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El Al Flight 1862, a Boeing 747-200F cargo airliner, takes-off from Schiphol Airport near Amsterdam, when the engines on the right wing shear off. 8 minutes later, Flight 1862 glides into a high rise apartment building killing 43 people.
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00:01A 747 cargo flight takes off from Amsterdam.
00:05It climbs over the densely populated city.
00:10Suddenly, a powerful jolt rocks the aircraft.
00:15Eight minutes later, the Jumbo plows into a crowded apartment block.
00:23How did a routine flight turn into Holland's worst air crash?
00:28Now, using advanced computer simulations, we reveal what really downed LL Flight 1862.
00:37Disasters don't just happen. They're a chain of critical events.
00:44Unravel the clues and count down those final seconds from disaster.
00:58Europe.
00:59Holland.
01:02Amsterdam.
01:04Fifteen kilometers from the city center.
01:07Schiphol.
01:08One of the world's busiest airports.
01:14More than 600 aircraft take off or land here every day.
01:21Sunday, October 4th, 1992.
01:242.40pm.
01:26An aircraft enthusiast takes this footage of an Israeli LL 747 cargo plane arriving from New York.
01:32The Jumbo will load up and refuel before flying to Tel Aviv in Israel as flight LL 1862.
01:443pm.
01:45Loading begins, supervised by Jerry Plettenberg, LL's operations officer.
01:51Today's cargo includes consumer products, but some boxes are labeled dangerous goods.
02:00Jerry has a good idea what's inside.
02:04On LL cargo flights, he's seen a huge range of military hardware.
02:10Apache helicopters, radar equipment, aircraft wings, missiles, jet engines for F-16 and F-15s.
02:17All these weapons supply the Israeli military, which is locked in a 45-year-old conflict with Palestinian militants.
02:26The ongoing crisis makes LL a top target for Arab terrorists.
02:33Seven years ago, gunmen opened fire on LL check-in queues in Rome and Vienna, killing 19 people.
02:42The airline stays on permanent alert for more attacks.
02:46Armed security guards keep a close watch on all its planes and personnel.
02:51And before loading, all freight passes through a pressure chamber to detonate any bombs planted by terrorists.
03:025.20pm.
03:04Flight 1862 has passed security checks.
03:07Now the crew arrive for their pre-flight inspection.
03:12The 747 is 13 years old, but it still has at least five years of useful service before retirement.
03:2359-year-old captain Yitzhak Fuchs is in command.
03:26Like many LL pilots, Fuchs is a combat-hardened veteran of the Israeli Air Force.
03:33He's got 25,000 pilot hours under his belt.
03:37Flying alongside Fuchs, a flight engineer Gedalia Sophia, and co-pilot Arnon Ohad, the rookie of the crew.
03:46Just 32, he's been flying jumbos for less than a year.
03:52Flight 1862's take-off will be supervised by air traffic controller Henriette van Opeinen.
03:58It was wonderful flying weather.
04:00You could see to the end of the world.
04:04All the flight paths in and out of Schiphol pass over densely populated areas of Amsterdam.
04:10Under one of them lies the Belmer suburb, 13 kilometres to the east.
04:19At its heart, the sprawling Grunewain apartment block.
04:23It's home to almost 2,000 people.
04:26Among them, Marlena Trideman, a nurse, and Guillermo, her son.
04:34Every day planes would come over. You got used to that after a while.
04:42Guillermo will celebrate his 17th birthday in five days' time.
04:46He's a typical teenager, into pop music and martial arts movies.
04:51But today, he's been to church with his mother.
04:56The Trideman's home is on the fifth floor of the Grunewain block.
05:03Marlena and her husband Stanley are originally from Surinam, a former Dutch colony in South America.
05:11Graciela, their 14-year-old daughter, is a popular girl who's doing well at school.
05:19Always laughing, always happy. A positive word for everyone.
05:24A positive word.
05:296 p.m.
05:32On runway one at Schiphol, Captain Fuchs powers up the 747's four Pratt & Whitney engines.
05:38LL 1862 ready for taxi.
05:42He hands over to his young co-pilot, Arnon Ohad, to give him more flying experience on the 747.
05:526 minutes after takeoff, LL 1862 heads east over Amsterdam's suburbs.
05:57We are now passing 4300.
06:036.27 p.m. and 30 seconds.
06:07The engines are still at full thrust, as the jumbo climbs to 6,500 feet.
