- hace 2 días
El 8 de febrero de 1988, un Swearingen SA.227BC Metroliner III operado por Nürnberger Flugdienst se destruyó en pleno vuelo durante la aproximación final al Aeropuerto Internacional de Düsseldorf, Alemania. Las 21 personas a bordo murieron.
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00:02The plane came from flying out of the bottom of the cloud at 4,000 feet per minute.
00:07Nuremberg Air Service Flight 108 breaks apart while the pilots attempt to land at Dusseldorf Airport in Germany.
00:16All 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
00:29the 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
00:47The 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
01:23It's an hour before sunrise at Hanover Airport in New York
01:31Nuremberg Air Service Flight 108 prepares for the first flight of the day.
01:42In the cockpit is 36-year-old Captain Ralph Borstorff.
01:47How's the weather looking?
01:49And 28-year-old First Officer Sybil Heilman.
01:53They each have 2,500 flying hours.
01:56Should we clear sailing?
01:59Both of them would be fairly typical.
02:02What you would see in commuter operations,
02:04people starting their careers and getting ready to move up.
02:08The weather forecast predicts calm skies,
02:11with only a slim chance of thunderstorms near their destination.
02:16Might get a bit rough on landing because of some turbulence
02:19and a chance of thunderstorms, but it's unlikely. Just 10%.
02:23Sounds good.
02:26A 10% chance of thundershowers.
02:29It's a 10% chance you want to know about it,
02:31but it's not something you're going to put too much thought into.
02:34Before Flight 108 can depart,
02:37snow and ice that accumulated overnight are removed.
02:44This flight was a full flight. It had 19 passengers on board,
02:48all of those being business people.
02:50It's a 40-minute flight from Hanover to Dusseldorf,
02:54a major business hub on the Rhine River.
02:58We started the route in 1987, about six months before this flight.
03:04We had very weak train connections between the east and western parts of Germany.
03:09So from the very, very beginning, we had full airplanes.
03:12Flight 108 leaves Hanover at 7.15 a.m., 15 minutes behind schedule.
03:22Flaps.
03:27Retracted.
03:29The pilots are flying a Fairchild swear engine Metroliner 3.
03:35It's a powerful turboprop plane designed for short commuter flights.
03:40The Metrol3 airliner is a perfect scaled down airliner.
03:44It hauls 19 people fast, fuel efficiently.
03:46All the creature comforts of a bigger airline.
03:49From the very beginning, I was impressed by the airplane.
03:54It was extremely well designed.
03:57It was flexible.
03:58It was fast.
04:00It had good pressurization.
04:01So everything a pilot likes, the airplane had.
04:07It takes 10 minutes for flight 108 to reach its cruising altitude of 14,000 feet.
04:16It will stay at that altitude for only 15 minutes.
04:22Well, no rest for the wicked.
04:25We'll have the descent checklist, will you?
04:29Regional flying is generally an hour and a half or less,
04:33leading to increased workload for the time that you are in the air.
05:01Thunderstorm could be rolling in after all.
05:03Maybe.
05:04Doesn't look particularly bad.
