- 4 hours ago
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:02Controllers in Islamabad watch as Air Blue Flight 202 head straight towards a massive hill.
00:09He's not turning.
00:14They issue urgent warnings.
00:17Turn left immediately.
00:18But fail to prevent a disaster.
00:20You're going down!
00:30It's the worst accident in Pakistan's aviation history.
00:36When investigators listen to the CVR, they hear the pilots realize they're in danger.
00:42Terrain, sir!
00:45Took steps to avoid it.
00:47Turning left.
00:49But were unable to save the lives of 152 people.
00:54Why aren't we turning left?
00:56The crew knew what they had to do.
01:00They had reported that they were doing what they were supposed to do.
01:04And yet, the aircraft continued to fly in the wrong direction.
01:10BD, BD!
01:14Oh, fuck!
01:17I need a one-zero gravity.
01:18I need a one-zero gravity.
01:19I need a one-zero gravity.
01:34Air Blue Flight 202 begins its early morning descent towards Islamabad, Pakistan.
01:46There are 146 passengers and six crew on board the Airbus A321.
01:57Air Blue 202.
01:59Air Blue 202.
01:59We expect arrival to ILS runway 30, followed by circling approach to land runway 12.
02:05Understood.
02:05It'll be ILS down to minima.
02:07And then left-down wind.
02:10okay
02:13captain pervez chowdhury is one of the airlines most experienced pilots
02:20najam koreshi is a former air blue pilot who flew with captain chowdhury
02:26captain chowdhury had a lifetime of experience flying with the pakistan international airline
02:31he had a very successful carrier and he was pretty much approaching the end of his carrier
02:45first officer syed ahmed has less commercial experience he's a former f-16 fighter pilot
02:52and squadron leader in pakistan's air force air blue two zero two clear to three nine hundred for
03:00ILS two three zero clear to descend to three nine hundred
03:10he had about three hundred hours on the time so just brand new learning the differences between
03:15the a force line and the commercial line pakistan's capital Islamabad is a city of more than eight
03:24hundred thousand people it's surrounded by the Himalayan foothills to the north and northeast
03:34the mountainous terrain means the only approach to Islamabad's runway is from the south due to the
03:42wind direction today planes are landing on runway one two they must circle the airport and make a visual
03:49approach to the other end of the runway it is always safe to land with a headwind as compared to
03:57a tailwind
03:59when the winds change beyond a certain limit the air traffic controller will switch the runways that
04:06will ensure the plane lands in a headwind thick clouds envelop the airport making landings difficult
04:17China southern is going around and diverting back to a room chief China southern confirming diverting back
04:23to room chief attention all landing aircraft China southern is diverting due to weather if at any point you lose
04:34sight of
04:34the airfield you should abandon the approach completely and carry out the missed approach procedure
04:44flight 202 is now less than 10 minutes from landing
05:04the plane reaches the minimum altitude to which the pilots can descend without the runway in sight
05:12as soon as you see the runway you turn right and then after that you're supposed to keep the runway
05:17inside commencing right turn heading 352 call it in air blue 202 maintaining to 500 and turning right
05:33heading 352
05:44heading 352
05:46captain chowdhury initiates the first turn of the circling approach
05:51air blue 202 continue on the circle for landing on runway one two caution low clouds and visibility maintain visual
05:59with the airport
06:03even in the poor weather it's up to the pilots to decide whether they should continue the approach or not
06:09depending whether they have it on the inside
06:15the controller expects to see the lights of the airbus as it flies past the airfield
06:28radar i can't see air blue 202 what's his current location please he's approaching the no-fly zone north of
06:35the airfield instruct him to turn left immediately
06:41flight 202
06:42flight 202 is much further north than expected and needs to turn left for the approach to runway one two
06:50air blue 202 turn left heading 180
06:56confirm he has visual with the ground if not instruct him to climb and execute a missed approach
07:01air blue 202
07:03air blue 202 confirm you have airfield in sight
07:07the controllers had radar they could see what the aircraft was doing
07:11they could see that the aircraft was not doing what the procedure said they should be doing
