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Air Crash Investigation - Season 26 - Episode 03: Peril over Pakistan (Airblue Flight 202)
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00:02The plane came flying out of the bottom of the cloud at 4,000 feet per minute.
00:06Pull up! Pull up!
00:07Nuremberg Air Service Flight 108 breaks apart
00:11while 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,
00:24we use the grid to identify the positions of every part of the wreckage.
00:31Investigators reconstruct the plane to determine what happened.
00:35There must be a thousand pieces in here.
00:41Over here.
00:42They uncover evidence of a one-in-a-million failure
00:45that should not have brought the plane down.
00:48The pilots had no chance to control the aircraft in a proper way.
00:54I think under these circumstances,
00:55there was nothing they could have done.
01:00D-D-D-D!
01:04Pull up!
01:071-0-4-AVNYR train here.
01:09On the line 2-2-AVNYR,
01:10and the air to 0-5-AVNYR.
01:23it's an hour before sunrise at Hanover Airport in West Germany
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 was the weather looking and 28
01:50year old first officer Sybil hailman they each have 2,500 flying hours should we clear
01:57sailing both of them would be fairly typical what you would see a commuter
02:03operations people starting their careers and getting ready to move up the weather
02:09forecast predicts calm skies with only a slim chance of thunderstorms near their
02:14destination might get a bit rough on landing because of some turbulence and a
02:19chance thunderstorm but it's unlikely just 10% sounds good a 10% chance of
02:28thundershowers it's 10% chance you want to know about it but it's not something
02:31you're gonna put too much thought into before flight 108 can depart snow and ice
02:44this flight was a full flight had 19 passengers on board all of those being
02:48business people it's a 40-minute flight from Hanover to Dusseldorf a major business
02:55hub on the Rhine River we started the route in 1987 about six months before this
03:03flight we had very big train connections between the east and western parts of
03:08Germany so from the very very beginning we had full airplanes flight 108 leaves Hanover at
03:177 15 a.m. 15 minutes behind schedule flaps
03:28retracted the pilots are flying a Fairchild swear engine Metroliner 3 it's a
03:35powerful turboprop plane designed for short commuter flights the Metro 3 airliner is a
03:42perfect scaled down airliner it hauls 19 people fast fuel efficiently all the
03:47creature comforts of a bigger airline from the very beginning I was impressed by the
03:52airplane it was extremely well designed it was flexible it was fast they could
04:00pressurization so everything a pilot likes the airplane has
04:07it takes 10 minutes for flight 108 to reach its cruising altitude of 14,000 feet it will stay at
04:17that
04:18altitude for only 15 minutes well no rest for the wicked we'll have the descent checklist will you
04:29have the way regional flying is generally an hour and a half or less leading to increased workload for
04:35the time that you are in the air check the radar the captain notices some weather on the radar
04:46thunderstorm could be rolling in after all maybe doesn't look particularly bad I'll check the
04:57ATIES continuously broadcasts updated weather conditions at the destination airport dusting to
05:04for visibility 10 sky condition broken clouds at 1,500 feet nothing but a thing we should be fine
05:16okay we'll continue with the approach their expectation was that the weather was getting
05:22better and any thinner showers hadn't really materialized good morning this is your captain
05:27speaking we have begun our descent into Dusseldorf please ensure your seat belts are fastened should be
05:34landing in about 15 minutes 30 miles from the airport Dusseldorf good morning requesting to send a 3,000 and
05:51FD 1 0 8 first officer
05:53hail man contacts the Dusseldorf approach controller for landing instructions and FD 1 0 8 good morning to you
06:00you are cleared to 3,000 feet and currently number three to land copy to send a 3,000 number
06:08three to land
06:10when ATC gives us a indication of where we are on the order for landing it helps us set up
06:15it helps
06:15us get ready it helps us know when you're gonna start putting flaps and gear down three minutes later
06:24localize your life flight 1 0 8 lines up with the runway's centerline
06:36establish on the localizer the first officer checks on the weather
06:45looks like a thunderstorm has moved right in front of us
06:50might be trouble
06:55thunderstorms have to be treated with respect I mean they can produce hail they can produce
06:58downdrafts tailwinds overpowering what the airplane is capable of doing
07:05the captain decides to maneuver around the storm
07:14the problem was it's a big thunderstorm in the approach sector of Dusseldorf they shouldn't fly through
07:23thunderstorms in the Dusseldorf control center and FD 1 0 8 please switch to tower control frequency 1 1 8
07:31decimal 3 0
07:32the approach controller hands over flight 1 0 8 to the tower
07:38and FD 1 0 8 confirm switch to tower control frequency 1 1 8 decimal 3 0 by
07:49moments later flight 1 0 8 disappears from radar
07:59seven miles northeast of Dusseldorf airport a maintenance worker at a sewage treatment plant here's the sound of an approaching
