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On 22 November 2003, a 9K34 Strela-3 man-portable air-defense system is launched at a DHL Airbus A300, exploding the left wing and causing a massive loss of hydraulic fluid which immobilizes the flight control surfaces. The crew flies the aircraft by changing the engines' thrust for control and make a safe landing 16 minutes later.
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00:01You wouldn't think it was a dangerous job, delivering the mail.
00:10They have to try to land an airliner in a way no pilot has ever done before.
00:16All the controls are dead.
00:18They've become passengers in their own plane.
00:21And somehow, they have to land it.
00:25Even at journey's end, the ordeal isn't over.
00:30Do not move!
00:56Do not move!
01:00November 22nd, 2003.
01:02Officially, the war in Iraq has been over for months, but the country is violent and unstable.
01:08No one feels safe.
01:18A civilian cargo plane has just taken off from the city's airport.
01:24What's that?
01:27Within seconds, the crew lose control, unable to figure out what has happened to their aircraft.
01:32We must not have any problems.
01:35They struggle to master 100 tons of wide-bodied jet.
01:40Their plane is on fire.
01:41Unless they can land soon, the wing will burn up.
01:44They'll crash and die.
01:45Steady!
01:49Terrain.
01:50Terrain.
01:50They're carrying too much speed.
01:52Terrain.
01:52They're carrying too much speed.
01:53They're going so fast, they may not make the runway.
01:55No one has ever successfully done this before.
02:13By November 2003, the American-led coalition has been in charge of Iraq for six months.
02:18The Iraqi army is defeated.
02:21Saddam Hussein, the deposed president, remains in hiding.
02:27Ominously, the main threat is now from secret armed groups.
02:30They're targeting civilians, both Iraqi and foreign, in order to make the country unstable, perhaps even provoke a civil war.
02:37They have plundered Iraqi army stores for every infantry weapon there is, even surface-to-air missiles.
02:44Baghdad is a very dangerous place.
02:53Dorme, on the outskirts of the city.
02:55Claudine Vernier-Pallier from the French weekly magazine Paris Match, with her photographer Jerome, is going to a secret meeting
03:02with Iraqi terrorists.
03:03She's after the story that everyone wants.
03:06Who are they?
03:07What do they want?
03:11The previous day, she had met the leader in a hotel room.
03:14He called himself Abu Abdallah, but no one knew his real name.
03:21Evidently, this man was very, very determined to stop at nothing, to show the Americans that he wanted no more
03:28of them, at least not their military tactics.
03:37Baghdad airport, key to the U.S. presence in Iran.
03:41Military planes fly in daily to supply the troops and to help rebuild the shattered country.
03:46Because of the threat from Iraqi terrorists, the U.S. has established a security zone around the airport, patrolled by
03:53Apache helicopters.
03:54On the tarmac today is one of the few civilian aircraft to use the airport, an Airbus A300, belonging to
04:01the courier firm DHL.
04:04They have won the contract to carry the soldiers' mail.
04:07Two flights a day, shuttle posts and packages, in and out of the war zone.
04:11Baghdad Tower, Oscar Oscar Delta, Lima Lima.
04:14Airbus A300 cargo, apron and information Sierra, request start.
04:19The Australian Air Force is providing the air traffic control in Baghdad.
04:24Oscar Oscar Delta, Lima Lima, clear to start.
04:26Before start, checklist.
04:30Start two.
04:32Captain Eric Jeannotte is Belgian, 38 years old and single.
04:36He realized his dearest ambition a year ago when he qualified to captain the Airbus A300.
04:42Aim 245.
04:44Valve closed, EGT-610.
04:47Flight engineer Mario Raffaele lives in Scotland with his wife and children.
04:51At 54, he's the oldest and most experienced member of the crew, a veteran of many danger zones.
04:57Start one.
04:59Path open.
05:00The 29-year-old co-pilot, Steve Michielsen, is also Belgian.
05:05He's been married just three months.
05:07Cargo airlines are great places for young pilots to get the hours and experience they need to pilot commercial aircraft.
05:130-16 Kruger.
05:16DHL has been flying into Baghdad for six months.
05:19There's no danger money for crew.
05:21The airport is an oasis of calm in the middle of a chaotic war zone.
05:26Nevertheless, they're aware of what's going on around them.
05:29When we were crossing already the border from Kuwait to Iraq, the ambience in the cockpit already changed.
