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00:00The plane came flying out of the bottom of the cloud at 4,000 feet per minute.
00:07Pull up! Pull up!
00:08Nuremberg Air Service Flight 108 breaks apart while the pilots attempt to land at Dusseldorf Airport in Germany.
00:17All passengers and crew are killed.
00:21Because of the size of the accident site, we use the grid to identify the positions of every part of the wreckage.
00:31Investigators reconstruct the plane to determine what happened.
00:36There must be a thousand pieces in here.
00:41Over here!
00:42They uncover evidence of a one-in-a-million failure that should not have brought the plane down.
00:48The pilots had no chance to control the aircraft in a proper way.
00:53I think under these circumstances, there was nothing they could have done.
01:00BD! BD!
01:05Pull up!
01:06BD!
01:25BD!
01:26at Hanover Airport in West Germany Nuremberg air service flight 108 prepares
01:34for the first flight of the day in the cockpit is 36 year old captain Ralph
01:46Borstorff there's the weather looking and 28 year old first officer Sybil
01:52hailman they each have 2,500 flying hours should be clear sailing both of them would be fairly
02:01typical what you would see a commuter operations people starting their careers and getting ready
02:07to move up the weather forecast predicts calm skies with only a slim chance of thunderstorms
02:14near their destination might get a bit rough on landing because of some turbulence and a chance
02:20thunderstorm but it's unlikely just 10% sounds good a 10% chance of thundershowers it's 10% chance you
02:30want to know about it but it's not something you're going to put too much thought into
02:33before flight 108 can depart snow and ice that accumulated overnight are removed
02:41this flight was a full flight had 19 passengers on board all of those being business people it's a 40
02:52minute flight from Hanover to Dusseldorf a major business hub on the Rhine River we started the
02:59route in 1987 about six months before this flight and we had very weak train connections between the
03:07east and western parts of Germany so from the very very beginning we had full airplanes flight 108 leaves
03:16Hanover at 7 15 a.m. 15 minutes behind schedule flaps retracted the pilots are flying a Fairchild swear engine
03:33Metroliner 3 it's a powerful turboprop plane designed for short commuter flights the Metro 3 airliner is a
03:42perfect scaled-down airliner it hauls 19 people fast fuel efficiently all the creature comforts of a bigger
03:48airline from the very beginning I was impressed by the airplane it was extremely well designed it was
03:57flexible it was fast it was a good pressurization so everything a pilot likes the airplane head
04:04it takes 10 minutes for flight 108 to reach its cruising altitude of 14,000 feet
04:14it will stay at that altitude for only 15 minutes
04:20regional flying is generally an hour and a half or less leading to increased workload for the time
04:36that you are in the air check the radar the captain notices some weather on the radar thunderstorm could
04:47be rolling in after all maybe doesn't look particularly bad I'll check the ATIS
04:53ATIS continuously broadcasts updated weather conditions at the destination airport
05:03dusting to for visibility 10 sky condition broken clouds at 1,500 feet
05:10nothing but a thunderstorm we should be fine okay we'll continue with the approach their expectation
05:21was that the weather was getting better and that any thinner showers hadn't really materialized good
05:26morning this is your captain speaking we have begun our descent into Dusseldorf please ensure your seatbelts
05:32are fastened should be landing in about 15 minutes
05:3630 miles from the airport Dusseldorf good morning requesting to send a 3,000 NFD 1 0 8
05:52first officer hail man contacts the Dusseldorf approach controller for landing instructions
05:57NFD 1 0 8 good morning to you you are cleared to 3,000 feet and currently number three to land
06:04copy to send to 3,000 number three to land
06:08an ATC gives us a indication of where we are in the order for landing it helps us set up it helps
06:15us get ready it helps us know when you're going to start putting flaps and gear down
06:18three minutes later localize your life flight 1 0 8 lines up with the runway's centerline
06:30establish on the localizer the first officer checks on the weather looks like a thunderstorm has moved right in front of us
06:47might be trouble
06:51thunderstorms have to be treated with respect I mean they can produce hail they can produce
06:58downdraft tailwinds overpowering what the airplane is capable of doing the captain decides to maneuver
07:06around the storm
07:13the problem was it's a big thunderstorm in the approach sector of Dusseldorf they shouldn't fly it through