07:18ask again
07:21air blue 202 please confirm you have visual with the ground
07:33air blue 202 visual with the ground
07:37he's confirming visual
07:41he's not turning
07:44controllers can see that flight 202 is rapidly approaching the hills north of the airport
07:56in the cockpit the pilots are struggling to turn their plane away from the mountains ahead
08:04why aren't we turning left
08:10why aren't we turning left
08:18terrain ahead
08:19pull up
08:21terrain ahead
08:23terrain sir
08:24pull up
08:25instruct him to turn left immediately
08:30the controllers can't believe what they're seeing
08:33here's a guy with 25,000 hours and he's flying directly towards a mountain
08:41in the cabin passengers have become aware that something's not right
08:51they're approaching the 5,000 foot Magala Hills
08:56terrain ahead pull up
08:58Sir we are going down
09:00terrain terrain
09:02terrain
09:03terrain
09:04terrain
09:05terrain ahead pull up
09:08position
09:08us
09:11plane
09:220주고
09:24vor
09:24Margar cần
09:25seven miles from the airport the wreckage lies at an altitude of nearly 3,000 feet
09:33it will be difficult for rescuers to reach the site couldn't get access to
09:43it with a car or a truck even with helicopters there was no place to set
09:49down so the only way to get to the accident site was with a long slow climb
09:58it takes more than half an hour for rescuers and volunteers to make their
10:03way up the steep hill to the crash site in hopes of finding survivors
10:17when crews do reach the site they find a scene of complete devastation
10:33152 people died in the Saxon it's the worst accident in Pakistan's aviation history
10:45why did a modern airplane fly into well-known mountains north of the airport in Islamabad
11:00investigators arrive at the accident site to study the wreckage of air blue flight 202
11:09when an aircraft flies into mountains there are really two areas that we're looking at in terms
11:14of the root cause one is a sudden and unexpected loss of control the other would be the aircraft
11:25has actually stayed in control of the pilots and still somehow been flown into a mountain
11:34an analysis of the engines shows that they were fully functional at the time of impact and capable of
11:41producing maximum thrust okay good work everyone start heading back down right so the stabilizer was set at 3.5
11:54degrees
11:55high-level classical options in the sky and that we're learning and at the pace of the ship
11:59further depending on the ship's standard is to get started
11:59so configured for landing but climbing at full power
12:06an examination of the electrical and mechanical components that we could find
12:11there was no obvious damage or mechanical failure
12:16they were trying to land here but then this slam into the mother of the hill
12:23seven miles north of the runway how did they get so far off course for an
12:34approach that was supposed to be a very tight approach because of the existence
12:39of the hills that is extraordinary they were approaching from the southeast for
12:46landing here on runway one two scattered clouds rain visibility was at 3.5
13:02kilometers challenging conditions could the cloudy conditions have been a factor
13:11in the accident when an aircraft flies into high ground one thing that is almost certainly a factor
13:21is poor visibility uh low cloud fog call it what you will visibility would have been an issue
13:30but you don't need to see the margala hills to know that they're there
13:39everyone knows towards the north east of the runway there are mountains they're clearly marked on the
13:45maps terrain ahead start going down pull up pull up
13:56can the controller explain why the crew of flight 202 couldn't avoid the mountains
14:04radar control informed him he'd be doing the circling approach to runway one two
14:09a blue 202 expect arrival at ILS three zero followed by a circling approach to land runway one two
14:17and he understood the approach yes sir he did
14:23understood it'll be ILS down to minima and then left downwind
14:30and then that's when I assume control as he began the right turn to the circling approach
14:41the circling approach involves four carefully timed turns the first to the right followed by a left turn
14:50that takes the plane parallel to the runway the two final turns line the plane up for the landing on
14:56runway one two
14:59pilots must keep the runway in sight for the duration of this approach
15:07after about a minute I expected to see him fly by
15:13but he never did