05:38You have a kind of stress, at least for me.
05:43So, what's going on here?
05:50We're going to do special operations today.
05:53You'll see. I'll show you.
05:55Where are you, Raghel?
05:57Look at me.
05:59This is Sam-7.
06:03This is Sam-7.
06:04We have them from the old Iraqi army.
06:07We have approximately 28.
06:10We got them from two different Iraqi army depots.
06:13We have already fired about 25 and we only have three left.
06:18They are heat-seeking missiles, equipped with homing devices which detect infrared emissions from a plane's engines.
06:25This Sam-14, better than Sam-7.
06:27We don't have so many.
06:29I think we should use this one today.
06:31It was very good before.
06:35We shot down a plane near Nasriya and my fighters recorded 177 dead.
06:42And we shot down another plane with Americans on and we killed 70 men.
06:48But no one had ever heard about this.
06:51I didn't believe a word of it.
06:53From all over Baghdad, you could have seen it.
06:56So, I thought the guy was making it up.
07:01So, what are you going to do with this one today?
07:09What do you think?
07:10What do you think?
07:10We're going to shoot down a plane.
07:14I'll show you.
07:19The journalists are getting worried.
07:22What if he's not bluffing after all?
07:24This is not the story they came for.
07:30The journalists are getting worried.
07:32What if he's not bluffing after all?
07:37It's early in the day at Baghdad airport.
07:40A DHL Airbus A300 carrying letters home from US soldiers is just departing.
07:47The crew is unaware that just a few kilometres away, a terrorist group has its own plans for the aircraft.
07:55Oscar Oscar Delta Lima Lima cleared for take-off.
07:58Take-off.
08:00The plane is a 24-year-old airliner converted to carry cargo.
08:04Its first stop will be the Persian Gulf state of Bahrain.
08:07It's a journey they make twice a day.
08:09100 knots.
08:12V1.
08:15Rotate.
08:17V2.
08:21Positive climb.
08:23Despite the calm in the cockpit, the crew knows that below 3,000 metres,
08:27they're vulnerable to attack from the ground.
08:30So far, no plane in Iraq has been hit with a surface-to-air missile.
08:34But it's known that the terrorists now have such weapons.
08:37It's a strange ambience.
08:39It's a strange feeling.
08:40Between the time you take-off and you reach 10,000 feet,
08:45you know that you are in danger.
08:51Gear up.
08:54No lights.
08:54Gear up.
08:55No lights.
09:06Meanwhile, the terrorist leader, Abu Abdallah, appears to have chosen his spot.
09:11He asked us to park our cars pointing outwards, so that everybody could leave in a different direction.
09:18That's when I should have realized that the bluffing was over.
09:28The journalists are now very alarmed.
09:31They cannot leave.
09:32They are trapped.
09:35Looking back so far.
09:39Keep going.
09:43Keep going!
09:44Keep going!
09:46Keep going!
09:57This is video shot by the terrorists themselves.
10:00They'll deliver it to the media in Baghdad the next day.
10:32What's that?
10:38Bank angle. Bank angle.
10:42We close green and yellow. Bank angle.
10:44Green and yellow.
10:46We had three hydraulic systems.
10:48They are identified by color, which one is the green and yellow and blue.
10:55Big jets depend on hydraulic power.
10:58Hydraulic fluid runs inside pipes throughout the aircraft.
11:01When the pilots move the control column, pistons push the fluid in the pipes to climb, descend or turn the
11:07plane.
11:08With no hydraulics, pilots have no way to control their flight.
11:13The missile has exploded in the wing, where the pipes filled with hydraulic fluid are now draining.
11:18It's like driving a car at speed and suddenly losing the steering wheel.
11:23What do we do? What do we do?
11:25What do we do?
11:26What could I answer?
11:28What could I answer to him?
11:31It was a very, very difficult question he asked me.
11:35My initial reaction was, we have to do something.
11:39And I asked to the captain, like, what shall we do or any ideas or something.
11:43And he said, his initial reaction was, we have to go back.
11:47Bank angle.
11:49A big jet can survive with one of the three hydraulic systems knocked out.
11:54Maybe even two.
11:55But all three?
11:56None of the controls will work, period.
11:59Bank angle.
12:02Bank angle.
12:03Blue is gone.
12:04Bank angle.
12:05I think we hit something.
12:07Bank angle.
12:09Bank angle.
12:11Blue is gone.
