- 1 day ago
Air Crash Investigation S26E06 Deadly Cover Up
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00:00Just minutes after taking off from Lima...
00:03We declare an emergency.
00:05The pilots of Aero Peru Flight 603 get mixed messages from their plane.
00:10I cut the engines, but the speed is increasing.
00:14Having erroneous airspeed indications now puts into your brain,
00:17am I climbing, am I not climbing?
00:20They seek assistance from the ground.
00:22Can you tell us our altitude, please?
00:24You're at 9,700 feet according to my radar.
00:27But nothing makes sense.
00:28We're in the water, pull up!
00:33All 70 people on board are killed.
00:38Investigators compare the cockpit voice recording...
00:40We will maintain 10,000 feet, set it.
00:4310,000 feet.
00:44...with the flight data recorder...
00:46Captain doesn't realize how close they are to the water.
00:48...and suspect a single faulty sensor prevented the crew from averting disaster.
00:54It violates the laws of physics.
00:56Airplanes just don't do that.
01:23It's nearing 1 a.m. at Jorge Chavez International Airport in Lima, Peru.
01:32Thick clouds blanket the sky as Aero Peru 603 taxis to the runway.
01:41The weather in Lima, Peru is a very, very stable environment, especially this time of the year.
01:48The captain is 58-year-old Eric Schreiber.
01:52He's highly experienced, having logged almost 22,000 flight hours.
01:56Aero Peru 603, authorized to Santiago, initial level 29,000 feet, and afterwards on course, transponder 5603.
02:0942-year-old first officer David Fernandez has flown nearly 8,000 hours.
02:15Correct, Lima Tower.
02:17He will be the pilot flying the aircraft tonight.
02:21Roger.
02:23He's doing double duty by also operating the radio.
02:29Lima Tower, Aero Peru 603, runway 15.
02:34Ready for takeoff.
02:37Aero Peru 603, wind calm, clear for takeoff, runway 15.
02:45There are 61 passengers and 7 flight attendants on board.
02:59Take off at 41 minutes past midnight, on the dot.
03:05What precision?
03:06Like the Suez.
03:08Let's go.
03:18The crew is extremely professional.
03:20They accomplished their checklists and procedures as what would be expected.
03:23And they were basically an on-time machine.
03:43Flight 603 will fly out to the Pacific Ocean before heading south to Santiago.
03:50The aircraft is a four-year-old Boeing 757-200.
03:56The Boeing 757 is a long, narrow-bodied aircraft, twin-engine.
04:01It's simple in its design, simple in its instrumentation, and just an overall comfortable airplane to fly.
04:10The passengers settle in for the three-and-a-half-hour flight.
04:18In the cockpit, the first officer spots a potential problem.
04:24The ultimatums are stuck.
04:31Windshear, windshear, windshear, windshear, windshear.
04:34The pilots also get a windshear warning.
04:40The windshear is an alert that we're entering into an environment of undesirable winds that could be highly critical in
04:48the safety of the aircraft.
04:50Those type of winds are just very uncommon in that area.
04:53And we're not forecasted at night at all.
04:57Flight 603 climbs into the thick clouds above Lima.
05:02The pilots lose sight of the ground.
05:06The speed.
05:08They now discover another instrument isn't working.
05:12Yeah, right.
05:14Flying in the clouds at night, without knowing how fast they're going or their height above the ground,
05:21the pilots face a potentially dangerous situation.
05:26Am I climbing?
05:27Am I not climbing?
05:28Am I near mountainous terrain, which is very close to the coastal line of Peru?
05:34Tower Aero Peru 603.
05:36Flight 603 updates the tower controller.
05:40Aero Peru 603, tower, go ahead.
05:43We have no optometer and no airspeed.
05:46Declaring an emergency.
05:51When a pilot declares an emergency with air traffic control, the controller is going to give that aircraft priority handling.
05:59Roger, change frequency to 119.7 for further instruction from radar control.
06:05Switching to 119.7.
06:11Before contacting radar control, the captain takes over from the first officer.
06:17Okay, I have control.
06:19The captain may decide to take over the flying role and tell the first officer to talk on the radio
06:26and work procedures.