07:21thunderstorms in the Dusseldorf control center NFD 1 0 8 please switch to tower control frequency 1 1 8 decimal 3 0
07:32the approach controller hands over flight 1 0 8 to the tower
07:37NFD 1 0 8 confirm switch to tower control frequency 1 1 8 decimal 3 0 by
07:44moments later flight 1 0 8 disappears from radar
07:54seven miles northeast of Dusseldorf airport a maintenance worker at a sewage treatment plant here's the sound of an approaching airplane
08:07flight 1 0 8 breaks out of the clouds in a steep dive
08:13500 400 300
08:23the plane pulls up just in time
08:25the plane came flying out of the bottom of the cloud at 4,000 feet per minute the g-force it would have taken to overcome that to pull the airplane nose back up
08:30it was violent the sound of the engines recedes into the distance
08:37the sound of the engines recedes into the distance
08:41that flight would have been sheer terror
08:43sheer terror for the people in the back sheer terror up front
08:46you know you went from having a visual reference to thinking you're good to all of a sudden you're back in the cloud again
08:51a minute later the plane returns
08:56this time flight 1 0 8 spirals out of control
09:00and breaks up
09:03no no no
09:05it's a horrifying sight
09:07i can't imagine what the person watching that would be thinking
09:10two minutes before dawn
09:12flight 1 0 8 slams into an open field on the banks of the Ruhr river
09:17the wreckage is scattered over a wide area
09:29first responders make their way to the crash site
09:34all 19 passengers and both pilots are dead
09:39the metroliner itself is broken into thousands of pieces
09:44you're seeing that parts are distributed throughout the area
09:51you'll start collecting all the parts mapping where they are
09:54and trying to put this puzzle back together again
10:03investigators from germany's air accident investigation unit or FUS
10:09begin mapping the wreckage of flight 1 0 8 to determine what caused the accident
10:16the first step was to identify the positions of every part of the wreckage
10:23and because of the size of the accident site
10:26we use the grid and we were able to get the information
10:30where every piece was at the accident site
10:35much of the plane along with its black boxes are badly damaged
10:42the recorders in this aircraft aren't the new digital type recorders
10:47which record 300 400 parameters
10:50this was the old foil style recorders
10:53you had altitude airspeed
10:55you had heading some information at g loads
10:58you didn't have the data we have today by a long shot
11:01the black boxes and the debris are sent to a warehouse
11:06where investigators begin their analysis
11:09once the parts are recovered taken to a facility
11:14you can then clean where the fractures where the separations are
11:19you can look at where a part broke apart
11:23the wings, the engines, the tail sections separated from the aircraft
11:32investigators try to confirm witness statements
11:35that the plane broke up before it crashed
11:38this piece looks compressed
11:42like it came from a high energy impact
11:45but this piece is intact
11:52what that indicates is this intact piece of wreckage
11:56did not go to the accident site with the rest of the airplane
12:00for sure an inflate breakup
12:03the team is now convinced that flight 108 broke up before hitting the ground
12:10the question is what led to that
12:12is there any evidence of a pre-existing failure
12:15that would have led to the accident
12:19hey can you bring that piece over to the table
12:23did a design flaw or some kind of failure create a fatigue crack
12:28causing the wings to break off before impact
12:33even though the airplane is fairly new
12:35you don't rule out anything
12:37was there a flaw in manufacturing
12:39was there a full drilled where it shouldn't have been drilled
12:42was there some other issue that would cause a crack
12:45to start growing very early in aircraft's life
12:48this doesn't look like a fatigue crack at all
12:54it can only mean one thing
12:56overload fracture
12:59overload fractures can occur because the airplanes exceeded speed limits
13:08uh flight control inputs are severe
13:11uh severe turbulence can cause overload
13:14and sometimes you have a combination of all three coming together
13:17hey can you get the lights
13:20what pushed this plane past its structural limits
13:25investigators examined the plane's flight path for clues
13:29nothing unusual here
13:38the flight path from departure en route to arrival for landing seemed normal
13:45what happened at this part the end of the flight
13:48oh
13:54look at that
13:55they discover that the pilots flew an erratic flight path before the plane crashed
14:01that would certainly cause a structural overload
14:05agreed
14:06agreed
14:08the crew was on approach
14:10and now suddenly goes through some very tight maneuvers