15:16I asked the crew if they had the runway in sight and they confirmed that they did
15:21air blue 202 please confirm you have visual with the ground
15:31but he kept flying further and further away from the airport directly towards the hills
15:40after breaking off from the approach they are supposed to turn after 30 seconds
15:45instead they kept going for almost two minutes we tried to stop him several times
15:55it was too late message from radar turn left immediately
16:08we couldn't prevent
16:13what happened
16:20it's all here on the radar track
16:28the crew knew what they had to do
16:32they reported that they were doing what they were supposed to do
16:37and yet the aircraft continued to fly in the wrong direction
16:42terrain ahead
16:47how could the pilots have ended up so dangerously off course
16:55it's all here on the plane
16:59investigators look into the background of flight 202's pilots to determine if the approach into
17:05islamabad was mishandled
17:09captain had years of experience with major airlines
17:15captain chowdhury has been flying for more than 40 years
17:20he has accumulated more than 25 000 flying hours throughout his career
17:25but only about 1 000 of those were on the airbus
17:32the first officer however is a whole different story
17:39first officer sayed ahmed had far fewer hours than the captain
17:44the former fighter pilot had recently joined the airline and had accumulated only 286 hours on airbus a320 airplanes
17:56two very different pilots one during the end of his career with thousands of hours of experience
18:04and the other just starting off his commercial career
18:08but neither of them had a ton of experience with the airbus a321
18:16did the pilots lack of experience on this type of plane play a role in the accident
18:25experience is generally considered to be an asset
18:29the only potential downside is that of course if you've got a lot of experience of one particular thing
18:36it actually might be more difficult to learn how to operate this new type of aircraft
18:49so they're supposed to perform their approach within this area
18:54anything beyond this is outside the airport's 4.3 mile protection zone
19:00okay let's see his track
19:04investigators examine flight 202's radar track to see how the pilots set up their approach
19:13so they make their first turn here
19:20and then head straight out of the protection zone
19:25then this left turn takes them directly into the marhala hills
19:32the radar track shows that the pilots flew closer and closer to the mountains surrounding islamabad
19:38wouldn't they have gotten a warning that they're approaching the hills
19:49yes sir it should have sounded 60 seconds before impact
19:56the enhanced ground proximity warning system looks downward to see the height that you're at above
20:05ground but it also looks ahead to see any terrain that you're flying towards
20:14if they got a warning why didn't they try to pull up or turn to avoid it
20:25did the pilots of flight 202 get any warning of an impending collision
20:32the crew would have been given pictures on their navigation display of the approaching terrain
20:38and they would have been given oral warnings so since they flew directly into the terrain
20:45has the enhanced ground proximity warning system completely failed
21:01don't leave me in suspense did they get any ground proximity warnings
21:14the cockpit data shows that in the final minute of the flight the crew got 21 separate warnings
21:22about the rising terrain ahead
21:29okay so that answers that
21:34over 21 times we saw terrain terrain pull up terrain ahead pull up there's no way that the captain missed
21:42that warning the enhanced ground proximity warning system was working properly terrain ahead
21:50if the warning system was operating why would the pilots ignore it and allow the accident to happen
21:57if you hear a full terrain pull up warning from the gpws the reaction should be immediate it should be
22:06to
22:06apply full power pull the nose of the aircraft up get it moving away from the ground and that should
22:11be done
22:12before any questions are asked
22:19why didn't the crew of air blue flight 202 act on terrain warnings and steer their plane away from the
22:27mountains
22:27islamabad air blue 202 investigators listen to the cockpit voice recording what are current conditions please
22:35air blue 202 visibility is now 3.5 kilometers with rain wind one six knots zero five zero degrees runway
22:44one two currently in use
22:47they focus on how the crew set up for landing