06:28Lima 603, we request vectors for ILS runway 15.
06:32The pilots request directions for a return to the airport.
06:36Roger, we suggest a right turn heading 330.
06:40It was a good call to ask air traffic control, give us vectors.
06:44We're so busy up here dealing with everything else.
06:46You can certainly help us out if you tell us which direction to turn and guide us back towards the
06:51airport.
06:52Turn right heading 330.
06:56A heading of 330 will take the plane north to a position where it can then make the turn back
07:02to Lima.
07:04But two and a half minutes later...
07:07Aero Peru 603, you're showing level 9200.
07:11What is your heading now?
07:14The radar controller notices that flight 603 hasn't turned back towards the airport.
07:23Heading 205.
07:25We're heading away from the shore.
07:27Affirmative.
07:29We will maintain 10,000 feet.
07:32Set it, 10,000 feet.
07:33The captain decides to fly further out to sea before returning to Lima.
07:39They go out over the ocean, which is one of the best decisions to possibly do.
07:44They don't now have to worry about other aircraft in the Andes Mountains.
07:50In the cabin, passengers are unaware of what's happening in the cockpit.
08:00Safely away from shore.
08:02According to the radar, you're crossing radial 230 from Lima.
08:08Distance west, southwest is 37 miles.
08:12Flight 603 finally starts turning north to begin the approach to Lima and needs to begin its descent to the
08:19airport.
08:20I'll try to descend with the power cut.
08:29It was going to descend at idle thrust, which is a good way to descend.
08:34It's nice and steady in a 757 and keeps the airspeed under good control.
08:45I cut the engines, but the speed is increasing.
08:49Even with power to the engines cut, the airspeed indicators show that the plane is accelerating.
08:57Can you tell us the speed, please?
08:59I have 320.
09:02We have 350.
09:05They'll need to use a different strategy to descend.
09:11Getting to the lower altitude, hopefully getting into some clearer areas to see the coastal line,
09:17could give them more comfort for a safe landing.
09:20Take the speed brakes out.
09:24That is another great way of slowing the aircraft and getting better control of the airspeed.
09:33But deploying the speed brakes has the opposite effect.
09:40Overspeed.
09:41A new warning tells them they're flying far too fast.
09:46The airplane's above its maximum allowable airspeed.
09:49It's in danger of breaking apart if they don't do something right now.
09:58When I have the speed brakes out and all the power is cut, this can be right.
10:04What more possibly can be confusing and going wrong right now?
10:11Seconds later, they get a contradictory warning that the plane's flying far too slow.
10:19The stick shaker indicates to pilots that if the airplane gets any slower,
10:24it's going to be in a stall condition.
10:27Are they going too fast or too slow?
10:30The pilots must decide which alarm to react to.
10:35We're stalling!
10:42The captain decides to increase the speed by pitching the nose down, silencing the stall warning.
10:53But they're not out of danger yet.
10:58With conflicting warnings and no reliable airspeed or altitude readings,
11:03the pilots of flight 603 urgently need help.
11:08Is there any plane that can take off to rescue us?
11:11Yes. We're coordinating immediately.
11:15At this point, it was a totally out of the box thought by the first officer
11:21to ask for this type of assistance,
11:24which would have given them a visual reference right next to them with altitude, airspeed,
11:30also communications, and we have somebody alongside of us holding our hand to the airport.
11:37The plane is now 50 miles from Lima's airport.
11:42Aero Peru 603, you are heading 270, 10,000 feet.
11:48While they wait for a rescue plane, the captain attempts to join the approach path to the runway.
11:54I'll try to intercept the ILS and then descend.
11:58Lima, Aero Peru 603, we will try to intercept the ILS.
12:03Roger, Aero Peru 603.
12:05They think they're flying at a nice, safe altitude.
12:07And they think that they pretty much have airspeed under control.
12:11They probably thought they were in a pretty darn good position.
12:17Soon after, the radar controller provides an update on the escort flight.
12:22Aero Peru 603, there is a 707 about to take off.
12:27Starting to move now.
12:33It seems to be flying well.
12:37Can you tell us our altitude, please?
12:39You're at 9700 feet, according to my radar.