14:15and you piece that together
14:17with the wreckage you found
14:19and where it was found
14:20and that gives you a much better idea of what led to the accident
14:25investigators speak to the controller who oversaw the approach of flight 108
14:31to determine what might have caused the unusual flight path
14:36tell me about the night of the crash
14:38uh there was thunderstorm activity from about 7 40 until just after 8 am
14:46mm-hmm
14:48did your other flights run into any trouble
14:51they reported moderate icing and turbulence but everyone else landed without incident
14:57okay
14:58no go arounds no missed approaches
15:02no
15:03okay
15:04no
15:05uh but about six miles out a 7 37 got hit by lightning
15:14dusseldorf approach lufthansa 1354
15:17we just experienced a lightning strike at 3,000 feet
15:20six miles final
15:22no immediate issues
15:23lufthansa 1354 dusseldorf approach
15:26roger
15:27roger
15:28let me know if you require further assistance
15:30typically when we're concerned about thunderstorms in the airport vicinity
15:33it's not much about the lightning
15:35it's more about the winds and the wind shears that can be powerful enough to push the airplane into the ground
15:39since airplanes are made of aluminum which conducts electricity
15:44most lightning strikes flow over the skin of the fuselage and safely exit through the tail
15:49i remember one occurrence of flying the aircraft got hit by lightning there was a sudden flash outside the fuselage you could hear it and the airplane kept on going and there was no associated damage to the aircraft and we continued on
16:08did you report the lightning strike to flight 108
16:11yes
16:12nfd 108 the preceding landing experienced a lightning strike about six miles final
16:18diseldorf approach we copy at our looking outside nfd 108
16:25for flight crews it is not abnormal to deal with thunderstorms and to deal with the probability of some lightning this flight was very very usual
16:35okay
16:36okay
16:37okay
16:38great
16:39thank you for your time
16:40if it wasn't the weather that caused the pilots to push the plane past its structural limit
16:46what did
16:47will flight 108's black boxes provide clues as to why the plane broke up mid flight
16:58it's not looking good
17:02how so
17:07flight data recording
17:09and the cockpit voice recording both stopped two minutes before the plane crashed
17:13at the exact same time
17:15that the plane started flying erratically
17:19a total power failure
17:22the cvr and fdr get their power from two separate sources
17:27so the fact that both these recorders stopped at the same time
17:31indicates whatever happened affected both electrical systems not just the one
17:37the metro liner's electrical system is powered by two generators
17:41in the event of a power failure two batteries act as a backup system
17:46but if it was a total power failure that means the backup system failed as well
17:53how's that even possible
17:56from the perspective and the explanations coming from the manufacturer the possibility of a total electrical loss was very low
18:01but during the course of the investigation we understood more and more that it could be that the flight crews had a total electrical loss
18:16investigators consider the effects of a total power failure
18:21they would have lost most of their instruments
18:24well except their vertical speed indicator the altitude and the third attitude indicator
18:30our metro liners have been installed with a third independent artificial horizon
18:40it used bleed air coming from the engine and as long as the engine was running the artificial horizon was working as well
18:47totally independent from electricity
18:52the standby non-electrical artificial horizon could have been used by the crew
18:56to help keep the aircraft level and straight
19:02and then the complexity of this accident gets into
19:06why didn't the crew effectively use that standby
19:09but even with limited instruments who's to say they could have even seen them
19:14oh good point
19:16the lights that illuminated the instruments may not have been working
19:19huh
19:22you need those instruments and if you can't see them then you don't know if you're up or down
19:25you're flying blind at this point
19:39to confirm the unlikely finding of a total electrical failure
19:44the team examines light bulbs from flight 108's instrument panel
19:49if the light bulb was on when the plane hit the ground
19:53the hot and pliable filament inside would be stretched
19:58but if the light was off the cold brittle filament
20:02would break upon impact
20:05all these filaments are broken
20:12the outcome was that we found no bulb which was under electrical power
20:19during the impact of the aircraft
20:23investigators now have conclusive evidence of a sudden total power failure
20:30but what could have caused it?