05:07I'll check the ATIS
05:12ATIS continuously broadcasts updated weather conditions at the destination airport
05:19Visibility 10, sky condition, broken clouds at 1,500 feet
05:26Nothing but a thing, we should be fine
05:31Okay, we'll continue with the approach
05:35Their expectation was that the weather was getting better
05:37And that any thinner showers hadn't really materialized
05:41Good morning, this is your captain speaking
05:43We have begun our descent into Dusseldorf
05:46Please ensure your seatbelts are fastened
05:48Should be landing in about 15 minutes
05:5930 miles from the airport
06:02Dusseldorf, good morning
06:03Requesting to send a 3,000 NFD-108
06:06First officer Hale-Man contacts the Dusseldorf approach controller for landing instructions
06:13NFD-108, good morning to you
06:15You are cleared to 3,000 feet and currently number 3 to land
06:21Copy, descend to 3,000, number 3 to land
06:25An ATC gives us an indication of where we are on the order for landing
06:29It helps us set up, it helps us get ready
06:30It helps us know when you're going to start putting flaps and gear down
06:34Three minutes later
06:39Localizer live
06:42Flight 108 lines up with the runway's center line
06:51Establish on the localizer
06:54The first officer checks on the weather
07:00Looks like a thunderstorm has moved right in front of us
07:05Might be trouble
07:09Thunderstorms have to be treated with respect
07:11I mean, they can produce hail
07:12They can produce downdrafts
07:14Tailwinds, overpowering what the airplane is capable of doing
07:19The captain decides to maneuver around the storm
07:29The problem was, it's a big thunderstorm in the approach sector of Dusseldorf
07:35They shouldn't fly through thunderstorms
07:39In the Dusseldorf control center
07:41NFD-108, please switch to tower control
07:45Frequency 118.30
07:47The approach controller hands over flight 108 to the tower
07:52NFD-108, confirm switch to tower control
07:57Frequency 118.30, bye
08:04Moments later
08:05Flight 108 disappears from radar
08:14Seven miles northeast of Dusseldorf airport
08:17A maintenance worker at a sewage treatment plant
08:20Here's the sound of an approaching airplane
08:25Flight 108 breaks out of the clouds in a steep dive
08:29500
08:31400
08:32300
08:34Pull up
08:38The plane pulls up just in time
08:43The plane came flying out of the bottom of the cloud at 4,000 feet per minute
08:46The G-force it would have taken to overcome that
08:48To pull the airplane nose back up
08:50It was violent
08:52The sound of the engines recedes into the distance
08:57That flight would have been sheer terror
09:00Sheer terror for the people in the back
09:01Sheer terror up front
09:02You know, you went from having a visual reference to thinking you're good
09:05To all of a sudden you're back in the cloud again
09:08A minute later, the plane returns
09:12This time, flight 108 spirals out of control
09:17And breaks up
09:18No, no, no
09:20It's a horrifying sight
09:23I can't even imagine what the person watching that would be thinking
09:25Two minutes before dawn
09:27Flight 108 slams into an open field on the banks of the Ruhr River
09:41The wreckage is scattered over a wide area
09:46First responders make their way to the crash site
09:50All 19 passengers and both pilots are dead
09:55The Metroliner itself is broken into thousands of pieces
10:01You're seeing that parts are distributed throughout the area
10:06You'll start collecting all the parts
10:08Mapping where they are
10:10And trying to put this puzzle back together again
10:19Investigators from Germany's Air Accident Investigation Unit
10:23Or FUS
10:24Begin mapping the wreckage of flight 108
10:27To determine what caused the accident
10:30The first step was to identify the positions of every part of the wreckage
10:38And because of the size of the accident site
10:41We used the grid and we were able to get the information
10:45Where every piece was at the accident site
10:52Much of the plane, along with its black boxes, are badly damaged
10:58The recorders in this aircraft aren't the new digital type of recorders
11:02Which record 300, 400 parameters
11:05This was the old foil style recorders
11:08You had altitude, airspeed, you had heading, some information, you had G loads
11:14You didn't have the data we have today by a long shot
11:18The black boxes and the debris are sent to a warehouse
11:22Where investigators begin their analysis
11:26Once the parts are recovered, taken to a facility
11:30You can then clean where the fractures, where the separations are
11:34You can look at where a part broke a part
11:40The wings, the engines, the tail sections, separated from the aircraft
11:48Investigators try to confirm witness statements that the plane broke up before it crashed
11:55This piece looks compressed, like it came from a high energy impact
12:03But this piece is intact
12:06What that indicates is this intact piece of wreckage
12:10Did not go to the accident site with the rest of the airplane
12:16For sure an in-flight breakup
12:18The team is now convinced that Flight 108 broke up before hitting the ground
12:25The question is what led to that
12:27Is there any evidence of a pre-existing failure that would have led to the accident
12:33Hey, can you bring that piece over to the table
12:38Did a design flaw or some kind of failure create a fatigue crack
12:43Causing the wings to break off before impact
12:48Even though the airplane is fairly new
12:50You don't rule out anything
12:52Was there a flaw in manufacturing
12:54Was there a full drill where it shouldn't have been drilled
12:57Was there some other issue that would cause a crack
13:00To start growing very early in the aircraft's life
13:04This doesn't look like a fatigue crack at all
13:09It can only mean one thing
13:13Overload fracture
13:19Overload fractures can occur
13:21Because the airplanes exceeded speed limits
13:23Flight control inputs are severe
13:26Severe turbulence can cause overload
13:29And sometimes you have a combination of all three coming together
13:34Hey, can you get the lights?