06:14Everything is running like clockwork.
06:17The crew settles in for the flight to Tel Aviv.
06:20In less than five hours, they'll be back on home soil with their families.
06:30Suddenly, a terrifying jolt rocks the play.
06:33It starts to lose altitude and rolls violently to the right.
06:39Veteran pilot Captain Fuchs grabs the controls.
06:43He battles to stabilize the jumbo.
06:45If he fails, the aircraft will spiral out of control.
06:50LL 1862, Mayday.
06:52We have an emergency.
06:55After 30 seconds, Captain Fuchs manages to wrestle the jumbo back to steady flight.
07:02Flight Engineer Sophia desperately scans his control panels to try to find out what's wrong.
07:09Seconds later, another crisis.
07:12The instruments reveal that both engines on the right wing are out of action.
07:18It's a pilot's nightmare.
07:21Captain Fuchs must get back to Schiphol for an emergency landing.
07:26Fast.
07:28He tells co-pilot Ohad he needs the airport's longest runway.
07:32We request 2-7 for landing.
07:36Air traffic control clears the jumbo for the journey back to Schiphol.
07:40In that case, heading 360. 360 to heading. Roger.
07:45The return route to runway 27 will take the jumbo over the Belmer suburb where the Trideman family lives.
07:53They and thousands of others in the crippled jet's flight path are completely unaware of the drama unfolding above them.
08:05LL 1862, a fully loaded 747 cargo plane is badly damaged and rapidly losing height.
08:12LL 1862, mayday, mayday, we have an emergency.
08:176.30pm.
08:19Fire crews race into position at Schiphol airport where the jumbo is due to arrive in less than 10 minutes.
08:29The 747 must make a descending turn over Amsterdam to reach the correct altitude and line up for runway 27.
08:38Its final approach will take it over the Grunewijn apartment complex where the Trideman family lives.
08:46Marlena and Stanley decide to visit a friend nearby.
08:51They tell their children, Guillermo and Graciella, they'll be back soon.
09:046.33pm and 35 seconds.
09:08We sent to 2000 feet.
09:10Air traffic controller, Henk de Brakke, clears the stricken jumbo to land at runway 27.
09:16Okay, you have around 13 miles to go to touchdown. Speed is all yours.
09:21The 747 is 2 minutes from the Belmer suburb.
09:25Marlena and Stanley are halfway to their friend's apartment.
09:28It's a typical Sunday evening.
09:31Many people are at home with their families.
09:35It was very relaxed outside.
09:37You could hear the children playing.
09:39You could see the people on the walkways.
09:46At this moment, as Captain Fuchs lifts the nose to slow the jumbo for landing,
09:52the roll to the right returns.
09:55He jams the rudder further to the left.
09:58But now the plane barely responds.
10:02Co-pilot Ohad alerts Schiphol.
10:04Controlling problem. Controlling problem as well.
10:06The news sends a chill through to Brakke.
10:10He immediately contacts his colleague Henriette van Opeenen.
10:15Henk summed that up to me by intercom and said,
10:18he is now in deep, deep trouble.
10:2290 seconds later.
10:23Fuchs still battles to control the roll, but it's getting worse.
10:28And now the jumbo is losing height fast.
10:31It's just seconds from the Belmer suburb.
10:34Here, unaware of the looming danger, Marlena and Stanley near their friend's apartment.
10:40Teenagers Guillermo and Graciela relax at home.
10:46Four floors up, at the other end of the Grunewijn block,
10:4931-year-old Andre Boss hears the approaching rumble of jet engines.
10:56You can describe the noise as getting louder all the time.
11:00And eventually, it starts to roar.
11:04Suddenly.
11:06The roll accelerates to an extreme 90 degree angle.
11:10And the jumbo spirals towards the Belmer.
11:15Going down, going down.
11:18The roar of the jet is now deafening.
11:21Andre grabs the phone to call the emergency services.
11:24Seconds later, a nightmare unfolds just meters from his home.
11:30I looked at the landing gear as it flew straight past my balcony.
11:37Marlena and Stanley reach their friend's apartment.
11:43In his 10th floor apartment, 36-year-old bank worker Rinas Dahan is about to eat dinner.
11:51A screech from his pet cat brings him to his balcony.
11:54He's paralyzed by what he sees.
11:57The jumbo is heading straight for his apartment block.
12:01I saw my life go by in a flash from my childhood to that moment.