22:51it will be runway one two yes invisibility scrap
22:58the weather was marginal and marginal weather makes you nervous because you don't know whether
23:04you're going to be able to see anything at all and the captain clearly was nervous about this approach
23:13did the captain proceed with an approach he wasn't comfortable with
23:18how the crew set way points for runway one two radial zero two six five miles a beam
23:32mate stop why is he asking him to input a course to the runway this is supposed to be a
23:41visual approach
23:45it didn't make any sense for the captain to be entering way points into the flight management system
23:51the circling approach is by definition a visual approach so there is no way that any pilot would normally do
23:58this
24:01then just two miles from the airport the pilots of air blue flight 202 hear of a flight landing ahead
24:09of
24:09them be advised that a tia 737 has landed on runway one two safely
24:17commencing right turn heading three five two
24:23that could have caused the pilot to say hey if they can get in we can get in too
24:29wait stop so he starts his turn later than usual half a mile from the runway
24:42instead of breaking off early they had to continue on because of the low visibility and low ceilings
24:48and they did not break off to the right until the last possible point which was at the end of
24:52the runway
24:54concerned with poor visibility captain chowdhury makes a baffling decision switch into nav mode for managed
25:03approach to runway one two there he goes switching to nav mode he can't be visual
25:11carrying out the circling approach using the autopilot to navigate is a violation of procedures
25:20as soon as you select the nav mode the plane starts to fly the pre-programmed waypoints
25:27and at this point captain chowdhury is normal flying the visual approach okay sir
25:36but are you visual
25:40i have a visual
25:44chowdhury insists he can see the runway but investigators are certain he could not
25:51they can't see the airfield any longer because they've just got to the far side of it there is no
25:56airfield in sight
25:59so instead of turning left to fly parallel with the runway
26:06he keeps flying in this direction moving further and further from the airport
26:12sir we're reaching higher ground
26:16terrain ahead
26:18terrain ahead sir there's terrain ahead
26:22sir turn left
26:25terrain ahead
26:28it should be turning terrain ahead as the captain struggles to turn away from the hills
26:34the rain the head controllers become concerned air blue 202 confirm you have airfield in sight
26:42what should i tell him sir
26:45terrain ahead tell them tell them
26:49the crew doesn't reply straight away probably because the first officer knows full well that no
26:55they don't have visual contact with the airfield but he waits for his captain to tell him what to say
27:00air blue 202 please confirm you have visual with the ground
27:04terrain ahead
27:06air blue 202 visual with the ground
27:11in the end the crew tells air traffic control that they are in visual contact with the ground
27:18now that's not untrue but it's not the same thing as being visual with the airfield
27:24it feels more like a reply designed to get air traffic control off their backs
27:27the rain sir we are approaching terrain ahead yes i know we are turning left
27:33pull up pull up sir sir pull up the captain says he's turning left but
27:41he keeps flying directly towards the hills
27:48investigators are unable to explain why captain chowdhury could not alter his course and steer away from the
27:58mountains
27:59terrain
27:59sir turn left
28:02the final minute of the cvr reveals a picture of chaos
28:06and confusion pull up sir sir pull up
28:14they're applying power trying to climb
28:20sir pull up
28:24investigators hear first officer ahmed pleading with his captain to pull up
28:29the train ahead why aren't we turning left
28:32pull up
28:35terrain ahead pull up terrain sir
28:41terrain ahead
28:42sir we're going down
28:46message from radar turn left immediately
28:48pull up
29:01all they had to do
29:04was turn away from those hills
29:09despite reacting to the terrain warnings the pilots could not steer their plane away from the mountains
29:18i think they knew what was happening
29:21i think they knew that they had to turn left for some reason the aircraft didn't turn left
29:28will flight 202's flight data recorder explain why captain chowdhury didn't or couldn't turn
29:35and avoid the mountains can we see the altitude please
29:41the minimum altitude is 2500 feet