20:34the controller did tell us that another plane got struck by lightning
20:41maybe this one did too
20:43a lightning strike outside of the aircraft
20:46could lead to a problem with the electrical system inside of the aircraft
20:51if the electrical field of a lightning strike is very very high
20:55could be induced into the aircraft
20:59it's a painstaking process
21:14lightning could have struck anywhere
21:18lightning marks on the skin would look like a circle
21:22you'll see the paint burned
21:24you may see some localized melting of the metal in that particular area
21:29over here
21:37what do you got?
21:41i found it
21:44huh
21:46once you've found a piece of metal the lightning strike
21:48it's like okay where does it go on the airplane?
21:50what's in the proximity of this?
21:52is it next to the electronics?
21:55is it next to hydraulics?
21:57where is this lightning strike occurring?
22:00the only way to determine where the mystery piece comes from
22:05is to reconstruct sections of the airplane
22:07no
22:09at the time of this accident
22:13reconstructions were fairly typical
22:15mainly didn't have as much data as we have now
22:18so reconstructing it made sense
22:31i think i've got it
22:32investigators match the piece of the plane to the left side of the fuselage
22:36forward of the wing
22:38this is where the lightning strike
22:41shits
22:42but could a lightning strike in front of the left wing
22:45actually cause a total electrical failure?
22:49there are power system lines running right behind where the lightning struck
22:54can't be a coincidence
22:56hmm
22:57is it possible that that lightning strike
23:00entered the electrical wires on the other side
23:03and therefore led to the loss of electrical power?
23:06so that would have been the real focus of the investigation at this point
23:15investigators examine what remains of flight 108's electrical wiring
23:21in search of evidence that the lightning strike jumped from the fuselage to the electrical system
23:27you would look for the insulation material on the outside has been burned away
23:34is there melting inside the wires? evidence that somehow electrical energy got through the insulation barrier
23:42into the wiring
23:44and then
23:45and then
23:46was starting actually melting the wires locally
23:49how odd
23:51no signs of arcing
23:53we checked the wiring
23:58we checked the electronic components
24:00available from the wreckage
24:02for some indication for electrical overload
24:05finding any lightning damage to the wiring?
24:15not yet
24:16it's very possible once the lightning gets into the fuselage
24:20you may not see any direct impact in that area
24:25it flows into the aircraft
24:27and so even wiring as close by may appear to be unaffected
24:32but now this high energy has gotten into the airplane
24:36and the question is where does it go?