12:06I thought, it's over.
12:186.35 p.m. and 42 seconds.
12:22LL-1862 smashes into the sixth floor of the 11-story apartment block.
12:36I heard a huge noise.
12:38It was as if a door slammed closed, like a bang.
12:42The impact knocks Rinas unconscious.
12:47Burning aviation fuel rains down onto dozens of apartments.
12:58The sound of the crash came from the direction of Marlena and Stanley's home, where they let their children just
13:04minutes ago.
13:05The couple race back, gripped by fear.
13:09What terrible disaster has struck their neighborhood?
13:11And are Guillermo and Graciela in danger?
13:20LL-1862, a 747 freighter laden with cargo, smashes into the sixth floor of an apartment block in Amsterdam.
13:376.35 p.m. and 47 seconds.
13:41Air traffic controller Henk Tabraka realizes the signal from the jumbo has stopped.
13:49Up in the control tower, Henriette van Openen can see why.
13:55A column of flame and smoke reveals the jumbo has crashed.
14:05Marlena and Stanley Troedeman race for home.
14:10Suddenly through the trees, they see a towering wall of flame.
14:18Stan said to me, Marlena, it's our flat.
14:22I said, no, that's impossible.
14:25He said, Marlena, our children, our children.
14:30He was screaming.
14:35Stanley freezes.
14:36But Marlena runs to the burning apartment block.
14:41She finds a staircase and races to the fifth floor.
14:46I was only thinking, I need to find my children.
14:50I need to find my children.
15:02At the exact point where her home used to be, she's facing an abyss.
15:08A burning hole.
15:12A burning hole.
15:13I couldn't believe that my house was gone.
15:16I stood there and thought, no, I'm dreaming.
15:30It suddenly occurs to Marlena that her children, 16-year-old Guillermo and 14-year-old Graciela, may have heard
15:37the plane coming and escaped.
15:40She starts a frantic search for them.
15:48On the 10th floor, bank worker Rina Stahan regains consciousness.
15:57He staggers to his front door.
16:02To his horror, it won't budge.
16:05Shock waves from the crash have shifted the frame and jammed the door shut.
16:13Rina's realizes he survived the crash, but now he could burn to death.
16:20There's no way out.
16:22Not even his cat can jump from the 10th floor.
16:28I thought, this is the end.
16:30I thought if I come out, it'll be a miracle.
16:34Andre Boss's apartment, 200 meters away, escaped the impact.
16:41Now he rushes to the crash site to see if he can help.
16:47What you see is the enormous heart of the fire.
16:52You see flames come out of every house.
16:56Andre knows there could be hundreds trapped or injured, and many could die before firefighters arrive.
17:05With no thought for his own safety, he smashes open doors which are jammed or locked.
17:14Entering some apartments would be suicide.
17:17There are too many flames.
17:20But in others, he rescues people who've been overcome by smoke.
17:28Stunned local people rush to the scene.
17:32Marlena Troideman desperately questions everyone near the crash site.
17:38Have they seen her two children, Guillermo and Graschella?
17:47Still trapped in his 10th floor apartment, Rina Stahan feels the temperature soaring as the blaze rages outside.
17:55At that moment, it was 58 degrees Celsius already in my house.
18:01I was sweating pints.
18:05Rina's fears he's got just minutes to live.
18:07But he can do nothing except pray that he and his cat will be rescued.
18:17Just when he thinks he's about to pass out, neighbors break in.
18:23They rush him from the inferno in the nick of time.
18:326.40pm.
18:33Less than five minutes after the crash, the first of 16 fire engines from across Amsterdam arrives at the scene.
18:42Brave local people like Andre Voss have already pulled many survivors from the crash zone.
18:47Now firefighters take over the rescue operation and tackle the inferno.
18:53News crews capture the scene as paramedics start to treat the injured.
19:0550 minutes after the crash, Marlena still searches for her children.
19:12But no one has seen them.
19:18The terrible truth starts to sink in.
19:21She said goodbye to Guillermo and Graciela less than an hour ago.
19:26And promised to be back soon.
19:32Now, all hope of seeing them alive again is fading.
19:39At that moment, I felt as if I was dead myself.
19:44I felt as if I had died inside.
19:48Why did this have to happen?
19:51Why did my children have to go?
20:05News of the disaster spreads around the world.
20:09As many as 200 may be dead tonight after the worst air disaster ever in the Netherlands.