29:47investigators can see that chowdhury dialed in an altitude below what's permitted
29:52there's only one reason it would drop below that
29:58commencing right turn heading 352
30:07there's no earthly reason for doing it because the minimums are there for a very good reason
30:14the only reason why they ever break the minimums is because they can't see the ground properly and
30:18they want to get closer to it can we see the flight path
30:22you see he's way off course in heavy fog and has clearly lost visual
30:33let's see the autopilot modes
30:39so he asks the automation to take over
30:46more than four miles off course captain chowdhury makes his biggest error
30:51by switching modes on his autopilot
30:55the captain switched from heading mode to nav mode
31:00and the aircraft turned left to heading of three zero zero
31:07towards the mountain
31:11the airbus now makes a left turn towards a predetermined waypoint
31:16bringing the flight dangerously close to the mountains
31:21he's approaching the no-fly zone north of the airfield
31:26from this point on air traffic control continued to urge the flight to turn left
31:31because they knew they were in the vicinity of the high mountainous terrain terrain
31:35terrain ahead
31:38Ablo two zero two turn left heading one eight zero
31:40terrain
31:41why aren't we turning left
31:43pull up
31:46can we see what he's selecting
31:51he's dialing in a left turn
31:59captain chowdhury uses his heading knob to turn the plane sharply left away from the hills
32:08but the plane it keeps flying in the same direction it's not turning
32:24he's still in nav
32:28investigators realized the captain forgot that his plane was in navigation mode and not heading mode
32:35which is required to turn the aircraft
32:37if the aircraft is flying in nav mode it will keep on flying on its predetermined course
32:45whether or not the crew change the heading select
32:51why aren't we turning left
32:55captain chowdhury doesn't realize that his inputs are futile
33:02in order to get from nav mode into heading mode
33:05you pull the knob out and that engages heading mode
33:09he forgot to pull it out
33:12he realizes his error and pulls the knob here at 40 seconds before impact
33:26ah
33:28when captain chowdhury tries to correct his error he only makes a bad situation worse
33:35sir turn left
33:37oh
33:38why is that turning left
33:45captain chowdhury has dialed in so many left turns
33:49that his last input is now to the plane's right
33:54the airbus takes the shortest route to get to that heading
33:58directly towards the margala hills
34:05he's in heading mode for the rest of the flight
34:13the investigation saw that the captain was so reliant on the automation that
34:16he was trying to turn the aircraft to the left
34:20asking why the aircraft wasn't turning to the left
34:22but he didn't even use his side stick and actually turn the aircraft to the left manually
34:27why aren't we turning left
34:30investigators now know why captain chowdhury was unable to turn left and avoid the mountains
34:37but one question remains
34:40why didn't the first officer recognize the mistakes and do something to correct them
34:45so we're going down
34:51100 knots
34:54check
34:55investigators find a possible explanation for the first officer's puzzling behavior
35:00v1
35:01at the very start of flight 202
35:05rotate
35:07as it took off for islamabad
35:11the flight starts with the pilots working efficiently as a crew
35:15positive rate
35:17gear up
35:23gear up
35:27the takeoff from karachi is textbook
35:33from initial pushback startup and all of it to take off everything seemed normal
35:41we are clear to climb to flight level
35:44explain to me
35:45why that is blue
35:47but the other symbols are white
35:50the pilot's cordial relationship soon changes
35:56sir
35:57there on your display why is that symbol blue but the others are white
36:02you should know why that is
36:05i believe it's because the flight plan defers from the current route
36:09no that's wrong
36:10no that's wrong it's because it's the one being navigated towards basic
36:15do you know how to modify this point
36:19from the main menu
36:21no you don't need to return to the main menu you can do it on the screen
36:26what did they teach you in that so-called training of yours
36:31captain chowdhury is heard quizzing and berating his first officer
36:36this wasn't normal behavior it seems it was only really for the purpose of putting his first officer
36:45in his place making sure he knew who was in charge and to do as he was told
36:52what's he doing