24:38maybe i can find something in here
24:41after we found no evidence for damage in the wiring based on the lightning strike
24:49we had to do a deeper investigation within the systems
24:54and that means we had to look for damages in the avionic components
25:00the team now focuses on even smaller components of the electrical system
25:07the diodes
25:09let's check this out
25:12a diode is an electrical component that allows current to flow in one direction only
25:21preventing reverse current flow that could damage circuits or create malfunctions
25:27if the diode is working properly
25:32there should be resistance to high current flow in one direction and not the other
25:38only 50 ohms
25:44almost nothing
25:45now the reverse
25:47also 50 ohms
25:58but investigators discover low resistance to current flow in both directions
26:04it's shorted
26:06the outcome of our investigation of the diodes was that all diodes were open in both directions
26:18that means the diodes were shorted
26:21the question now was why
26:25we decided to take these to a manufacturer and ask them to do a deeper investigation
26:33results are in
26:36results are in
26:37to better understand why the diodes shorted
26:40they examine test results provided by the manufacturer
26:44oh that's interesting
26:48looks like cracks in the center of the diode
26:51once you've seen that a diode has failed then you can do tests and research on a good diode to see how much energy it would take basically to fry that diode
27:06voltage tests are done to determine if the cracks in the diodes were the result of a lightning strike or something else
27:14a thousand volts
27:17investigators learn that when more than a thousand volts are applied to a working diode it will crack
27:24a lightning bolt can carry hundreds of millions of volts more than enough energy to crack the diode
27:31it must have been lightning
27:33the damage of the diodes only can be produced by high voltage
27:41could it be possible that high voltage would be produced within the aircraft and the answer was no it could be only produced by the lightning strike
27:56basically the lightning hit the aircraft flowed through the system it impacted the diodes which fried them cracked them took them offline and that shut down the electrical systems on the aircraft
28:10the odds of lightning taking out an entire electrical system are next to impossible
28:17and yet that's what happened
28:21but this doesn't explain why the crew flew into the thunderstorm in the first place
28:28okay
28:31the primary rule is if you see a thunderstorm no matter what its size you avoid it
28:38you go around you divert you hold you do whatever you can you do not want to fly through a thunderstorm
28:45investigators examine Nuremberg air services flight operations manual to understand why the pilots of flight 108 ended up in a thunderstorm
29:03i don't get it
29:05it clearly states flights in or near thunderstorm should be absolutely avoided
29:10so why didn't they do the sensible thing and go around the storm
29:14at that time they had several possibilities
29:18one possibility was just to prepare if they would fly through the thunderstorm
29:23what could happen what they have to do what they have to prepare
29:27another possibility could have been just to divert to another airport
29:34let's have a listen to what the pilots were saying about the storm
29:36check the radar
29:42thunderstorm could be rolling in after all
29:46halfway through the flight the crew learns there's adverse weather ahead
29:50maybe
29:52maybe
29:53doesn't look particularly bad
29:57I'll check the ATIS
29:59the crew checks Dusseldorf airport's weather service
30:04information bravo at 070
30:07but there's no indication of a thunderstorm
30:09once they got the ATIS their expectation bias was that the weather was getting better
30:13broken clouds at 1500 feet
30:16nothing but a thunderstorm we should be fine
30:20the captain considers the information and makes his decision
30:25okay
30:27we'll continue with the approach
30:30they just assume best-case scenario
30:34don't do a proper briefing
30:36as professional pilots we always brief each other based off the worst conditions
30:40you never know if that 10% probability of thunderstorms actually happens
30:43actually happens and if it does happen and it's too late
30:46you don't have time to brief it
30:51nfd 108
30:53eleven minutes later the situation becomes more critical
30:57preceding landing experienced a lightning strike about six miles final
31:02if I were the crew and I were on approach and uh
31:05preceding traffic in front of me were to get struck by lightning
31:07at that point I would initiate a missed approach
31:09go around and hold somewhere and figure out what we're going to do
31:11because the weather at that point is moving on to the approach path
31:14you need to take that pretty seriously
31:16but that's not what the pilots do
31:19Dusseldorf approach we copy and are looking outside
31:22nfd 108
31:28hey did you hear what happened to walter last weekend
31:31yeah not surprised
31:34hold on
31:35they should be talking about deviating or go around here
31:38not someone's weekend
31:39they should have been deciding where they were going to go
31:42and what they were going to do instead of going down this rabbit hole
31:44they just thought the other person's comfortable with it
31:46and will continue going if they're comfortable uncomfortable
31:48investigators continue listening to the CVR as the pilots prepare for landing
31:54you're left of the center line
32:11what?