13:36What pushed this plane past its structural limits?
13:41Investigators examined the plane's flight path for clues
13:48Nothing unusual here
13:53The flight path from departure, en route, to arrival for landing seemed normal
14:01What happened to this part, the end of the flight?
14:08Oh, look at that
14:10They discover that the pilots flew an erratic flight path before the plane crashed
14:17That would certainly cause a structural overload
14:21Agreed
14:23The crew was on approach
14:25And now suddenly goes through some very tight maneuvers
14:30And you piece that together
14:32With the wreckage you found
14:34And where it was found
14:36And that gives you a much better idea
14:38Of what led to the accident
14:42Investigators speak to the controller
14:44Who oversaw the approach of Flight 108
14:47To determine what might have caused the unusual flight path
14:51Tell me about the night of the crash
14:54There was thunderstorm activity
14:57From about 7.40 until just after 8 a.m
15:04Did your other flights run into any trouble?
15:07They reported moderate icing and turbulence
15:10But everyone else landed without incident
15:14No go-arounds, no missed approaches?
15:17No
15:17Okay
15:18No
15:21But about 6 miles out, a 7.37 got hit by lightning
15:29Dusseldorf approach, Lufthansa 1354
15:32We just experienced a lightning strike at 3,000 feet
15:356 miles final
15:37No immediate issues
15:39Lufthansa 1354, Dusseldorf approach
15:41Roger, let me know if you require further assistance
15:45Typically when we're concerned about thunderstorms
15:47In the airport vicinity
15:48It's not much about the lightning
15:50It's more about the winds and the wind shears
15:52That can be powerful enough
15:53To push the airplane into the ground
15:55Since airplanes are made of aluminium
15:57Which conducts electricity
15:59Most lightning strikes flow over the skin of the fuselage
16:03And safely exit through the tail
16:05I remember one occurrence of flying
16:07The aircraft got hit by lightning
16:09There was a sudden flash outside the fuselage
16:13You could hear it
16:14And the airplane kept on going
16:19And there was no associated damage to the aircraft
16:21And we continued on
16:23Did you report the lightning strike to flight 108?
16:26Yes
16:28NFD 108, the preceding landing experienced a lightning strike
16:32About 6 miles final
16:34Dieseldorf approach
16:35We copy and are looking outside
16:37NFD 108
16:41For flight crews
16:42It is not abnormal
16:43To deal with thunderstorms
16:45And to deal with the probability of some lightning
16:48This flight was very, very usual
16:51Okay
16:51Great
16:52Thank you for your time
16:55If it wasn't the weather
16:57That caused the pilots
16:58To push the plane past its structural limit
17:01What did?
17:06Will flight 108's black boxes provide clues as to why the plane broke up mid-flight?
17:15It's not looking good
17:16How so?
17:21Flight data recording
17:23And the cockpit voice recording both stopped two minutes before the plane crashed
17:27At the exact same time that the plane started flying erratically
17:34A total power failure?
17:37The CVR and the FDR get their power from two separate sources
17:41So the fact that both these recorders stopped at the same time indicates whatever happened
17:47Affected both electrical systems, not just the one
17:51The Metroliner's electrical system is powered by two generators
17:55In the event of a power failure
17:58Two batteries act as a backup system
18:03But if it was a total power failure
18:06That means the backup system failed as well
18:10How is that even possible?