08:07airplane
08:10flight 1 0 8 breaks out of the clouds in a steep dive
08:23the plane pulls up just in time
08:28the plane came flying out of the bottom of the cloud at 4 000 feet per minute the g-force
08:32it would have taken to overcome that to pull the airplane nose back up
08:35it was violent the sound of the engines recedes into the distance
08:42that flight would have been sheer terror
08:45sheer terror for the people in the back sheer terror up front
08:47you know you went from having a visual reference to thinking you're good to all
08:50sudden you're back in the cloud again a minute later
08:54the plane returns this time flight 1 0 8 spirals out of control
09:02and breaks up no no no it's a horrifying sight
09:08i can't imagine what the person watching that would be thinking
09:11two minutes before dawn flight 1 0 8 slams into an open field on the banks of the
09:17roar river
09:26the wreckage is scattered over a wide area
09:31first responders make their way to the crash site
09:35all 19 passengers and both pilots are dead
09:41the metroliner itself is broken into thousands of pieces
09:46you're seeing that parts are distributed throughout the area you'll start collecting all the parts
09:53mapping where they are and trying to put this puzzle back together again
10:10the wreckage of flight 1 0 8 to determine what caused the accident
10:16the first step was to identify the positions of every part of the wreckage and because of the size of
10:25the
10:26accident site we use the grid and we were able to get the information where every piece was at the
10:35accident site
10:37much of the plane along with its black boxes are badly damaged
10:43the recorders in this aircraft aren't the new digital type of recorders which record 300 400
10:49parameters this was the old foil style recorders you had altitude airspeed you had heading some information at g loads
10:59you didn't have the data we have today by a long shot
11:03the black boxes the black boxes and the debris are sent to a warehouse where investigators begin their analysis
11:11once the parts are recovered taken to a facility you can then clean where the fractures where the separations are
11:20you can look at where a part broke apart
11:25the wings the engines the tail sections separated from the aircraft
11:33investigators try to confirm witness statements that the plane broke up before it crashed
11:41this piece this piece looks compressed like it came from a high energy impact
11:48but this piece is intact
11:52what that indicates is this intact piece of wreckage did not go to the accident site with the rest of
11:59the airplane
12:01for sure an in-flight breakup
12:04the team is now convinced that flight 108 broke up before hitting the ground
12:10the question is what led to that is there any evidence of a pre-existing failure that would have led
12:16to the accident
12:19hey can you bring that piece over to the table
12:23did a design flaw or some kind of failure create a fatigue crack causing the wings to break off before
12:31impact
12:33even though the airplane is fairly new you don't rule out anything was there a flaw in manufacturing
12:39was there a full drilled where it shouldn't have been drilled was there some other issue that would
12:45cause a crack to start growing very early in aircraft's life well this doesn't look like a fatigue crack at
12:51all
12:54it can only mean one thing
12:58overload fracture
13:04overload fractures can occur because the airplanes exceeded speed limits
13:09flight control inputs are severe severe turbulence can cause overload
13:15and sometimes you have a combination of all three coming together
13:19hey can you get the lights what pushed this plane past its structural limits
13:26investigators examine the plane's flight path for clues
13:34nothing unusual here
13:38the flight path from departure in route to rival for landing seemed normal
13:46what happened to this part the end of the flight
13:53oh look at that they discovered that the pilots flew an erratic flight path before the plane crashed
14:02that would certainly cause a structural overload
14:06agreed
14:08the crew was on approach
14:11and now suddenly goes through some very tight maneuvers
14:15and you piece that together with the wreckage you found and where it was found
14:21and that gives you a much better idea of what led to the accident
14:27the flight path
14:28investigators speak to the controller who oversaw the approach of flight 108
14:32to determine what might have caused the unusual flight path
14:37tell me about the night of the crash
14:40there was thunderstorm activity from about 7 40 until just after 8 a.m
14:49did your other flights run into any trouble
14:51they reported moderate icing and turbulence but everyone else landed without incident
14:58okay
14:58okay
15:00no go-arounds no missed approaches
15:02no
15:03okay
15:03no
15:05uh but about six miles out a 737 got hit by lightning
15:14dusseldorf approach lieutenant one three five four
15:17we just experienced a lightning strike at 3 000 feet six miles final
15:23no immediate issues
15:24lufthansa 1354 dusseldorf approach roger let me know if you require further assistance
15:30typically when we're concerned about thunderstorms in the airport vicinity
15:34it's not much about the lightning it's more about the winds and the wind shears that
