough clues to determine what went wrong during a routine taxi.
21:22Investigators need to look elsewhere.
21:25It was paramount for us to try to figure out exactly where the DC-9 was almost to the second during the whole sequence of events here.
21:33We had some help from the tower, not a lot, because they couldn't see what was going on.
21:37By listening to the cockpit voice recording, investigators hope they will be able to figure out where the DC-9 went astray.
21:49All ready?
21:51Yeah.
21:52Okay. Let's begin.
21:58I haven't even got a uniform yet.
22:00Even before 1482 pushes back from the gate, investigators hear a conversation that gets their attention.
22:07Not even a jacket.
22:09Captain Lovelace had returned to flying so recently, he hadn't yet received the Northwest uniform.
22:16Nah.
22:17I only got my old company's jacket.
22:19The cockpit voice recorder recorded the last half hour of voices in the cockpit.
22:24So we got to know a little bit more about the crew members in a more casual setting before they really started taxiing.
22:30One thing I miss?
22:32I've always flown with an ejection seat.
22:34I've used it twice.
22:35As the pilots waited, the first officer began to boast about his military service.
22:46Yeah, I bet that was scary when you punched out.
22:48Man.
22:49I got shot down once over Southeast Asia.
22:52I didn't have time to get scared.
22:54Oh.
22:55Is that right?
22:56And then, uh, when I was flying T-38s one time, I had an engine fire.
23:01Tower controller said, you were on fire at Jack.
23:03Bam!
23:04Like, wow.
23:06Wow.
23:07At that time, in the NTSB, a lot of us had, uh, military backgrounds.
23:12He and I were in the same place at nearly the same time, so my ears perked up.
23:16How long were you in the service?
23:1820 years.
23:20Retired as a lieutenant colonel.
23:22Yeah, you can stop it there.
23:26Is he some kind of war hero?
23:28Sounds like it.
23:30Let's look at his military record.
23:31Check out his story.
23:34To bail out or reject out of two different airplanes, you know, that's very rare.
23:38So it started to make me look a little askance at what's going on.
23:46Investigators wonder if the first officer was being honest about his military record.
23:51They study his military discharge form.
23:55Check this out.
23:56He's clearly embellishing.
23:58It turns out that he didn't bail out of any aircraft at any time.
24:03He said that he retires as a lieutenant colonel.
24:06Well, in fact, he retires as a major.
24:09We even have a phrase for that, stolen valor.
24:12It kind of set things on the edge a little bit for us.
24:15Why would he lie?
24:17That's a good question.
24:19Benzen rechecks the first officer's file for any clue.
24:24Why would somebody give themselves a higher status than they were really entitled to?
24:29Why would they brag about things that didn't happen to them?
24:36He was still on probation.
24:38So you needed the captain to give him a good report?
24:42I think the first officer was bragging to impress the captain, because the first officer was still in his probation stage, and a bad mark would be tantamount to not getting a career with Northwest Airlines.
24:55The boasting is not normal for a professional commercial pilot, but it doesn't explain the cause of the crash.
25:05Go, guys!
25:06Let's continue.
25:15After sitting at the gate for 40 minutes, the DC-9 gets the call to taxi.
25:21Northwest 1482, right turn out of parking.
25:24Taxi to runway 3, center.
25:26Exit ramp at Oscar 6.
25:28Okay.
25:29Let's see where they go.
25:30And let's confirm any directional changes with the FDR data.
25:33Investigators combine the cockpit voice recording with the heading changes from the flight data recorder from Northwest Flight 1482 to better understand the plane's every movement on the ground.
25:46Every time the compass swung, we could see the aircraft turning almost in our minds.
25:50He had to be on this taxiway if it's this heading.
25:54He had to be on this taxiway if it's another heading.
25:56So it worked out well.
25:57Three center exit the ramp at Oscar 6.
26:03Did you get all that?
26:04Yeah, but I'm going to need you to get him.
26:06Just kind of wind around here and Oscar 6 is going to be right around the corner here.
26:10Okay.
26:13Just kind of stay on the ramp here.
26:16Okay, Jim.
26:17You just watch.
26:17Make sure I go the right way.
26:19Okay.
26:19Okay.
26:19Investigators discover that as they began to taxi, Captain Lovelace asked his first officer to navigate.
26:30The first officer was correct in offering up help to the captain, and the captain was correct in accepting the help.
26:37I mean, this is just the way things should work.
26:39This didn't surprise us.
26:40Uh, left turn or right turn?
26:44Yeah, well, this is the inner taxiway here.
26:47We're still going for Oscar 6.
26:48So, left turn?
26:51Yeah.
27:02So, when they should go straight through Oscar 6, they turn off it and go east.
27:08It seems like the first officer is calling the shots.
27:19Just keep going straight.
27:21Okay.
27:23It was a gradual thing at first.
27:25First officer was kind of taking on a bit more responsibility, a bit more, a bit more, and then he started to direct the taxi itself.
27:33We're headed eastbound on Oscar 6 here.