18:12From the perspective and the explanations coming from the manufacturer
18:16The possibility of a total electrical loss was very low
18:21But during the course of the investigation
18:24We understood more and more
18:26That it could be that the flight crews had a total electrical loss
18:32Investigators consider the effects of a total power failure
18:36They would have lost most of their instruments
18:38Well, except their vertical speed indicator
18:42The altitude and the third attitude indicator
18:47Our Metroliner's have been installed with a third independent artificial horizon
18:55It used bleed air coming from the engine
18:58And as long as the engine was running
19:00The artificial horizon was working as well
19:03Totally independent from electricity
19:06The standby non-electrical artificial horizon could have been used by the crew
19:11To help keep the aircraft level and straight
19:15And then the complexity of this accident gets into
19:21Why didn't the crew effectively use that standby?
19:24But even with limited instruments
19:26Who's to say they could have even seen them?
19:29Oh, good point
19:31The lights that illuminated the instruments may not have been working
19:34Huh
19:37You need those instruments
19:38And if you can't see them
19:39Then you don't know if you're up or down
19:40You're flying blind at this point
19:54To confirm the unlikely finding of a total electrical failure
19:59The team examines light bulbs from Flight 108's instrument panel
20:04If the light bulb was on when the plane hit the ground
20:08The hot and pliable filament inside would be stretched
20:13But if the light was off
20:15The cold, brittle filament
20:17Would break upon impact
20:22All these filaments are broken
20:26The outcome was that we found no bulb which was under electrical power
20:33During the impact of the aircraft
20:38Investigators now have conclusive evidence of a sudden total power failure
20:45But what could have caused it?
20:49The controller did tell us that another plane got struck by lightning
20:55Maybe this one did too
20:58A lightning strike outside of the aircraft
21:01Could lead to a problem with the electrical system inside of the aircraft
21:05If the electrical field of a lightning strike is very, very high
21:10Could be induced into the aircraft
21:17Investigators search for evidence of lightning
21:19Striking the fuselage of Flight 108
21:25There must be a thousand pieces in here
21:29It's a painstaking process
21:31Lightning could have struck anywhere
21:33Lightning marks on the skin
21:35Would look like a circle
21:37You'll see the paint burned
21:39You may see some localized melting of the metal in that particular area
21:50Over here
21:55What do you got?
21:56I found it
22:00Huh
22:00Once you've found a piece of metal in the lightning strike
22:03It's like, okay, where does it go on the airplane?
22:05What's in the proximity of this?
22:07Is it next to the electronics?
22:11Is it next to hydraulics?
22:12Where is this lightning strike occurring?
22:15The only way to determine where the mystery piece comes from
22:19Is to reconstruct sections of the airplane
22:24No
22:26At the time of this accident
22:29Reconstructions were fairly typical
22:30Mainly, didn't have as much data as we have now
22:33So reconstructing it made sense
22:45I think I've got it
22:47Investigators match the piece of the plane to the left side of the fuselage
22:51Forward of the wing
22:52This is where the lightning strike
22:56But could a lightning strike in front of the left wing
22:59Actually cause a total electrical failure?
23:04There are power system lines running right behind where the lightning struck
23:09Can't be a coincidence
23:11Is it possible that that lightning strike
23:14Entered the electrical wires on the other side
23:17And therefore led to the lost electrical power
23:20So that would have been the real focus of the investigation at this point
23:30How odd
23:31Those signs of arcing
23:37We checked the wiring
23:39We checked the electronic components
23:41Available from the wreckage
23:43For some indication
23:45For electrical overload
23:54Finding any lightning damage to the wiring?
23:56Not yet
23:58It's very possible that once the lightning gets into the fuselage
24:01You may not see any direct impact in that area
24:06It flows into the aircraft
24:08And so even wiring as close by may appear to be unaffected
24:13But now this high energy has gone into the airplane
24:17And the question is where does it go?