32:12you're left of the center line you need to turn right
32:15the captain started deviating to the left apparently without telling the first officer of his plan
32:20i don't want to go in there i'm trying to get around it
32:23we're too close to the runway you can't change course now
32:28sounds like the captain is trying to deviate around the storm
32:30and the first officer isn't on the same page
32:33it's a bad idea to try and re-intercept the approach when you're already unstabilized
32:37it's just a bad idea you just do a go around
32:39okay i hear you
32:52again no discussion of their options
32:56there's some tension in the cockpit
32:59there's some issue between the captain and the first officer
33:03we don't know exactly what it was
33:05but clearly this was not conducive to the crew working together to determine what was the best course of action
33:16so now the captain turns the plane directly into the thunderstorm
33:22hold on tight here it comes
33:26neither crew knew what the other one was doing
33:35they hadn't briefed for the weather
33:37they didn't have the plane set up for flying around in the vicinity of thunderstorms
33:41and they just kept going
33:49why wasn't this crew on the same page
33:56this understanding of the investigation team at that time
34:00was the communication between both pilots was not in a way as it should be
34:07what'd you find?
34:09well
34:10investigators examine personnel records for insight into the pilots working relationship
34:19the captain had a total of 2,473 flight hours
34:24but only 277 hours in the metro 3
34:30that's not a lot of experience on type
34:33no it's not
34:34the fo
34:36had basically the same number of flight hours
34:41but
34:43over
34:451300 hours
34:47in the metro
34:49investigators discover that the first officer had much more
34:53experience on the metroliner than the captain
34:59with the crew having such an imbalance in the time
35:00the first officer is going to feel like
35:02they could be the captain that they got passed over for the upgrade
35:05they have more experience on the routes
35:06they have more experience on the plane
35:07more experience with the airline
35:09even in this case
35:10she probably didn't trust his handling of the aircraft
35:15that's never good in a cockpit
35:17did the pilots imbalance in experience make it difficult for them to cope with the lightning strike
35:32so they start making their descent here
35:34investigators examine how the pilots of flight 108 flew the plane as they entered the thunderstorm
35:41and then a minute before they lose power they start ascending again
35:45why would that happen
35:47let's hear what happens here
35:51okay
36:01okay
36:02glide alive
36:05quarter flaps
36:10selected
36:12three minutes from the airport the captain begins configuring the aircraft for landing
36:17and half flaps
36:22half flaps please
36:24as they descend towards the runway the captain rushes his flap settings
36:30the plane is now climbing instead of descending
36:34the captain requested the next flap setting half flaps
36:38the airplane then ballooned up climbed in altitude 400 feet
36:44i'm not sure that was so good
36:46the captain trims the plane's nose down to counteract the increase in altitude
36:52in response to the 400 foot climb the captain trims the airplane
36:56rather than just putting a few bits of electric trim in
36:59he holds the electric trim pitching the nose down quite substantially
37:03good
37:04he then adds even more nose down trim
37:10we're still slightly high
37:16okay
37:20descending
37:22with all the trim the captain has added
37:26the plane is in a nose heavy position when the lightning strikes
37:41so now the captain loses the ability to recover
37:44mm-hmm
37:45when the lightning strike happens
37:47he loses electrical power so he may have a lot more heavier flight controls
37:52that he was prepared for
37:54and when the lightning strikes
37:56the instrument lighting fails
37:58making the instruments impossible to read
38:01there's no emergency procedure in the metroliner manual
38:05that tells you what to do if all your batteries fall offline
38:08you're a test pilot and at that point you use your pilot experience
38:12one of the things to do is for the non-flying pilot to get a flashlight
38:16to illuminate the standby instrument
38:19to help the flying pilot out
38:21the flashlights weren't found
38:23we don't know if they're on the aircraft or not
38:25the power failure cuts off their ability to see
38:29and to communicate with each other
38:31they couldn't hear each other
38:32we've lost electrical power
38:35we have nothing
38:39we've got a crew that can't communicate
38:41because you've lost the intercom system
38:43you've got a headset on
38:44and the metro is a very noisy cockpit
38:46so you can't hear the other person
38:47and what they're saying to you
38:48if they couldn't see their instruments
38:50or hear one another
38:52could the pilot still fly their plane?
