00:00Flight 123 is leaving Tokyo behind, climbing to 7,300 meters.
00:06Twelve minutes into this short flight, the plane's black box shows that all is going well.
00:12Hello, Pat. What's the problem?
00:13Someone wants to go to the restroom. Shall I let him?
00:17The plane's black box records a routine request from a passenger.
00:20He wants to use the bathroom before the seatbelt light is turned off.
00:24Careful, please.
00:24An ordinary request on a routine day.
00:30Something is true.
00:48Air is rushing out of the cabin.
00:51The oxygen masks drop down automatically when the air pressure falls.
00:54The explosion, the sudden loss of pressure in the cabin.
01:06There must be a hole in the aircraft.
01:08Gear door.
01:09Check gear.
01:10Gear.
01:11What?
01:11Check gear.
01:12Gear.
01:14The pilot's first thought is that the landing gear doors have blown off.
01:18Squawk 7-7.
01:217-7-00 is the emergency code.
01:24When the crew radios this code to the ground, air traffic control will know the plane is in trouble.
01:34Every plane on the controller's screen carries a label, giving the plane's identity.
01:39Suddenly, the label beneath Flight 123 changes.
01:41Someone in the cockpit has keyed in the emergency signal.
01:53The plane's crew members are baffled.
01:56They know only that there's been a loud noise, some sort of explosion, a subsequent drop in cabin pressure, and a growing loss of control.
02:04Yet their instruments offer no clues to the mystery.
02:08Engines.
02:10All engines okay.
02:11Ominously, the pilots can't get the plane to respond.
02:14It's dropping.
02:16Right turn.
02:17Right turn.
02:18Hydraulic pressure.
02:19It's dropping.
02:20The plane's flight controls are powered by hydraulic pressure.
02:24The elevator, which makes the plane go up and down, the rudder, and ailerons, which make it turn.
02:29On a big modern jet, all these are too heavy to operate with cables and levers.
02:34Instead, they're controlled by hydraulic fluid, which flows in pipes around the aircraft.
02:39It's the lifeblood of the plane.
02:42Tokyo, Japan Air 1, 2, 3. Request immediate.
02:47Trouble.
02:48Request return back to Haneda.
02:50Move over.
02:51Roger.
02:51Approved as you request.
02:53Turn right heading 090.
02:54We'll put the max oxycars in the bank around the stairs like this.
02:59Don't bang so much.
03:00Yes, sir.
03:01Crew members, please, help out with the oxygen bubbles.
03:05Prepare the oxygen bubbles, please.
03:07Don't bang so much. Turn it back.
03:10It won't go back.
03:11Nothing seems to be working. All the controls are dead.
03:16They're 7,300 meters up in the air, traveling at nearly 540 kilometers an hour, and unable to control the plane.
03:25In the growing uncertainty of the situation, the pilots know they need to get down fast.
03:31The controller is puzzled. Instead of making the anticipated 180-degree turn back to the airport,
03:37the plane now veers off its course, but not towards Haneda.
03:45And if they pull back the throttles when it's climbing, slowing the engines, the nose tips and begins to dive.
03:52These actions are the opposite of what a pilot would normally do,
03:56but it seems to work, and they begin to flatten out the mad rollercoaster ride.
04:02Then a second experiment.
04:04By applying more thrust to the engines on the left side of the aircraft,
04:08they manage to slowly turn the plane right, in the general direction of Tokyo.
04:15But then their luck runs out.
04:17In the frantic juggling of throttles, the pilots get out of step.
04:21It drives the 747 into a frenzy.
04:23Lowering the landing gear should slow the plane down and make it more stable.
04:35Doesn't work.
04:39Should I lower the alternate?
04:41For safety, 747s employ an electrically run system,
04:45separate from the hydraulics, that can lower the landing gear in an emergency.
04:48While the engines are turning, they still have electric power.
04:54Lowering the landing gear helps stabilize the plane.
04:58The drag of the undercarriage has a dampening effect on the pitching motion.
05:02But it also destroys the directional control they were getting
05:05by applying more power to one side of the aircraft.
05:08Max power!
05:10Close to Mount Fuji, the tallest mountain in Japan,
05:13the plane makes an abrupt turn to the right and begins a terrifying dive.
05:17The plane is falling at 900 meters a minute,
05:26twice the normal rate of descent.
05:29We're going down.
05:32Heavy.
05:33We are all the way.
05:34All the way.
05:35It's all the way.
05:36Heavy.
05:37Get the gear down.
05:39Get us down.
05:41There is no need for our mouth.
05:43The plane's black box records the flight attendant
05:46still trying to calm the passengers.
05:52Japan Air, one, two, three.
05:54Uncontrollable.
05:55He's going to hit the mountain.
05:56Tokyo control, Tokyo control, the ADS service is...
06:00All station, all station except Japan Air, one, twenty-three.
06:04Keep silent until further advised.
06:06Uncontrollable.
06:07Understood.
06:09Do you wish to contact...