12:43Terrain. Too low. Terrain.
12:48Too low. Terrain. Terrain.
12:509700 feet, but we're getting a terrain warning.
12:54Pull up.
12:55Pull up. He's telling you to pull up.
12:58Terrain.
12:58We're here in the water. Pull up.
13:08We're running over.
13:19We're running over.
13:1929 minutes after taking off, Flight 603 crashes into the Pacific Ocean, 48 miles from Lima, Peru.
13:35Within hours, a Navy aircraft discovers debris from Flight 603.
13:43The accident occurred at night, and the wave conditions were very high, so the first few ships that went out
13:50to look for the wreckage really struggled to find it.
13:54Heavy fog also hampers recovery efforts.
14:13By the end of the first day, the bodies of only 13 of the 70 people on board are recovered.
14:20There are no signs of survivors.
14:25Those who haven't been found are believed to be inside the fuselage on the seabed.
14:44It's up to air crash investigators from Peru's Accident Investigation Board to find out why a plane, last observed flying
14:53nearly 10,000 feet above the sea, suddenly crashed into it.
15:02We have the military radar.
15:05With the underwater wreckage still beyond reach, investigators get their first lead from the Peruvian military.
15:14Any coastal nation will have military radar that's constantly scanning for any approaching aircraft.
15:20So, by querying the Peruvian military radar, we were able to get some data about the altitude and position of
15:28the accident flight.
15:30So, after taking off, they follow the approved flight plan over the ocean, and then they start heading north.
15:37Yeah, they're headed back towards Lima.
15:39Mm-hmm.
15:43The flight climbs to 13,000 feet, and then it starts to descend.
15:48And now, in the last seven minutes, the flight has a series of erratic climbs and descents before it crashes.
15:58It appears they lost control.
16:05It becomes just a roller coaster ride of altitudes, because they don't have control.
16:15What could have caused the pilots to lose control?
16:20When you start putting an investigation together, you start putting the what-ifs on the table.
16:26What if this failed?
16:27What if that failed?
16:28What if this went wrong?
16:29What if the crew made a mistake?
16:32Pre-takeoff seems okay.
16:34Investigators scrutinize the communications between air traffic control and the pilots.
16:39Look at this.
16:40The crew reported problems with airspeed and altitude readings only two and a half minutes into the flight.
16:46Tower, Aero Peru 603.
16:48Aero Peru 603, tower, go ahead.
16:51We have no altimeters and no airspeed.
16:59Faulty air data.
17:02Sounds like an issue with the Pitostatic system.
17:07The Pitostatic system uses tubes and sensors mounted on the plane, which measure air pressure to calculate airspeed and altitude.
17:18Wasn't there a recent crash involving the Pitostatic system?
17:21Yeah.
17:23Birken Air Flight 201.
17:27Only eight months earlier, another Boeing 757 crashed soon after taking off from Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic.
17:36The cause was a blocked Pitot tube.
17:40Some investigators were wondering if we had a similar situation to what we had in Bergen Air.
17:45Wasn't entirely the same, but it still involved blockage or covering parts of the Pitostatic system.
17:53Well, maybe that's what happened here.
18:05Nearly two weeks since Aero Peru Flight 603 crashed into the ocean,
18:10a U.S. Navy ship helps the Peruvian Navy to track the pings from the Boeing 757's two black boxes.
18:19The wreckage is finally located at a depth of 680 feet.
18:27Using remotely operated vehicles, investigators finally get their first view of the wreckage site.
18:36The wreckage was very concentrated. The plane was intact when it hit the water.
18:48The fact that all the major pieces of the airplane are in one concentrated area really gives the investigators a
18:56much clearer picture of how the airplane came down.
18:58So they either came down in a flat spin or it came down nose first, which is a very unusual
19:05accident.
19:09The black boxes are also located.
19:14It's very, very critical to get both recorders.
19:17First, you want to know how the airplane was behaving.
19:20And then secondly, what was going on in the cockpit between the crew members of the airplane.
19:28They are packed in seawater and sent to Washington where the NTSB, the National Transportation Safety Board, will process their
19:36invaluable data.
19:44That's it. Keep moving that way.