15:37can be powerful enough to push the airplane into the ground
15:40since airplanes are made of aluminium which conducts electricity most lightning strikes
15:46flow over the skin of the fuselage and safely exit through the tail
15:50i remember one occurrence of flying the aircraft got hit by lightning
15:54there was a sudden flash outside the fuselage you could hear it and
16:02the airplane kept on going and there was no associated damage to the aircraft
16:07and we continued on
16:09did you report the lightning strike to flight 108 yes
16:13nfd-108 the preceding landing experienced a lightning strike about six miles final
16:19dieseldorf approach we copy and are looking outside nfd-108
16:26for flight crews it is not abnormal to deal with thunderstorms and to deal with the probability of
16:32some lightning this flight was very very usual okay great thank you for your time
16:40if it wasn't the weather that caused the pilots to push the plane past its structural limit what did
16:51will flight 108's black boxes provide clues as to why the plane broke up mid-flight
17:00flight it's not looking good how so
17:07flight data recording and the cockpit voice recording both stopped two minutes before the plane crashed
17:13at the exact same time that the plane started flying erratically
17:19a total power failure
17:22the cdr and fdr get their power from two separate sources so the fact that both these recorders stopped
17:30at the same time indicates whatever happened affected both electrical systems not just the one
17:37the metroliner's electrical system is powered by two generators in the event of a power failure two
17:44batteries act as a backup system but if it was a total power failure that means the backup system filled
17:53as well how's that even possible from the perspective and the explanations coming from the manufacturer
18:02the possibility of a total electrical loss was very low but during the course of the investigation
18:09we understood more and more that it could be that the flight crews had a total electrical loss
18:17investigators consider the effects of a total power failure they would have lost most of their
18:23instruments well except their vertical speed indicator the altitude and the third attitude indicator
18:32our metroliners have been installed with a third independent uh artificial horizon it used bleed air
18:42coming from the engine and as long as the engine was running the artificial horizon was working as well
18:48totally independent from electricity the standby non-electrical artificial horizon could have been used by
18:56the crew to help keep the aircraft level and straight and then the complexity of this accident gets into
19:06why didn't the crew effectively use that standby but even with limited instruments who's to say they could
19:13have even seen them oh good point the lights that illuminated the instruments may not have been working
19:19huh
19:22you need those instruments and if you can't see them then you don't know if you're up or down
19:25you're flying blind at this point
19:40to confirm the unlikely finding of a total electrical failure the team examines light bulbs from flight 108's
19:48instrument panel if the light bulb was on when the plane hit the ground the hot and pliable
19:55filament inside would be stretched but if the light was off the cold brittle filament would break upon impact
20:07all these filaments are broken
20:12the outcome was that we found no bulb which was under electrical power during the impact of the aircraft
20:23investigators now have conclusive evidence of a sudden total power failure
20:31but what could have caused it
20:34the controller did tell us that another plane got struck by lightning
20:40maybe this one did too
20:43a lightning strike outside of the aircraft could lead to a problem with the electrical system inside of
20:50the aircraft if the electrical field of a lightning strike is very very high could be induced into the aircraft
21:02investigators search for evidence of lightning striking the fuselage of flight 108
21:10there must be a thousand pieces in here it's a painstaking process lightning could have struck anywhere
21:19lightning marks on the skin we look like a circle you'll see the paint burned you may see some localized
21:26melting of the metal in that particular area
21:35over here
21:40what do you got i found it
21:45huh once you've found a piece of metal the lightning strike it's like okay where does it go on the
21:50airplane
21:50what's in the proximity of this is it next to the electronics is it next to hydraulics where is this
21:58lightning strike occurring the only way to determine where the mystery piece comes from
22:04is to reconstruct sections of the airplane
22:11at the time of this accident uh reconstructions were fairly typical mainly didn't have as much data as we
22:18as we have now so reconstructing it made sense
22:30i think i've got it investigators match the piece of the plane to the left side of the fuselage
22:36forward of the wing this is where the lightning strike
22:41but could a lightning strike in front of the left wing actually cause a total electrical failure
22:49there are power system lines running right behind where the lightning struck
22:54can't be a coincidence
22:57is it possible that that lightning strike entered the electrical wires on the other side and therefore
23:04led to the loss of electrical power so that would have been the real focus of the investigation at this