20:17Dawn reveals a gaping hole in the building.
20:20The crash destroys 31 apartments on 11 floors.
20:26The official death toll is 43, including Captain Fuchs and his crew.
20:38The Netherlands Aviation Safety Board quickly mobilizes eight investigators.
20:45Franz Erhard is a senior member of the team.
20:50He's a former fighter pilot with 20 years experience as an air accident investigator.
20:57But now, he's facing his worst nightmare.
21:02You hope it'll never happen.
21:04But then it does happen.
21:05A large plane in the middle of a residential area with many victims.
21:13What triggered Holland's worst air disaster?
21:16And why did the 747 fly steadily for eight minutes after the mayday,
21:21only to nosedive without warning into a crowded apartment block?
21:27Now, by rewinding the events of that fateful day,
21:30and by going deep into the investigation,
21:32we can reveal what really happened to LL 1862.
21:37Advanced computer simulation will take us where no camera can go.
21:41into the heart of the disaster zone.
21:48Airhard checks recordings from air traffic control at Schiphol.
21:55They reveal that co-pilot Ohad reported losing power in both engines on the right wing.
22:01Number three and number four engine inoperative.
22:04Investigators know that two engines failing at the same time is almost unheard of.
22:10The team begins to suspect a more sinister reason for the loss of the Israeli jet.
22:19We thought from the beginning LL was possibly targeted by terrorists.
22:23The terrorist actie was getroffen.
22:25The investigators fear that flight 1862 was downed by a terrorist bomb,
22:31or even a ground-to-air missile.
22:36And they have a second mystery to solve.
22:39If the Jumbo was hit by a missile,
22:42why did it stay airborne for a full eight minutes
22:46before dropping out of the sky?
22:50To see if the terrorism theory stands up,
22:53investigators need to find the Jumbo's engines
22:56and its black boxes,
22:58which record technical flight data
23:01and cockpit conversations.
23:03But it's a daunting task.
23:06Even if they survived the crash
23:08and the 1100 degrees Celsius inferno,
23:10they now lie buried under a mountain of rubble.
23:16The plane had been broken into so many pieces during the crash
23:19that we didn't know where to start.
23:22Early the next morning,
23:24search teams start to sift through the mountain of wreckage.
23:28Investigators know they may face a long wait for clues.
23:35Then, an unexpected development.
23:37An off-duty policeman reveals that he saw flight 1862
23:42as it climbed through Amsterdam's airspace.
23:47What he tells the investigators
23:49gives them an electrifying new lead.
23:55Investigators have no concrete leads
23:57to explain why LL 1862
24:00crashed into an apartment block in Amsterdam.
24:08Then, Jan Kaspers, a detective with the Amsterdam police,
24:13tells them an extraordinary story.
24:16On the evening of the disaster,
24:18he and an old friend were enjoying a yacht trip
24:20on Goemere Lake, 10 kilometers east of Amsterdam.
24:25The boat was moored right beneath LL 1862's flight path
24:29from Schiphol Airport.
24:32At 6.27 p.m., they're preparing dinner.
24:36Suddenly, they hear a loud bang.
24:39What was that?
24:39Flash explosion.
24:42Kaspers rushes onto the deck.
24:44In the sky, he sees a 747.
24:47Beneath it, two objects are falling away.
24:50At first, I thought they were parachutes.
24:52And just as they were above the treetops,
24:54I realized that they might be airplane engines.
24:59It's a startling revelation.
25:02Air crash investigator Franz Erhardt
25:05immediately orders a team of divers
25:06to search Goemere Lake.
25:10Recovering the engines could solve the mystery.
25:14It's now clear to investigators
25:15that the two right-hand engines didn't simply fail.
25:19Number three and number four engine in office.
25:24They sheared off.
25:26Completely.
25:31Unable to see the engines from the cockpit,
25:33the crew had no idea what had happened.
25:36Now there's a new mystery facing the team.
25:39What could rip two five-ton engines off a 747 simultaneously?
25:46The case for a terrorist ground-to-air missile or bomb
25:50now looks compelling.
25:54To prove this theory,
25:56investigators must recover the engines
25:57from the bottom of Goemere Lake
25:59and examine them for clues.
26:02Against all the odds,
26:04after just a few hours of searching,
26:07a diver gets a lucky break.
26:09He spots a massive chunk of aircraft debris.
26:16The team quickly identifies it
26:18as the outer engine from the 747's right wing.