06:10Stay with us, please.
06:13Stay with us.
06:16Just as suddenly, the plane comes out of its dive.
06:19They've dropped over 3,000 meters.
06:22They're now in amongst towering mountains,
06:25but at least there's more oxygen at this altitude.
06:28The pilots have been fighting the plane
06:30for an intense 22 minutes since the explosion.
06:32This may be hopeless.
06:36The hydraulic fluid is all gone.
06:38It's Uncontrollable.
06:40Great.
06:40Mountain.
06:41Good, right.
06:43Great.
06:44Great, great.
06:45Good, eight, the mountain.
06:46That's power.
06:48Applying maximum power in order to lift the nose
06:51is their only option.
06:53Good, eight, up.
06:54Great.
06:55Great.
06:56Great.
06:57Power.
06:59Power.
06:59Keep trying.
07:00In their efforts to control the plane,
07:06they've allowed the speed to drop too much.
07:08To escape the mountain,
07:09they need maximum power to generate more speed
07:12and more lift.
07:14Getting speed.
07:15Stay with us.
07:16Stay with us.
07:19It's first on the way.
07:22We're losing altitude.
07:24Go lower the road.
07:26It's lowering.
07:28Going down.
07:31The passengers grasp the seriousness of the situation.
07:35Many of them prepare for the end.
07:38But increasing power to avoid the mountains
07:40has caused the plane to resume its wayward up and down motions.
07:47Having run out of options,
07:49the crew is forced to repeat the same futile procedures
07:51over and over.
07:53They've been fighting the plane for nearly 30 minutes now.
08:00The investigators found that a simple human error
08:02had led to this.
08:04on a summer's evening in 1985,
08:18Japan Air 123 lifts off from Haneda Airport.
08:22It's the 12,319th takeoff
08:25since the repair of the damaged bulkhead,
08:28a repair that the investigators calculated
08:30would only hold for 10,000 flights.
08:37As the plane climbs to 7,300 meters,
08:40the air outside gets thinner and thinner.
08:43But the air inside the cabin
08:45is pressurized for the passengers' comfort.
08:48The difference of pressure
08:49between the passenger cabin on one side of the bulkhead
08:51and the unpressurized tail on the other
08:54stretches the bulkhead and its faulty repair
08:56to the breaking point.
08:59In a test which duplicated these conditions,
09:02cracks began to appear and lengthen
09:04around the rivet holes until...
09:07the bulkhead snaps.
09:12In an instant,
09:13pressurized air from the cabin
09:15blows a hole in it 2 to 3 meters square,
09:18bringing down the ceiling
09:22around the rear toilets.
09:24The highly pressurized air
09:25blasts its way into the tailpin of the aircraft
09:28and simply blows it off.
09:33From that moment on,
09:34the plane is doomed.
09:36The pilots don't know,
09:37and will never know,
09:39that most of the tail of their aircraft
09:40is missing,
09:42blown off into the sea below
09:43along with the crucial hydraulic lines
09:45that allow them to control the plane.
09:47It all finally makes sense.
09:53Without the stabilizing influence of the tail,
09:55and with the loss of ability
09:56to control the rudder and flaps,
09:58the pilots cannot control the plane.
10:01The giant aircraft now oscillates
10:03in a terrifying motion
10:05called the fugoid cycle.
10:06Don't load!
10:07Don't load!
10:08As the nose drops into a shallow dive,
10:11the plane gathers speed,
10:12which generates lift.
10:13The nose rises again,
10:15and the plane begins to climb
10:17until it loses speed,
10:19tips over,
10:19and begins to fall again.
10:21The whole cycle repeats itself
10:23over and over again.
10:25Flight 123 is now plunging up and down
10:28in terrifying dives,
10:30sometimes several hundred meters at a time.
10:33It really could be considered a miracle
10:35that the pilots were able
10:36to keep the airplane flying
10:37for 30 minutes or more
10:39after having lost all the hydraulics
10:41in their flight controls.
10:42But it kept circling
10:43and eventually worked its way
10:45into the mountains,
10:46and it became impossible
10:47for them to land.
10:49There was no real alternative
10:51for them at all,
10:52except to fly as long as they could
10:54and hope for some miracle,
10:56which never occurred.
10:57Lower the nose.
10:58Lower the nose.
10:59Yes.
10:59Both hands.
11:01How about gear down?
11:02Gear down!
11:03To put the gear down.
11:05To understand what the pilots
11:07were up against,
11:08four hand-picked flight crews
11:10were placed in a simulator
11:11and confronted with the same situation.
11:15Not one of them could land the plane.
11:18The pilots of flight 123
11:20managed to keep their plane
11:21in the air for 30 minutes,
11:23much of it among high mountains.
11:25An amazing feat of flying.
11:27The vast majority one could land the plane
11:29was the first to fly
11:30flicker and the plane
11:31had its alright
11:31because it was unlikely
11:32to fly.
11:39Yeah.
11:40Yeah.
11:40It's hard to fly in there.