23:09point
23:16investigators examine what remains of flight 108's electrical wiring
23:21in search of evidence that the lightning strike jumped from the fuselage to the electrical system
23:29you would look for the insulation material the outsized and burned away is there melting inside the wires evidence that
23:37somehow
23:39electrical energy got through the installation barrier into the wiring and then was starting actually melting the wires locally
23:49how odd those signs of arcing
23:56we checked the wiring we checked the electronic components available from the wreckage for some indication for electrical overload
24:13finding a lightning damage to the wiring not yet it's very possible once the lightning gets into the fuselage
24:20you may not see any direct impact in that area it flows into the aircraft and so even wiring is
24:30close by may appear to be unaffected
24:32but now this high energy has gone into the airplane and the question is where does it go
24:38maybe i can find something in here
24:41after we found no evidence for damage in the wiring based on the lightning strike we had to do a
24:51deeper
24:51investigation within the systems and that means we had to look for damages in the avionic components
25:02the team now focuses on even smaller components of the electrical system
25:07the diodes let's check this out
25:16a diode is an electrical component that allows current to flow in one direction only preventing reverse
25:23current flow that could damage circuits or create malfunctions
25:30if the diode is working properly there should be resistance to high current flow
25:35in one direction and not the other
25:42only 50 ohms almost nothing now the reverse
25:55also 50 ohms
25:58but investigators discover low resistance to current flow in both directions it's shorted
26:10the outcome of our investigation of the diodes was that all diodes
26:15were open in both directions that means the diodes were shorted the question now was why
26:25we decided to take these to a manufacturer and to ask them to do a deeper investigation
26:35results are in to better understand why the diodes shorted they examine test results provided by the manufacturer
26:43oh that's interesting looks like cracks in the center of the diode
26:55once you've seen that a diode has failed then you can do tests and research on a good diode to
27:01see
27:01how much energy you would take basically to fry that diode
27:06voltage tests are done to determine if the cracks in the diodes were the result of a lightning strike
27:12or something else a thousand volts investigators learn that when more than a thousand volts are applied to a working
27:22diode it will crack
27:24a lightning bolt can carry hundreds of millions of volts more than enough energy to crack the diode
27:30it must have been lightning
27:33the damage of the diodes only can be produced by high voltage
27:42could it be possible that high voltage would be produced within the aircraft and the answer was no
27:49it could be only produced by the lightning strike
27:56basically the lightning hit the aircraft flowed through the system it impacted the diodes which fried
28:04them cracked them took them offline and that shut down the electrical systems on the aircraft
28:13the odds of lightning taking out an entire electrical system are next to impossible and yet that's what happened
28:23but this doesn't explain why the crew flew into the thunderstorm in the first place okay
28:31the primary rule is if you see a thunderstorm no matter what its size you avoid it you go around
28:40you divert you hold you do whatever you can you do not want to fly through a thunderstorm
28:53the pilot you do not want to fly through a fire
28:54the investigators examine nuremberg air services flight operations manual
28:58to understand why the pilots of flight 108 ended up in a thunderstorm
29:04i don't get it it clearly states flights in or near thunderstorms should be absolutely avoided
29:09so why didn't they do the sensible thing and go around the storm
29:14At that time, they had several possibilities.
29:18One possibility was just to prepare if they would fly through the thunderstorm,
29:23what could happen, what they have to do, what they have to prepare.
29:27Another possibility could have been just to divert to another airport.
29:33Let's have a listen to what the pilots were saying about the storm.
29:40Check the radar. Thunderstorm could be rolling in after all.
29:46Halfway through the flight, the crew learns there's adverse weather ahead.
29:51Maybe. Doesn't look particularly bad. I'll check the ATIS.
30:00The crew checks Dusseldorf Airport's weather service.
30:04Information Bravo at 0700.
30:07But there's no indication of a thunderstorm.
30:10Once they got the ATIS, their expectation bias was that the weather was getting better.
30:14Broken clouds at 1,500 feet.
30:17Nothing but a thunderstorm. We should be fine.
30:21The captain considers the information and makes his decision.
30:27Okay. We'll continue with the approach.
30:32They just assume best case scenario and don't do a proper briefing.
30:37As professional pilots, we always brief each other based off the worst conditions.
30:40You never know if that 10% probability of thunderstorms actually happens.
30:43And if it does happen and it's too late, you don't have time to brief it.
30:51NFD-108.