38:56they have aileron and rudder controls
38:58which aren't electrical
39:00their engines are still running
39:02the runaway is about seven miles away
39:06they should have been able to use the controls
39:09they did have to land the plane
39:12they still had control over the ailerons
39:14over the rudder
39:15it was difficult
39:16but technically still flyable
39:18but without the ability to see their instruments
39:20they'd have no way of knowing where they were
39:23seconds later flight 108 is diving towards the ground
39:31the pilots had no chance to control the aircraft in a proper way
39:39because the light for the third artificial horizon was not there
39:44and they had no visual ground contact
39:47and I think under these circumstances
39:49it's nearly impossible to control the aircraft
39:52investigators finally understand how a lightning strike caused a fatal crash
40:05you're left of the center line
40:11what?
40:12it starts with a poorly functioning crew
40:14you're left of the center line
40:16you need to turn right
40:17i don't want to go in there
40:18i'm trying to get around it
40:19we're too close to the runway
40:20you can't change course now
40:21okay
40:23i hear you
40:24instead of giving him the advice or the two crew mentality
40:29that we're not where we should be
40:30we shouldn't be here
40:31the first officer chose to go the other route
40:33which was shut down
40:34and only make the minimum calls
40:35which were deviation calls
40:38half-laps please
40:44the pilots decide to fly their nose-heavy aircraft into a thunderstorm
40:53a powerful lightning strike
40:55we've lost electrical power
40:58causes a total power failure
41:00we have nothing
41:02and the disoriented crew
41:04where are we?
41:05i can't tell
41:06loses control of the plane
41:09500
41:12400
41:14300
41:16pull up, pull up, pull up
41:21after you've been struck by lightning
41:23you've got winds that are gusting all over the place
41:25it starts to become a pretty violent situation pretty quick
41:27the combination of turbulence
41:30and the pilots blind actions lasting more than a minute
41:33sends the plane into extreme turns and banks
41:38are we banking?
41:40can't tell
41:41put clear speed
41:42don't worry about the speed just pull
41:44you think you can trust your senses but you can't
41:46you don't know if you're banking to the left
41:47you don't know if you're banking to the right
41:48you can't tell if you've got a nose low or a nose high
41:51you can think you do, you can think you trust it
41:54at the end of the day your gut instinct will be wrong
41:57the plane is so overloaded with the g-forces in these turns
42:02it broke up
42:04you broke up
42:07yeah
42:17pull up, pull up
42:18i'm crying
42:20you're looking at a g-load that literally ripped the engine pylon off the wing
42:24that literally broke the wing spar the strongest part of the airplane
42:27broke it like a toothpick
42:28that way exceeded what the aircraft manufacturer ever designed that airplane to go through
42:33the main conclusion of the report by germany's air accident investigation unit is clear
42:55the crew flew into a thunderstorm even though they could have flown around it
43:00you have two fairly experienced pilots that they never ever should have been in that situation
43:06there were red flags throughout
43:08if anything can be learned from this one
43:10you've got to speak up on a two-crew airplane
43:12you can't let the other person take you to the scene of the crash
43:15in their recommendations the FUS reiterates the need for training and manuals that clearly describe how to operate in and near thunderstorms
43:26this is a very different crew than we see today who are well-trained on copied resource management who work together as a crew
43:36and the systems change for the better and the airplanes are much better
43:40as for nuremberg air service the company soon replaced the remaining metrolinas in its fleet
43:48i made myself one of the last flight with the metroliner i had some tears in my eyes because i think
43:54because i think it wasn't the aircrafts fault
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