19:48The team also searches for evidence of some kind of blockage of the pitot tubes and static ports.
19:55There. Keep going.
19:57They focus on a section of the left fuselage where the static ports are located.
20:03Okay, now moving.
20:08That's it.
20:11The static ports were blocked.
20:14They can see that the ports are covered.
20:21When we saw that those static ports were covered, it was case closed.
20:26Drop the curtains.
20:28We knew exactly what happened in this accident.
20:31How did such a critical device, which determines airspeed and altitude, get covered up and blocked?
20:40Make sure you tag everything.
20:43Investigators survey the recovered wreckage of Aero Peru Flight 603 to find out what is covering the static ports.
20:54Look at that.
20:58Looks like silver tape.
21:00Same color as the fuselage.
21:02And is.
21:28Why were the ports covered with tape?
21:31And by whom?
21:38It wasn't our job to assign blame or liability, but we wanted to understand the procedure
21:43to make sure that important step of removing the tape would never get overlooked again.
21:52So let's check the last bug entry.
21:55Okay.
21:56Investigators check maintenance records to understand why the ports were taped over.
22:03Interesting.
22:05Hey.
22:07Bird strike.
22:10During the plane's last landing before the accident, the right engine was struck by birds.
22:19They replaced the turbine blades, the hydraulic pump was repaired, and they polished the lower
22:24front of the 757.
22:28Exactly where the static ports are located.
22:31Did maintenance personnel follow the correct procedures for polishing the 757?
22:36When you're performing work on the airplane, such as polishing or washing it, it's important
22:42not to get any debris into the ports because when you take off, temperatures go down, they
22:48may freeze in place, which could cause severe instrument problems to the airplane.
22:54According to the maintenance manual, they're supposed to cover the static ports.
22:58Whoever polished the plane covered the static ports with tape and didn't remove it.
23:05So why wasn't the tape removed after the area was polished?
23:11If you look at the maintenance process on an airplane, and cleaning or polishing an airplane
23:17is maintenance, there's multiple steps, multiple people, and multiple looks.
23:22The whole purpose of that is to make sure that nothing is missed.
23:29Were the static ports inspected as part of Flight 603's line check?
23:35It was a crazy night.
23:38Investigators interview the line mechanic to determine if the static ports were inspected
23:43after the work was done.
23:44The line chief usually does it, but he was sick.
23:51So, I did it.
24:02So, I guess you didn't see the tape then.
24:09Aluminum tape's pretty common.
24:11And if you take it and just spread it over those ports, it blends in perfectly.
24:16And it makes it very easy for somebody to miss it.
24:22Was he adequately trained?
24:24I would say the answer to that is no.
24:28Did you see either pilot do a pre-flight check?
24:32Yes.
24:33The captain.
24:37Do you know if he checked them?
24:41Couldn't tell you.
24:44If I had a new person on my crew, I would tell them to watch the captain, see what he's
24:49doing, and it becomes routine for mechanics to watch what the flight crew does.
24:55Okay.
24:56Thank you for your time.
24:59There's at least one if not two line checks that are done by supervisors of the line maintenance.
25:05And then one of the crew members would do a walk around as they're obligated to do always.
25:11So, there are several levels where things should have been detected but weren't in this flight.
25:21So, both the line mechanic and the pilot missed it.
25:28Investigators now know that despite all the safety checks that were meant to be performed,
25:33no one spotted the silver tape covering the static ports.
25:37So, we know what caused the faultier speeds and altitudes.
25:40But faultier data alone doesn't cause a plane to crash.
25:44So, what did?
25:54Investigators turned to the cockpit voice recorder from Aero Peru Flight 603.
25:59There you go.
26:00To determine how the pilots dealt with faulty airspeed and altitude data.
26:05Pick it up from the takeoff.
26:19Hit up.
26:24Right.
26:25E$23 plus 10.
26:26Mhm.
26:28The plane is barely off the ground when the pilots identified the first problem.
26:34The altimeters are stuck.
26:36The captain's altimeter, the first officer's altimeter, the standby altimeter,
26:41all three sources were different and they were all wrong.
26:51It's quickly followed by a second issue.