26:22And there's another key find on land near the lake.
26:26Pieces from a 10-meter stretch
26:28of the same wing's leading edge.
26:31It's the team's first chance to find out
26:33why the engines fell off.
26:35They rush the wreckage to their labs.
26:39Scientists swab the engine and the chunks of wing
26:41for traces of the chemicals used in explosives.
26:45They examine the metal surfaces
26:46for the tell-tale micropitting
26:48caused by blast fragments.
26:51It takes two days.
26:54The analysis draws a complete blank.
26:59Investigators can find no evidence of an explosion.
27:02Nor any other clue to why the engine broke away.
27:08It's a dead end.
27:12Now the investigators' only chance to solve the mystery
27:15is to find the 747's inner engine
27:18in the hope that it holds the key.
27:21Or to locate one of the plane's black box
27:23flight recorders at the crash site.
27:27The Dutch Navy joins the search for the inner engine.
27:31It deploys two specialized salvage vessels,
27:34sonar, and more divers.
27:39But after two more days,
27:42they find nothing.
27:44The investigators are worried.
27:47With every passing hour,
27:49crucial evidence is slipping away.
27:51The water would start corroding the parts.
27:56The water would start corroding the parts.
27:56And because of that,
27:57we were keen to find it as soon as possible.
28:03The news is equally bleak at the crash site.
28:07Search teams can find no trace
28:09of either of the 747's critical black boxes.
28:13To make things worse,
28:15there's another setback.
28:17Within 24 hours of the crash,
28:20the mayor of Amsterdam
28:21ordered diggers and bulldozers to clear the site.
28:25He's under huge public pressure to recover bodies as quickly as possible.
28:31Erhard and his team are powerless.
28:35Their only option is to follow the debris to its new home,
28:39an Amsterdam garbage dump.
28:43It seems a hopeless task.
28:49Then, after three days,
28:51Erhard is in his Amsterdam office.
28:54When he gets a call,
28:56it's good news.
28:57One of his team has found the 747's flight data recorder.
29:03We were very happy.
29:05At last we could take a step forward in our investigation.
29:08This black box records all the aircraft's critical technical data.
29:13It could prove the breakthrough they so desperately need.
29:17But when they open it,
29:20it's a terrible letdown.
29:22The tape inside is broken in four places.
29:26And data from the plane's critical final two and a half minutes is indecipherable.
29:32They send the recorder to specialists in Washington DC and the USA.
29:37It's a long shot,
29:38but it's their only hope.
29:44Eleven days after the crash,
29:46the investigation team is at rock bottom.
29:50But just as investigators are beginning to despair,
29:54they hit the jackpot.
29:56A diver finds the inner engine half-buried by mud.
30:02It's still attached to the mounting that fixed it to the wing.
30:11Erhard and the team are excited but cautious.
30:14What if this engine proves as unenlightening as the first?
30:19It's battered and dented.
30:21But they can see no obvious evidence that it was hit by a missile.
30:26And when they run the battery of tests for explosives on this engine,
30:30once again they find nothing.
30:34Investigators reach a turning point.
30:37They rule out a terrorist attack as the cause of the disaster.
30:42In fact, they can find nothing wrong with the engine itself.
30:47But when they examine its cowling, the outer casing,
30:50they quickly spot something odd.
30:54A dent and on it smears of black paint.
31:00Where did it come from?
31:03They send the paint for analysis.
31:07But they must still find out why the inner engine broke away in the first place.
31:13Since the engine was still fixed to its mounting,
31:16the separation must have occurred at the point where it was fixed to the wing.
31:21The team studies the 747's engine attachment system.
31:26Four fittings hold the engines to the wing.
31:29At the heart of each is a 14cm long hollow steel bolt called a fuse pin.
31:36The fuse pins are strong enough to take the load of a 5-ton jet engine at full thrust.
31:42But in some circumstances, they're actually designed to fail.
31:48If an engine suffers a crisis, like a mechanical seizure or a bird strike,
31:53it can vibrate violently.
31:56If the vibrations get too severe, the engine might tear itself free,
32:00destroying the wing with dire consequences.
32:04To prevent this, investigators know that all 747's have a damage limitation system.
32:10When vibrations reach a critical point, the fuse pins are engineered to snap,
32:16allowing the engine to fall away harmlessly.
32:21But there's no sign that the inner engine suffered a crisis.