36:55if you don't know how to use the flight management system
36:58then what use are you in the cockpit
37:01you might as well go back and help the girls serve tea
37:07yes
37:09sorry sir
37:18what about maximum thrust available for climb can you at least tell me what that is
37:23this has been going on for nearly an hour now
37:26towards you
37:29radio ahead to islamabad for the weather
37:34do you know how to use the radio yes
37:40captain chowdhury is a very experienced pilot he should know that this is not how we behave
37:46on the flight deck of an airliner
38:02so
38:03investigators wonder why captain chowdhury would act so aggressively towards his first officer
38:09he was recently treated for diabetes and hypertension
38:13but deemed fit to fly
38:17anything
38:19pilots who flew with him said he was demanding sometimes difficult
38:24but nothing at this level
38:27maybe it had more to do with him
38:31could the first officer's background have affected his captain's attitude towards him
38:41in pakistan
38:42in pakistan there has been a hidden rivalry between air force pilots
38:46and the people who are in the commercial side already
38:50they feel that actually force guys they are taking away their opportunities
38:58investigators believe that the captain's abusive behavior might explain one of the mysteries of this tragedy
39:05why first officer ahmed never took control of the plane
39:12all the first officer had to do was to take manual control of the aircraft
39:15and fly it away from the mountain
39:21investigators scrutinize
39:22first officer ahmed's actions leading up to the crash of flight 202
39:26his first officer tells the captain to pull up three times
39:30and to turn left
39:32twice
39:33but he never says he's taking control
39:40if i was the first officer i'll take over the control
39:44pull back on the side stick to create the max performance maneuver applied to the thrust
39:50and keep climbing till i'm clear of the hills
39:54the team believes the captain's behavior earlier in the flight explains why the first officer allowed
40:01him to mishandle the approach if you don't know how to use the flight management system
40:07then what use are you in the cockpit
40:12we have the captain's behavior which was so overbearing so autocratic
40:18so nasty that it served to completely shatter the self-confidence of the first officer
40:25first officer ahmed allows procedures to be set aside
40:30switch into nav mode for managed approach to runway one two okay
40:39sir and then fails to take control when his captain flies the plane directly towards the mountains
40:46he was so worn down by the captain's harsh behavior that he just couldn't stand up to him
40:52he became a bystander
40:59the first officer clearly knows that what they're doing is wrong
41:03he knows that his captain is disoriented that the aircraft is on a collision course with a mountain
41:10and yet somehow he doesn't have it in him to intervene
41:19sir we are going down
41:22three and a half minutes after the start of the approach
41:27the airbus slams into the hills
41:33killing everyone on board
41:41this is one of the most extraordinary accidents i've seen
41:48there were no technical factors in this accident
41:54there was nothing wrong with the aircraft there was nothing wrong with the engines
41:59it was all a matter of human misjudgment and human error
42:10if he doesn't try the approach in nav mode
42:13there's no accident
42:16all the warning signs were there telling them what to do
42:22it should have been easy to recover
42:26very if he hadn't taken his first officer out of the picture
42:31different outcome
42:34absolutely incredible
42:41it's hard to believe that somebody of his experience
42:46would make so many errors and mishandling of the aircraft
42:51uh it i just it just defies logic
42:58the final report into the crash of airblue flight 202 makes several recommendations to pakistani airlines
43:07including better briefings on the circling approach procedures
43:11and better crew management training
43:15this accident shows the cockpit management
43:18and the atmosphere in the cockpit that's set by the captain
43:21is just as important as an operating aircraft and operating engines
43:26and in 2018 the airport in islamabad is replaced with a more modern airport with two runways
43:33that are well away from the hills that claim the lives of the 152 people on board flight 202
43:44as i learned more i really felt extremely bad
43:52i felt very sad about that loss
43:59it was a preventable accident
44:01it was a preventable accident
44:01you
Comments