27:36Just as the controller said, you can't go east on Oscar 6.
27:41Oscar 6 runs north-south.
27:44Northwest 1482, you were on the outer taxiway.
27:48Yeah, that's right.
27:50The investigators next hear the course correction that was supposed to get flight 1482 back on track.
27:58Northwest 1482 at Oscar 4.
28:01Take the right turn on X-ray.
28:02Report crossing 927.
28:03Roger, at Oscar 4, make the right turn on to X-ray.
28:15The DC-9 crew was definitely told to continue eastbound and make a hard right turn on to X-ray to get back on track.
28:22So, what do we do here?
28:30You make the right turn, report crossing 27.
28:33The captain is now relying completely on his first officer.
28:43Once you break down the dialogue between the captain and the first officer in the DC-9, it becomes very obvious that this role reversal was pretty total.
28:53By the time the accident occurred, the reversal was complete.
29:01There's Oscar 4.
29:03This is X-ray.
29:04The first officer was pulling him around by the nose, so to speak, and the captain was simply going along.
29:14As a personal note, I liked the captain very much.
29:18He was a very sweet and gentle person.
29:20But that was sort of his undoing, the fact that he did not exercise his authority in any forceful way.
29:28Let's hold there.
29:32But did that passiveness cause them to miss the crucial right turn?
29:36Okay, so the last instruction was that Oscar 4 turn right on to X-ray.
29:47Northwest 1482 cross 927.
29:52This is, should be 927.
29:56You sure?
29:58That's what he said.
30:00Yeah.
30:01Yeah, this is 927.
30:02In the fog, the crew is still struggling to follow the controller's directions to get back to the runway.
30:12Right over here, then.
30:13Yeah, that way.
30:17I think we're on X-ray here now.
30:22There is no way they're on X-ray.
30:25They never make it on X-ray.
30:26The investigators learned the DC-9 crew wasn't able to navigate the critical right turn onto X-ray.
30:39That turn onto X-ray was quite a difficult turn.
30:42It was not a 90 or 70 degree turn that pilots are used to.
30:45It was about 120 degrees.
30:47What runway is this?
30:49Turn left over there.
30:52Now, wait, wait, that's a runway, too.
30:56They are totally disoriented.
30:59Tell them we're out here, we're stuck.
31:02Somehow, they've made it here.
31:06We've got two planes facing each other on the same runway.
31:13But there's signs and surface markings all along here.
31:17I don't get it.
31:18When an aircraft gets lost out in the airfield, usually the pilots will spot signs or something
31:23like that, help clarify the position in the controller's mind of where the aircraft is exactly.
31:30Investigators are baffled.
31:32Why didn't the airport's signage and runway marks prevent the pilots from losing their way?
31:37This is a runway.
31:47To better understand why the crew of a DC-9 couldn't follow the signage at Detroit Metropolitan Airport...
31:54Let's do this.
31:56...investigators retrace their route.
31:58The only way to fix this in our minds was to perform what we call a taxi demonstration.
32:05Get in a DC-9, taxi around the same route that the accident aircraft taxi down.
32:12Wow.
32:13Will you look at that?
32:14At the Oscar 6 intersection, where Flight 1482 made the initial wrong turn, Rodriguez finds something disturbing.
32:25They discover that the yellow taxi center line the DC-9 was supposed to follow is badly faded.
32:33We noted things like painted markings on the taxiways that were worn in places.
32:40I could barely see it on a bright day.
32:44It was obvious that if we got confused in broad daylight, with no fog, perfect visibility,
32:51that the issue was more acute when you could barely see your hand in front of your face out there.
33:01Now investigators make their way to the Oscar 4 intersection,
33:06where the DC-9 crew failed to make that critical right turn.
33:14So which way is the Oscar 4 sign point?
33:16Right or straight ahead?
33:23Rodriguez discovers the signage at the intersection is deficient.
33:27It was amazing, the problems with the signage when you get to Oscar 4.
33:35It's just a very wide mass of concrete with no lighting and no indications of where they are.
33:44Now we're supposed to turn right on X-ray.
33:46It's actually back there.
33:59The investigators find that if the plane actually reaches the Oscar 4 intersection,
34:04they've already missed the right turn to get onto X-ray.
34:09And the only right turn here gets you onto the active runway.
34:12The team determines the signage on Oscar 4 contributed to the DC-9 crew getting lost.
34:24Instead of turning right on X-ray, the crew passed X-ray and turned up the active runway instead.
34:30We're out here, we're stuck.
34:34We can't see anything, but I believe we're on a runway.
34:37Okay, are you on the taxiway or the runway?
34:41Ground, it looks like we're on 2-1 center here.
34:45Northwest 1482, you say you're on 2-1 center?
34:48I believe we are, we're not sure.
34:50Yes, we are.
34:52Northwest 1482, exit that runway immediately, sir.
34:54When you have multiple intersecting runways,
34:59the only way for pilots to really be certain of where they are
35:03is to have unmistakable signs that offer pilots clear and readily interpretable information,
35:10and that's what was missing in this accident.