32:25So the team must consider a chilling possibility.
32:29Did something go terribly wrong with a fuse pin system that led to catastrophe?
32:37The team examines the mounting that fixed the inner engine to the wing.
32:43They focus on what's left of the two central fittings which carry the bulk of the load.
32:50The fuse pins they held are both missing.
32:55But on one fitting, investigators spot something intriguing.
33:01The top of the lug that held the fuse pin has snapped off.
33:10Did this happen when the engine hit the lake or earlier?
33:18Metallurgists examine the break and make a dramatic discovery.
33:23The stress markings are not typical of a violent impact.
33:27They reveal that the lug snapped because it was overloaded.
33:34They realize this can only have happened if the fuse pin inside broke at one end.
33:40This would transfer significant stresses and twisting forces onto the lug at the other end,
33:47making it give way.
33:49Fuse pins are designed to break at both ends if the strain on the engine reaches a critical point.
33:56Erhard believes that a partial failure can only mean one thing.
34:03Metal fatigue in the fuse pin.
34:06It's a startling new theory.
34:10Could metal fatigue in the engine's fuse pins be at the root of the disaster?
34:17But Erhard knows the inner engine would only shear off if both central fuse pins failed.
34:23To prove their theory, investigators will have to find the missing fuse pin from the other central fitting.
34:31The chances of finding such a tiny part in Goymir Lake are remote.
34:37Erhard's only hope that a significant fragment was still attached to the wing when the jumbo crashed.
34:48He deploys more than 20 workers to search the garbage dump where crashed debris now lies.
34:54No one holds out much hope.
34:57The missing fuse pin was only 14 centimeters long and may have shattered on impact.
35:05Looking for the essential parts of the wing mounting was like looking for a needle in a haystack.
35:1448 hours into the search, they have still found nothing.
35:24Then, on day 3, one of the teams spots a piece of metal half hidden by garbage.
35:33It's part of the missing central fitting from the inner engine.
35:37And against all the odds, there's a chunk of fuse pin still inside.
35:45Investigators know it may be their last chance to solve the mystery behind the disaster.
35:50They begin scanning the fragment under an electron microscope as soon as it arrives from the rubbish dump.
35:59And they find their answer.
36:01In the wall of the fuse pin, there's a crack 4 millimeters deep.
36:07The patterns around the fault show all the classic signs of metal fatigue.
36:14The floor started along machining grooves in the hollow pin's central bore.
36:20It's the breakthrough the team have worked so hard to reach.
36:25They already know that metal fatigue made one of the inner engine's two critical central fuse pins fail.
36:33Now, they have indisputable evidence that the other central fuse pin was also defective.
36:44With every flight, the microscopic cracks in the inner engine's fuse pins got bigger and bigger.
36:52On October 4, 1992, they reached a critical point.
36:58At 6,500 feet, with the engine at full thrust, the faulty fuse pins fail.
37:11But the investigation team still has to explain why the 747's outer engine came off as well.
37:20It's almost inconceivable that two sets of fuse pins could fail at the same time.
37:28Then they receive the test results on paint smears found on the inner engine's curling.
37:35The smears are an exact match for the paint used on the central fan blade spinner of the outer engine.
37:42They realize there's only one possible explanation.
37:51The inner engine was at full thrust as the plane climbs.
37:58So when it shears off, it doesn't fall harmlessly away.
38:03It shoots forward.
38:08A split second later, it falls back.
38:11And by sheer chance, strikes the outer engine, smashing it off the wing.
38:18The impact also rips away a 10-meter stretch of the wing's leading edge.
38:25Investigators now know that a freak accident caused two engines to fall off flight 1862.
38:41They alert the manufacturer, Boeing.
38:44It immediately instructs airlines operating the 1,000 747s around the world to inspect all fuse pins and replace any
38:52that are faulty.
38:56But the traumatized residents of the Belmer are desperate for the answer to another major mystery.
39:03Why the plane crashed?
39:06A 747 should be perfectly capable of flying on two engines.
39:13So what made flight 1862 suddenly nosedive just minutes from an emergency landing at Schiphol Airport?
39:20Raise the flat. Get the gear down.
39:24Investigators study the section of wing recovered from Goimir Lake.
39:28It's clear this damage would have reduced the plane's lift.
39:33They also realized that key flight controls lost hydraulic power when the engines broke away.