24:19Maybe I can find something in here
24:23After we found no evidence for damage in the wiring
24:28Based on the lightning strike
24:30We had to do a deeper investigation within the systems
24:35And that means we had to look for damages in the avionic components
24:43The team now focuses on even smaller components of the electrical system
24:48The diodes
24:51Let's check this out
24:57A diode is an electrical component
24:59That allows current to flow in one direction only
25:03Preventing reverse current flow that could damage circuits
25:06Or create malfunctions
25:11If the diode is working properly
25:13There should be resistance to high current flow in one direction and not the other
25:23Only 50 ohms
25:25Almost nothing
25:26Now the reverse
25:35Also 50 ohms
25:39But investigators discover low resistance to current flow in both directions
25:45It's shorted
25:51The outcome of our investigation of the diodes was
25:55That all diodes were open in both directions
25:59That means the diodes were shorted
26:02The question now was why
26:05We decided to take these to a manufacturer
26:10And to ask them to do a deeper investigation
26:16Results are in
26:18To better understand why the diodes shorted
26:21They examined test results provided by the manufacturer
26:27Oh that's interesting
26:30Looks like cracks in the center of the diode
26:36Once you've seen that a diode has failed
26:38Then you can do tests and research on a good diode
26:42To see how much energy it would take
26:44Basically to fry that diode
26:48Voltage tests are done to determine if the cracks in the diodes were the result of a lightning strike
26:53Or something else
26:56A thousand volts
26:59Investigators learn that when more than a thousand volts are applied to a working diode
27:04It will crack
27:05A lightning bolt can carry hundreds of millions of volts
27:09More than enough energy to crack the diode
27:11It must have been lightning
27:14The damage of the diodes only can be produced by high voltage
27:23Could it be possible that high voltage would be produced within the aircraft
27:28And the answer was no
27:30It could be only produced by the lightning strike
27:37Basically the lightning hit the aircraft
27:39Flowed through the system
27:41It impacted the diodes
27:44Which fried them
27:46Cracked them
27:47Took them offline
27:48And that shut down the electrical systems on the aircraft
27:54The odds of lightning taking out an entire electrical system are next to impossible
27:59And yet
28:01That's what happened
28:04But this doesn't explain why the crew flew into the thunderstorm in the first place
28:13The primary rule is
28:15If you see a thunderstorm
28:17No matter what its size
28:18You avoid it
28:19You go around
28:21You divert
28:22You hold
28:23You do whatever you can
28:25You do not want to fly through a thunderstorm
28:35Investigators examine Nuremberg Air Service's flight operations manual
28:39To understand why the pilots of flight 108 ended up in a thunderstorm
28:44I don't get it
28:46It clearly states flights in or near thunderstorm should be absolutely avoided
28:50So why didn't they do the sensible thing and go around the storm?
28:55At that time they had several possibilities
28:59One possibility was just to prepare
29:02If they would fly through the thunderstorm
29:04What could happen
29:06What they have to do
29:07What they have to prepare
29:08Another possibility could have been
29:10Just to divert
29:12To another airport
29:14Let's have a listen to what the pilots were saying about the storm
29:22Check the radar
29:25Thunderstorm could be rolling in after all
29:27Halfway through the flight
29:28The crew learns there's adverse weather ahead
29:33Maybe
29:35Doesn't look particularly bad
29:39I'll check the ATIS
29:42The crew checks Dusseldorf Airport's weather service
29:45Information Bravo at 070
29:48But there's no indication of a thunderstorm
29:51Once they got the ATIS
29:52Their expectation bias was that the weather was getting better
29:55Broken clouds at 1500 feet
29:59Nothing but a thunderstorm
30:00We should be fine
30:02The captain considers the information
30:05And makes his decision
30:08Okay
30:10We'll continue with the approach
30:14They just assume best case scenario
30:16And don't do a proper briefing
30:18As professional pilots
30:19We always brief each other
30:20Based off the worst conditions
30:21You never know if that 10% probability
30:23Of thunderstorms actually happens
30:24And if it does happen
30:26And it's too late
30:27You don't have time to brief it
30:32NFD 108
30:3411 minutes later
30:35The situation becomes more critical
30:38Proceeding landing experienced a lightning strike
30:41About six miles final
30:44If I were the crew
30:45If I were the crew and I were on approach
30:45And proceeding traffic in front of me
30:47Were to get struck by lightning
30:48At that point I would initiate a missed approach
30:50Go around and hold somewhere
30:51And figure out what we're going to do
30:53Because the weather at that point
30:54Is moving on to the approach path
30:55You need to take that pretty seriously
30:57But that's not what the pilots do
31:14Hold on
31:16They should be talking about deviating
31:18Or go around here
31:19Not someone's weekend