26:54The speed.
26:56The airspeed is also stuck.
26:59Yeah, right.
27:00Hold on.
27:05They were only at 200 feet above the ground
27:07and they already knew that there were problems with altitude and airspeed.
27:12In three different places in the cockpit,
27:15they're seeing unreliable airspeed and altitude.
27:18According to the FDR, they're still climbing.
27:22Let's see how they handle that faulty data.
27:26What's going on?
27:28We're not climbing.
27:29I'm climbing.
27:32Investigators hear the captain continue to rely on the faulty data on his altimeter.
27:37Climb, climb, climb.
27:39I am climbing.
27:41Despite what the first officer tells him.
27:44The captain is looking at his altimeter and saying what he sees right in front of him.
27:50It's very hard to ignore this false data.
27:53The airspeed and altitude readings are like a magnet drawing your eye and attention again and again.
27:59Climb, climb.
28:00I am climbing.
28:01So in this initial moments of the climb, it seems like the first officer was more in touch with what
28:07the airplane was really doing.
28:16But within a minute, the captain stops focusing on the faulty instruments.
28:22He decides to use the pitch and power procedure.
28:25That's good.
28:27Very quickly on, the captain says basic instruments.
28:30The pitch and power procedure requires reducing the pitch angle of the aircraft to two degrees nose up and the
28:44throttles to 55%.
28:46This should result in level flight.
28:50By flying with set pitch and power and ignoring the unreliable airspeed and altitude gives the crew time to sort
28:59out what's going on and think through what might be causing the unreliable indications.
29:05Then they declare the emergency.
29:07Pick it up after that.
29:08Let's see if they did the procedure properly.
29:15Switching to 119.7.
29:19Auto throttle has disconnected.
29:21Auto throttle has disconnected.
29:23But instead of checking his attitude indicator and engine gauges.
29:28Let's see.
29:28Read that.
29:30The captain focuses on the crew alerting screen, which is displaying more alerts.
29:37Rudder ratio and max speed trim.
29:39The rudder ratio and max speed trim warnings were just the result of the unreliable airspeed and altitude indications in
29:47the cockpit.
29:47They shouldn't have been the primary focus of the crew.
29:52They're getting distracted by false alerts.
29:55They ignore the pitching power procedure.
29:59We're flying without speed.
30:01Soon after.
30:02Speed is zero.
30:04All airspeed indicators at zero.
30:11Investigators hear the pilots turning their attention back to the erroneous airspeed and altitude readings.
30:18The tape on the static ports meant that the airspeed and altitude were always wrong.
30:25And they were always changing as the airplane climbed and descended.
30:30We will maintain 10,000 feet.
30:3310,000 feet.
30:35But at no point did they disregard the unreliable airspeed and altitude.
30:40They looked at them constantly.
30:4312,000 feet.
30:44The crew never switched their mindset to just using pitch and power.
30:50They climbed for several more minutes.
30:54But if they were climbing, how did the crew end up hitting the ocean?
30:59They can't keep climbing forever.
31:02We have problems reading our instruments.
31:04Investigators continue listening to the cockpit voice recorder of Aero Peru Flight 603
31:10to determine how the crew carried out the return to Lima with faulty instrument data.
31:15Set the approach, please.
31:17I did.
31:17I did.
31:18Then let's go.
31:22The captain, he knew he had to to get down to Lima Airport.
31:25I'll try to descend with the power cut.
31:28And the way to do that was to reduce the power.
31:33No sooner do the pilots cut the power than they face another problem.
31:38The speed is increasing.
31:41Why is the speed so high?
31:43Is it the real speed?
31:45That's what worries me.
31:46I don't think so.
31:49They think they're speeding up.
31:52And they can only be slowing down.
31:58The pilots don't know whether to believe the faulty airspeed indicator
32:03that's showing they're going too fast
32:05after having pulled their thrust levers back to idle.
32:10That'd be totally confusing for the captain.
32:12He'd be saying, this can't be happening.
32:14It's impossible.
32:15It violates the laws of physics of aircraft.
32:19But the captain's thought process is overtaken by what happens next.
32:25Overspeed.