39:41But if this damage was severe enough to down the plane, how did Captain Fuchs keep it flying steadily for
39:47another eight minutes?
39:50It's a paradox.
39:54Then, 18 days after the crash, the team gets some good news.
39:59Experts in the USA have retrieved the information from the damaged flight data recorder.
40:06The technical readings it contains prove to be the final piece of the puzzle.
40:11They reveal in chilling detail what finally downed flight 1862.
40:27Investigators know that metal fatigue caused one engine to shear off LL 1862 and smash off a second engine.
40:34The incident also destroyed a section of the right wing's leading edge and disabled key controls.
40:43Mayday, mayday, mayday, we have an emergency.
40:45But the damage was clearly not severe enough to down the plane immediately.
40:50Why did it suddenly spiral out of control a fall eight minutes after the mayday call?
41:02The team drops in test pilot and aeronautical engineer, Hyatt Tikalar, to find the answer.
41:08He analyzes thousands of technical readings from the 747's flight data recorder.
41:15After eight months of hard work, Tikalar has a dramatic new insight into what happened to flight 1862.
41:24For the first time, he's able to explain the complex relationship between the loss of the engines, the mangled wing,
41:32and the damaged controls.
41:33He discovers that although the crippled plane could still fly, a crash was inevitable as soon as it tried to
41:41land.
41:43The crew didn't have a choice. They could do nothing else. They were doomed to crash.
41:50The flight data analysis finally reveals why LL 1862 nosedived without warning after pilots kept the jet airborne for a
42:00full eight minutes.
42:03And how hundreds of people on the ground were left seconds from disaster.
42:12Eight minutes to disaster.
42:15Defective fuse pins holding the inner engine to the wing snap, causing the plane to lose not one, but two
42:23engines.
42:24This catastrophe also damages a 10-meter stretch of the wing's leading edge, causing a major disruption of airflow over
42:31it.
42:33This reduces lift on the right-hand side and makes the 747 roll to the right.
42:41Captain Fuchs has also lost two hydraulic systems, controlling key anti-roll devices.
42:48He only manages to wrestle the jumbo back to level flight by pushing his remaining controls to the limit.
42:57The flight data analysis reveals that his current airspeed of 280 knots is the key.
43:03It's just high enough to get sufficient lift out of the right wing to keep them aloft.
43:1139 seconds to go.
43:13Five kilometers from the Belmer apartment complex.
43:17Now Captain Fuchs lifts the jumbo's nose to slow the plane down for landing.
43:22Unaware that this routine procedure will have fatal consequences.
43:28The flight data reveals that this change in angle worsens the disruption in airflow over the mangled right wing.
43:38The result is a further loss of lift on this side of the plane, and it starts to roll again.
43:46Captain Fuchs struggles to pull it level.
43:50But his airspeed has now dropped below 260 knots, reducing lift even more.
43:57This time, his damaged controls cannot save him.
44:03Controlling problem.
44:0430 seconds to disaster.
44:07As the roll and loss of lift reach a critical point,
44:12the 338-tonne jumbo plummets earthward.
44:20LL-1862 nosedives from 2,500 feet.
44:32Microscopic faults in two 14-centimeter long components lead to the death of 43 people.
44:52Rescue workers found the bodies of 16-year-old Guillermo and 14-year-old Graciela the morning after the crash.
45:00Just meters from where their home once stood.
45:04Medical experts believe they were killed instantly.
45:09After the disaster, the children's parents, Marlena and Stanley, moved to another part of Amsterdam.
45:16They couldn't bear to live in the area where their children died.
45:21It's not easy to lose your child or your children.
45:29But you can get strength from the good times you've had with them.
45:36Memories from their birth to their death, no one can take away from me.
45:43I know they are here.
45:46I feel their presence.
45:48A good atmosphere.
45:56The apartments in the crash zone were demolished.
46:00But their foundations remain.
46:04Nearby is a permanent memorial to the victims.
46:13But the disaster also leaves another legacy.
46:20Boeing goes on to strengthen all 747 engine-to-wing attachments, including fuse pins.
46:27It also rolls out a more stringent inspection regime,
46:32with new ultrasound testing to detect metal fatigue.
46:37The changes brought about by the Schiphol crash make every 747 flying today a safer aircraft.
47:07And now it will just cause a place toämt grandadánh her every 747 SC.
47:14The Seatle warum can already get!!
47:14To put it on the surface as it wasamat of the protection of the aircraft.
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