30:53Eleven minutes later, the situation becomes more critical.
30:57Proceeding landing experienced a lightning strike about six miles final.
31:02If I were the crew and I were on approach and pursuing traffic in front of meteor to get struck
31:06by lighting,
31:07at that point I would initiate a missed approach.
31:09Go around and hold somewhere and figure out what we're going to do
31:11because the weather at that point is moving on to the approach path.
31:14You need to take that pretty seriously.
31:15But that's not what the pilots do.
31:18Düsseldorf approach. We copy and are looking outside.
31:22NFD-108.
31:28Hey, did you hear what happened to Walter last weekend?
31:30Yeah. Not surprised.
31:33Hold on.
31:35They should be talking about deviating or go around here, not someone's weekend.
31:40They should have been deciding where they were going to go and what they were going to do
31:43instead of going down this rabbit hole.
31:44They just thought the other person's comfortable with it and will continue going if they're comfortable.
31:47I'm comfortable.
31:49Investigators continue listening to the CVR as the pilots prepare for landing.
32:10You're left of the center line.
32:11What?
32:13You're left of the center line. You need to turn right.
32:16The captain started deviating to the left, apparently without telling the first officer of his plan.
32:21I don't want to go in there. I'm trying to get around it.
32:23We're too close to the runway. You can't change course now.
32:28Sounds like the captain is trying to deviate around the storm.
32:31And the first officer isn't on the same page.
32:34It's a bad idea to try and re-intercept the approach when you're already unstabilized.
32:38It's just a bad idea. You just do a go around.
32:44Okay. I hear you.
32:52Again, no discussion of their options.
32:55There's some tension in the cockpit. There's some issue between the captain and the first officer.
33:03We don't know exactly what it was.
33:05But clearly, this was not conducive to the crew working together to determine what was the best course of action.
33:16So now, the captain turns the plane directly into the thunderstorm.
33:24Hold on tight. Here it comes.
33:33Neither crew knew what the other one was doing.
33:35They hadn't briefed for the weather.
33:37They didn't have the plane set up for flying around in the vicinity of thunderstorms.
33:41And they just kept going.
33:49Why wasn't this crew on the same page?
33:56The understanding of the investigation team at that time was the communication between both pilots was not in a way
34:04as it should be.
34:07What did you find?
34:10Well…
34:11Investigators examine personnel records for insight into the pilots' working relationship.
34:19The captain had a total of 2,473 flight hours, but only 277 hours in the Metro 3.
34:30That's not a lot of experience on type.
34:33No, it's not.
34:34In fact, the EFO had basically the same number of flight hours, but over 1,300 hours in the Metro.
34:50Investigators discover that the first officer had much more experience on the Metro liner than the captain.
34:59With the crew having such an imbalance in time, the first officer is going to feel like they could be
35:03the captain that they got passed over for the upgrade.
35:05They have more experience on the routes.
35:06They have more experience on the plane.
35:08More experience with the airline, even in this case.
35:12She probably didn't trust his handling of the aircraft.
35:16That's never good in a cockpit.
35:20Did the pilots' imbalance in experience make it difficult for them to cope with the lightning strike?
35:31So they start making their descent here.
35:35Investigators examine how the pilots of Flight 108 flew the plane as they entered the thunderstorm.
35:41And then, a minute before they lose power, they start ascending again.
35:46Why would that happen?
35:49Let's hear what happens here.
36:01Okay, glide alive.
36:05Quarterflaps.
36:09Selected.
36:11Three minutes from the airport, the captain begins configuring the aircraft for landing.
36:17And half flaps.
36:22Half flaps, please.
36:24As they descend towards the runway, the captain rushes his flap settings.
36:30The plane is now climbing instead of descending.
36:33The captain requested the next flap setting, half flaps.
36:38The airplane then ballooned up, climbed in altitude 400 feet.
36:44I'm not sure that was so good.
36:46The captain trims the plane's nose down to counteract the increase in altitude.
36:52In response to the 400-foot climb, the captain trims the airplane.
36:56Rather than just putting a few bits of electric trim in, he holds the electric trim, pitching the nose down
37:01quite substantially.
37:03He then adds even more nose down trim.
37:11We're still slightly high.
37:17We're still slightly high.
37:19Okay, descending.
37:24With all that trim the captain has added, the plane is in a nose-heavy position when the lightning strikes.
37:41So now the captain loses the ability to recover.
37:44Mm-hmm.
37:46When the lightning strike happens, he loses electrical power, so he may have a lot more heavier flight controls than
37:53he was prepared for.