32:28The faulty airspeed data is now triggering the overspeed warning.
32:33An overspeed warning gets your attention very quickly.
32:37And you want to react to it.
32:40But this is the time when he should have been questioning
32:43whether that was correct.
32:46The first officer makes a split-second decision.
32:50Take the speed brakes out.
32:55And now
32:57with the power cut and the speed brakes out
33:01slows the plane down to the point of stalling.
33:05The erroneous overspeed data leads the pilots to reduce their speed,
33:10which puts their plane into a stall.
33:23The crew instinctively lowered the nose and increased their actual airspeed.
33:29Those are the steps that will keep you from stalling the airplane.
33:35Responding to the stall warning was the right move.
33:39But after that,
33:43they head further out to sea instead of towards Lima.
33:47Why would they do that?
33:53Shortly after the stall warning ends,
33:57a new warning tells them they are dangerously close to terrain.
34:03The captain doesn't realize how close they are to the water.
34:07On the 757,
34:09a radio altimeter measures the plane's altitude when below 2,500 feet
34:14and sounds the ground proximity warning when the plane drops too close to the terrain.
34:19The ground proximity warning system is separate from the pedostatic system.
34:24It was telling them the truth.
34:26Too low terrain.
34:28Too low terrain.
34:29And now we've induced a terrifying alert of
34:34I'm about to hit a mountain.
34:36The pilots thought they were near a mountain
34:38when they were actually approaching the surface of the ocean.
34:42Too low terrain.
34:46Let's go left.
34:47Too low terrain.
34:56Radar shows you're turning left.
34:58You're heading to the west.
35:01We're heading 2-5-0.
35:03We're heading out to sea because we have a low terrain warning.
35:07Too low terrain.
35:10He knew that the water, the ocean, is to the left.
35:14And that's going to be my safe environment.
35:17Tink rate.
35:18Tink rate.
35:20No sooner do they deal with the terrain warning
35:23than the pilots are confronted by an alert
35:25telling them they are descending too rapidly.
35:28Tink rate.
35:30Tink rate.
35:30Let's climb.
35:31Let's go up.
35:33Too low terrain.
35:37Now, going up was the right call.
35:39They were descending at 3,000 feet per minute.
35:42They climbed to 4,000 feet,
35:43and they stayed there for
35:46approximately one minute.
35:53So what led to the final plunge into the sea?
35:57Let's go back to Lima.
35:58I'll try to intercept the ILS, and then the set.
36:02After 25 harrowing minutes,
36:05the captain initiates a turn back to Lima.
36:08Lima, Aero Peru 6-0-3.
36:10We will try to intercept the ILS.
36:13Can you tell us our altitude?
36:15Is our altitude...
36:18Roger, Aero Peru 6-0-3.
36:20You're showing level at 9,700.
36:26But when the terrain warning activates,
36:28investigators know the plane was below 2,500 feet.
36:34They both had the wrong altitude.
36:38Investigators discover the controller
36:40was also providing Flight 6-0-3
36:43with incorrect altitude information.
36:47Assumption was the controllers
36:48can tell us our altitude,
36:50but the flaw in that is
36:52is that that altitude is actually being sent
36:54to the controller from the aircraft itself.
36:57If the information on board the aircraft is incorrect,
37:00then the information that's being sent to the radar
37:03is also going to be incorrect.
37:07Investigators speak to the controller
37:08to understand why he relayed
37:11the faulty readings back to Flight 6-0-3.
37:14So it looks like you were providing
37:16the crew with altitude data.
37:18Yes, they said they didn't have any altimeters,
37:20so I told them what I was seeing on my radar screen.
37:25Were you using SSR in mode C?
37:27Yes, that's right.
37:29Your radar's altitude is coming
37:30from the plane's transponder.
37:35When the controller
37:37confirmed the altitudes for the pilots,
37:40I think it gave them a false sense of hope
37:42that at least one of our problems
37:44has been solved,
37:45the altitude problem,
37:46when in fact
37:47that was tragically incorrect.
37:54But even with the faulty altitude readings,
37:57could the pilots still have landed their planes safely?
38:08Pick it up during their final descent.