35:13But there's still an unanswered question about the tragedy.
35:17Northwest 1482, exit that runway immediately, sir.
35:20Once flight 1482 reported being on the runway,
35:25why didn't air traffic control stop the other plane from taking off?
35:30They should have been able to stop that aircraft and avoid a collision completely.
35:38Oh, damn!
35:39No car!
35:40To understand what happened just before the crash...
35:48Yes, absolutely no question about that.
35:51Investigators interview the tower controller responsible for clearing the 727 for takeoff.
35:58We found out there was a plane on the runway.
36:00The DC-9's crew informed the ground controller sitting next to the tower controller
36:10that they were lost on the runway.
36:12Northwest 1482, exit that runway immediately, sir.
36:15I've got a lost aircraft out here.
36:17It may be on the runway.
36:19Okay, all aircraft on this frequency, just stop.
36:21Stop your taxi right now, please.
36:24Investigators learned the ground controller stopped all taxiing traffic around the airport.
36:28But the 727 had already switched to a different radio frequency
36:33and didn't hear that instruction.
36:36The tower controller never issued his own warning to the crew.
36:41The tower's controller had a decision to make
36:44and decided to not do anything, not say anything for the aircraft.
36:52Investigators now question the tower controller
36:55about why he didn't warn the 727
36:57that there was a DC-9 lost on the runway ahead of them.
37:03I thought they were already airborne.
37:06The controller said nothing
37:08because he figured that the 727 had already taken off and was airborne.
37:13Because it had been a full minute since he cleared the 727,
37:17the tower controller thought the plane had taken off.
37:20But the 727 was still at the runway threshold.
37:25I think they would have been able to stop that aircraft
37:28or at least eased over to the left side of the runway
37:31as they continued to roll out in an aborted takeoff.
37:36Now investigators need to know
37:37why it took the 727 so long to begin its takeoff.
37:43Let's hear it.
37:44They listened to the plane's cockpit voice recorder
37:48to determine what happened
37:50just before the plane began its takeoff roll.
37:55Pay for takeoff, runway 3, center, 299.
37:59They learned that shortly after getting permission to take off...
38:03Final items.
38:04Anti-skid.
38:06On.
38:07The crew of the 727 delayed takeoff
38:10to perform a final checklist.
38:13Takeoff check complete.
38:20With thick fog obscuring the runway,
38:23the tower controller did not know
38:24they had not yet taken off.
38:28But was the checklist the only factor
38:31that affected the plane's takeoff?
38:34It's definitely not a quarter mile.
38:37Investigators also discovered
38:39that the pilots noticed the fog was getting worse.
38:44They knew that they needed
38:46one-fourth of a mile of visibility,
38:48forward visibility,
38:49before they could take off.
38:51But when they got to the end of the runway,
38:54it became very, very iffy
38:56whether they had that type of visibility.
38:59But nonetheless, they went ahead and took off.
39:01Investigators finally think
39:14they know what happened
39:15on the day of the collision.
39:18Now what runway is this?
39:20This is a runway.
39:21Yeah.
39:23Turn left over there.
39:26No way, that's runway two.
39:29A dysfunctional and disoriented DC-9 crew
39:32mistakenly taxied onto an active runway.
39:35A 727 crew took off in visibility
39:47it knew was below minimums.
39:49I've got a lost aircraft out here.
39:56It may be on the runway.
39:58Okay, all aircraft on this frequency,
40:00just stop.
40:01Stop your taxi right now, please.
40:03And a tower controller
40:05failed to warn the 727 crew
40:07about the lost plane on the runway
40:09because he thought the 727 was already airborne.
40:12Oh, no.
40:14Oh, damn!
40:15It took all of these things in sequence
40:17for this accident to happen.
40:18And that's one of the things
40:19that makes it unusual.
40:21Not just the number of errors,
40:23but their uniqueness
40:24and what it says about human interactions.
40:27It's really remarkable.
40:31Donald, look!
40:32In the end,
40:53almost everybody involved in this accident
40:55did something wrong.
40:57There really just are no heroes in this one.
40:59And flying was my life.
41:08Captain Bill Lovelace
41:10never worked as an airline pilot again.
41:14Neither did First Officer Jim Schiffens.
41:17He became a first responder and firefighter.
41:22In the aftermath of the crash,
41:25Detroit Metropolitan Airport
41:26improved signage
41:27and now uses highly visible reflective paint
41:30for all airfield markings.
41:34All U.S. airports are required
41:36to use the same signage
41:37to avoid confusion.
41:40The confusing Oscar IV intersection
41:42was rebuilt.
41:46Dozens of U.S. airports
41:48have installed new technologies
41:50that allow controllers
41:51to monitor taxiing aircraft.
41:53Ground radar with audible
41:56and aural warnings as well
41:57to tell controllers
41:58of an impending collision
41:59is in place
42:01at most major airports
42:02at this point in time.
42:04That's gone a long ways
42:05to preventing actual collisions
42:06from happening.
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