37:55And when the lightning strikes, the instrument lighting fails, making the instruments impossible to read.
38:03There's no emergency procedure in the Metroliner manual that tells you what to do if all your batteries fall offline.
38:09You're a test pilot, and at that point you use your pilot experience.
38:12One of the things to do was for the non-flying pilot to get a flashlight to illuminate the standby
38:18instrument to help the flying pilot out.
38:22The flashlights weren't found. We don't know if they were on the aircraft or not.
38:26The power failure cuts off their ability to see and to communicate with each other.
38:31They couldn't hear each other.
38:33We've lost electrical power.
38:39We've got a crew that can't communicate because you've lost the intercom system.
38:43You've got a headset on, and the Metro is a very noisy cockpit, so you can't hear the other person
38:47and what they're saying to you.
38:48If they couldn't see their instruments or hear one another, could the pilots still fly their plane?
38:56They have aileron and rudder controls, which aren't electrical.
39:00The engines are still running.
39:03The runway is about seven miles away.
39:07They should have been able to use the controls they did have to land the plane.
39:12They still had control over the ailerons, over the rudder.
39:15It was difficult, but technically still flyable.
39:18But without the ability to see their instruments, they'd have no way of knowing where they were.
39:27Seconds later, Flight 108 is diving towards the ground.
39:33The pilots had no chance to control the aircraft in a proper way, because the light for the third artificial
39:42horizon was not there, and they had no visual ground contact.
39:47And I think under these circumstances, it's nearly impossible to control the aircraft.
39:56Investigators finally understand how a lightning strike caused a fatal crash.
40:09You're left of the center line.
40:11What?
40:12It starts with a poorly functioning crew.
40:14You're left of the center line. You need to turn right.
40:17I don't want to go in there. I'm trying to get around it.
40:19We're too close to the runway. You can't change course now.
40:22Okay. I hear you.
40:25Instead of giving him the advice or the two crew mentality that we're not where we should be, we shouldn't
40:30be here, the first officer chose to go the other route, which was shut down and only make the minimum
40:35calls, which were deviation calls.
40:36Half-flaps, please.
40:43The pilots decide to fly their nose-heavy aircraft into a thunderstorm.
40:52A powerful lightning strike.
40:55We've lost electrical power.
40:57Causes a total power failure.
41:00We have nothing!
41:02And the disoriented crew...
41:04Where are we?
41:05I can't tell.
41:06...loses control of the plane.
41:11500!
41:13400!
41:15300!
41:16Pull up! Pull up! Pull up!
41:21After you've been struck by lightning, you've got winds that are gusting all over the place.
41:25It starts to become a pretty violent situation pretty quick.
41:28The combination of turbulence and the pilot's blind actions lasting more than a minute sends the plane into extreme turns
41:36and banks.
41:40Are we banking?
41:41Can't tell!
41:42What's the airspeed?
41:42Don't worry about the speed, just pull!
41:44You think you can trust your senses, but you can't.
41:46You don't know if you're banking to the left, you don't know if you're banking to the right, you can't
41:50tell if you've got a nose low or a nose high.
41:52You can think you do, you can think you trust it. At the end of the day, your gut instinct
41:56will be wrong.
41:57The plane is so overloaded with the G-forces in these turns, it broke up.
42:07Yeah.
42:16Pull up! Pull up!
42:18I'm crying!
42:20You're looking at a G-load that literally ripped the engine pylon off the wing, that literally broke the wing
42:25squad, the strongest part of the airplane, broke it like a toothpick.
42:28That way exceeded what the aircraft manufacturer ever designed that airplane to go through.
42:49The main conclusion of the report by Germany's air accident investigation unit is clear. The crew flew into a thunderstorm,
42:58even though they could have flown around it.
43:02You have two fairly experienced pilots that they never ever should have been in that situation.
43:07There were red flags throughout. If anything can be learned from this one, you got to speak up on a
43:12two crew airplane and you can't let the other person take you to the scene of the crash.
43:16In their recommendations, the FUS reiterates the need for training and manuals that clearly describe how to operate in and
43:25near thunderstorms.
43:28This is a very different crew than we see today, who are well trained in cockpit resource management, who work
43:35together as a crew. And the systems change for the better. And the airplanes are much better.
43:41As for Nuremberg Air Service, the company soon replaced the remaining Metroliners in its fleet.
43:48I made myself one of the last flights with the Metroliner. I had some tears in my eyes because I
43:54think it was on the aircraft's fault.
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