38:10To determine if the pilots
38:12had any other options
38:13to save their plane,
38:15investigators listen to the final moments
38:17of Aero Peru Flight 6-0-3.
38:20It seems to be flying well.
38:24Can you tell us our altitude?
38:26You're at 9,700 feet,
38:28according to my radar.
38:319,700 feet,
38:33but we're getting a terrain warning.
38:36The crew can't understand
38:38the conflicting information.
38:41But there was a way
38:43for the pilots
38:44to determine their actual altitude
38:46and save the plane.
38:48If they checked the radio altimeter,
38:49they would have realized
38:50how close they are to crash.
38:55When the ground proximity warning system
38:57activated in the cockpit,
38:59the crew could have referred
39:00to the radio altimeter,
39:02and that would have given them
39:03the truth data
39:04about how high they were
39:05above the ground.
39:09But they never check
39:11their radio altimeter.
39:23We're hitting the water!
39:27When an aircraft
39:28has its wing
39:29touch the water
39:30in a bank attitude,
39:33the situation is hopeless.
39:36Pull up!
39:37Pull up!
39:44The pilots try
39:46to get the plane
39:46back in the air,
39:50but the plane banks left
39:52and falls back
39:53towards the sea.
40:08They really had no idea
40:10how low they were.
40:11And all those alarms
40:12fall so real
40:13just made matters worse.
40:26The situation in the cockpit
40:27was so confusing.
40:32It was hard for either crew member
40:34to understand
40:34which cautions and warnings
40:36were true and important.
40:38And there didn't seem
40:39to be a good balance
40:40between the two crew members
40:42and sorting that out.
40:45For investigators,
40:46there's one final
40:48unanswered question.
40:50Were the pilots
40:51properly prepared
40:52to handle an emergency
40:53like this?
40:55They examined
40:56the quick reference
40:57handbook
40:58which provides guidance
40:59in emergency situations
41:01as well as
41:02Aero Peru's
41:03training procedures.
41:07Well, there's
41:08nothing here.
41:09Anything in the
41:10training procedures?
41:11Not one single word
41:13on how to handle
41:13erroneous air data.
41:17The lack of training
41:19worked against them.
41:23A big takeaway
41:24from this accident
41:25was that flight crews
41:26need to be better trained
41:28to get to pitch
41:29and power
41:30in the event
41:30of unreliable
41:31airspeed and altitude.
41:37Investigators
41:38needed only two months
41:39to solve the mystery
41:41of Flight 603.
41:43They now know
41:44that blocked static ports
41:46created faulty
41:49air data readings
41:53and those faulty
41:54readings created
41:56so much confusion
41:57in the cockpit
42:02that the overwhelmed
42:04crew was unable
42:05to separate
42:06the false alarms
42:07from the true ones.
42:11They really needed
42:13to develop a laser focus
42:14on just flying
42:15the airplane
42:16but they never
42:17got there.
42:19the captain's failure
42:20to react
42:21to the ground
42:21proximity warnings
42:22in time
42:24He's telling you
42:25to pull up
42:27We're hitting the water
42:28Pull up
42:28Pull up
42:29Pull up
42:29Pull up
42:29Pull up
42:30The captain's failure
42:31contributed to the death
42:32of 70 people
42:50There's nothing highly technical
42:52about tape
42:52but boy
42:54but boy
42:54did it start
42:54a chain of events
43:00The investigation's report
43:01outlines a number
43:02of recommendations
43:03but chief among them
43:05is for more training
43:06to ensure crews
43:08know how to deal
43:09with inaccurate air data
43:12and implementing
43:13and implementing the use
43:14of eye-catching
43:14static port covers
43:16while a plane
43:17is being maintained
43:19Remember
43:20it's the simple things
43:22that cause problems
43:25and we need to keep
43:27that in everybody's mind
43:28attention to detail
43:30if you perform
43:31that detail
43:32whatever it is
43:34you're not going
43:35to get problems
43:39This accident
43:41was one of the pillars
43:43of safety procedures
43:46Our training changed
43:50Our pre-flight procedures changed
43:52Our attention to details changed
43:55and it still lives
43:57to this day
44:16We'll see you next time
44:17We'll see you next time
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