31:21They should have been deciding
31:22Where they were going to go
31:23And what they were going to do
31:24Instead of going down this rabbit hole
31:25They just thought
31:26The other person's comfortable with it
31:27And we'll continue going
31:28If they're comfortable
31:29I'm comfortable
31:31Investigators continue listening to the CVR
31:33As the pilots prepare for landing
31:57The captain started deviating to the left
32:00Apparently without telling the first officer of his plan
32:02I don't want to go in there
32:03I'm trying to get around it
32:04We're too close to the runway
32:05You can't change course now
32:09Sounds like the captain
32:10Is trying to deviate around the storm
32:12And the first officer isn't on the same page
32:16It's a bad idea to try and re-intercept the approach
32:18When you're already unstabilized
32:19It's just a bad idea
32:20You just do a go around
32:28Okay
32:29I hear you
32:34Again
32:34Again, no discussion of their options
32:37There's some tension in the cockpit
32:40There's some issue between the captain and the first officer
32:44We don't know exactly what it was
32:46But clearly this was not conducive to the crew working together
32:54To determine what was the best course of action
32:57So now
32:59The captain turns the plane directly into the thunderstorm
33:06Hold on tight
33:06Here it comes
33:14Neither crew knew what the other one was doing
33:16They hadn't briefed for the weather
33:18They didn't have the plane set up for flying around in the vicinity of thunderstorms
33:22And they just kept going
33:30Why wasn't this crew on the same page?
33:37The understanding of the investigation team at that time
33:41Was the communication between both pilots was not in a way as it should be
33:48What'd you find?
33:50Well
33:52Investigators examine personnel records for insight into the pilot's working relationship
34:00The captain had a total of 2473 flight hours
34:05But only 277 hours in the Metro 3
34:11That's not a lot of experience on type
34:14No, it's not
34:16The FO had basically the same number of flight hours
34:22But over 1,300 hours in the Metro
34:32Investigators discover that the first officer had much more experience on the Metro liner than the captain
34:38With the crew having such an imbalance in time
34:42The first officer is going to feel like they could be the captain
34:45That they got passed over for the upgrade
34:46They have more experience on the routes
34:48They have more experience on the plane
34:49More experience with the airline
34:50Even in this case
34:53She probably didn't trust his handling of the aircraft
34:57That's never good in a cockpit
35:02Did the pilot's imbalance in experience
35:04Make it difficult for them to cope with a lightning strike?
35:12So they start making their descent here
35:17Investigators examine how the pilots of flight 108 flew the plane as they entered the thunderstorm
35:22And then, a minute before they lose power, they start ascending again
35:26Why would that happen?
35:30Let's hear what happens here
35:42Okay, glide alive
35:45Quarter flaps
35:50Selected
35:52Three minutes from the airport
35:54The captain begins configuring the aircraft for landing
35:58And half flaps
36:03Half flaps, please
36:05As they descend towards the runway, the captain rushes his flap settings
36:11The plane is now climbing instead of descending
36:14The captain requested the next flap setting, half flaps
36:19The airplane then ballooned up, climbed an altitude 400 feet
36:25I'm not sure that was so good
36:27The captain trims the plane's nose down
36:30To counteract the increase in altitude
36:33In response to the 400 foot climb, the captain trims the airplane
36:37Rather than just putting a few bits of electric trim in
36:40He holds the electric trim, pitching the nose down quite substantially
36:45He then adds even more nose down trim
37:05With all the trim the captain has added, the plane is in a nose-heavy position when the lightning strikes
37:22So now the captain loses the ability to recover
37:26When the lightning strike happens, he loses electrical power
37:30So he may have a lot more heavier flight controls than he was prepared for
37:35And when the lightning strikes, the instrument lighting fails
37:40Making the instruments impossible to read
37:44There's no emergency procedure in the Metroliner manual
37:46That tells you what to do if all your batteries fall offline
37:50You're a test pilot and at that point you use your pilot experience
37:54One of the things to do was for the non-flying pilot
37:56To get a flashlight to illuminate the standby instrument
38:00To help the flying pilot out
38:02The flashlights weren't found
38:05We don't know if they're on the aircraft or not
38:07The power failure cuts off their ability to see and to communicate with each other
38:12They couldn't hear each other
38:15We've lost electrical power
38:20We have nothing
38:21You've got a crew that can't communicate because you've lost the intercom system
38:24You've got a headset on and the Metro's a very noisy cockpit
38:27So you can't hear the other person and what they're saying to you
38:29If they couldn't see their instruments or hear one another
38:33Could the pilots still fly their plane?
38:37They have aileron and rudder controls which aren't electrical
38:42Their engines are still running
38:44The runway is about seven miles away
38:48They should have been able to use the controls they did have to land the plane
38:53They still had control over the ailerons, over the rudder
38:56It was difficult but technically still flyable
38:59But without the ability to see their instruments
39:01They'd have no way of knowing where they were
39:08Seconds later flight 108 is diving towards the ground
39:15The pilots had no chance to control the aircraft in a proper way
39:20Because the light for the third artificial horizon was not there
39:25And they had no visual ground contact
39:28And I think under these circumstances
39:30It's nearly impossible to control the aircraft
39:37Investigators finally understand how a lightning strike caused a fatal crash
39:51You're left of the center line
39:52What?
39:53It starts with a poorly functioning crew
39:55You're left of the center line
39:57You need to turn right
39:58I don't want to go in there
39:59I'm trying to get around it
40:00We're too close to the runway
40:01You can't change course now
40:03Okay
40:04I hear you
40:06Instead of giving him the advice or the two crew mentality
40:10That we're not where we should be
40:11We shouldn't be here
40:12The first officer chose to go the other route
40:14Which was shut down and only make the minimum calls
40:16Which were deviation calls
40:18Half-laps please
40:25The pilots decide to fly their nose-heavy aircraft into a thunderstorm
40:33A powerful lightning strike
40:35We've lost electrical power
40:39Causes a total power failure
40:41We have nothing
40:42And the disoriented crew
40:45Where are we?
40:46I can't tell
40:47Loses control of the plane
40:52500
40:54400
40:56300
40:57Pull up, pull up, pull up
41:02After you've been struck by lightning
41:04You've got winds that are gusting all over the place
41:06It starts to become a pretty violent situation pretty quick
41:09The combination of turbulence
41:11And the pilot's blind actions lasting more than a minute
41:15Sends the plane into extreme turns and banks
41:20Are we banking?
41:22Can't tell
41:23What's the airspeed?
41:24Don't worry about the speed, just pull
41:25You think you can trust your senses, but you can't
41:27You don't know if you're banking to the left
41:29You don't know if you're banking to the right
41:30You can't tell if you've got a nose low or a nose high
41:33You can think you do
41:34You can think you trust it
41:36At the end of the day, your gut instinct will be wrong
41:39The plane is so overloaded
41:41With the G-forces in these turns
41:45It broke up
42:01You're looking at a G-load that literally ripped the engine pylon off the wing
42:05That literally broke the wing spar, the strongest part of the airplane
42:08Broke it like a toothpick
42:09That way exceeded what the aircraft manufacturer ever designed that airplane to go through
42:30The main conclusion of the report by Germany's air accident investigation unit is clear
42:36The crew flew into a thunderstorm, even though they could have flown around it
42:43You have two fairly experienced pilots that they never ever should have been in that situation
42:48There were red flags throughout
42:50If anything can be learned from this one, you've got to speak up on a two-crew airplane
42:53You can't let the other person take you to the scene of the crash
42:57In their recommendations, the FUS reiterates the need for training and manuals
43:03That clearly describe how to operate in and near thunderstorms
43:09This is a very different crew than we see today
43:13Who are well-trained in copy and resource management
43:15Who work together as a crew
43:17And the systems change for the better
43:20And the airplanes are much better
43:23As for Nuremberg Air Service
43:25The company soon replaced the remaining Metroliners in its fleet
43:29I made myself one of the last flights with the Metroliner
43:33I had some tears in my eyes because I think it was on the aircraft's fault