12:12Bank angle.
12:14Bank angle.
12:16We've lost all hydraulics.
12:18All three hydraulic systems gone.
12:21There's nothing left.
12:22The life of the aircraft is now measured in minutes.
12:25That was the end of everything.
12:27Procedures, what you've been trained all these years.
12:31So all you needed then is to keep calm, common sense.
12:39And of course, here where your experience comes, to see whatever is left there, we had nothing
12:49to come back to, or read, or do, or follow.
12:57Allahu akbar!
13:23That DHL is in trouble.
13:30He's on fire and he's turning back.
13:33Scrabble fire engines have many back on standby.
13:40The control columns have become useless.
13:43Without the crucial hydraulic system, there's no way of moving the controls.
13:47When you have this kind of emergency, the three needles showing zero and the flight engineer
13:55that's a new hydraulic goal, you are terrified as well.
14:03It was fear.
14:05We had no control of the aircraft, of course, initially.
14:08The aircraft continued to climb at that time until about 12,000 feet.
14:16The plane has started to behave strangely.
14:18It climbs to nearly 3,800 meters, then suddenly starts to dive of its own accord.
14:24Sink rate.
14:25Then it climbs again.
14:27Sink rate.
14:29Sink rate.
14:32Sink rate.
14:33Sink rate.
14:33Sink rate.
14:33Sink rate.
14:34Sink rate.
14:34Sink rate.
14:35Sink rate.
14:35This cycle repeats itself over and over again like a mad roller coaster ride.
14:45The crew can't stop the plane's wild gyrations.
14:49They're still airborne, but somehow they must regain control.
14:51And now, Eric, are you proud of yourself?
14:55You look in which mess you are.
14:57You know it was dangerous to come here.
15:00And what you will do now to get out of here.
15:06I play with controls. Reduce thrust.
15:10By moving the throttles to and fro,
15:12perhaps they can flatten out the huge dives and climbs.
15:15It's all they can think of.
15:19And then I decide to take the challenge.
15:22We have to come back.
15:25There is no training to fly a plane in this condition.
15:33So from that time on, all the books and the procedures
15:36and this, they are out of the window.
15:39We have engines. We can use the thrust.
15:44All they have left are the two engines, which are undamaged.
15:48But how do you fly and land a plane with engines alone?
15:52No airliner has ever done it.
16:02Certainly not this one.
16:03In August 1985, a Japan Airlines Boeing 747 had suffered a catastrophe
16:09minutes after leaving Tokyo.
16:16The bulkhead at the back of the cabin burst open.
16:19The force of the rushing air blew off most of the tail fin
16:22and cut all the hydraulic lines.
16:24Without hydraulic power, the pilots of the 747
16:27were little more than passengers themselves.
16:29A jet with 524 people on board flying over the mountains of central Japan
16:35was virtually helpless, swaying in the sky like a drunken bird.
16:41It really could be considered a miracle that the pilots were able
16:44to keep the airplane flying for 30 minutes or more
16:47after having lost all the hydraulics in their flight controls.
16:50But it kept circling and eventually worked its way into the mountains
16:54and it became impossible for them to land.
16:58There was no real alternative for them at all,
17:00except to fly as long as they could
17:03and hope for some miracle which never occurred.
17:14When the 747 hit a mountain, it was the worst single crash in aviation history.
17:21520 people died.
17:25Can the DHL crew succeed where the Japanese pilots failed?
17:30The first task is to try to calm the wild plunging of the aircraft.
17:34The airplane will tend to go into what's called a fugoid in the vertical mode.
17:40It will descend, speed up, therefore pick up more lift,
17:44then it would climb, pitch up and climb.
17:47It would slow down, lose lift, and so it would go into this
17:51and it was very difficult for the pilots to control that.
17:56They have to do it by using engine power alone,
17:59the only thing they have left.
18:01They find that if they reduce engine power,
18:03the plane's nose drops and they begin to gather speed.
18:06If they then push the throttles forward, the nose comes up and they start to climb.
18:11But they have to learn precisely when to increase and decrease power.
18:24And there's another complication.
18:26The damage to the left wing is creating drag on that side
18:29and pulling them round the left in a wide circle.
18:32One of the most difficult things to master, to keep the pitch attitude in a normal way,
18:37was already difficult enough.
18:39And now, on top of this, we had to use asymmetrical thrust
18:43because the airplane was banking to the left all the time.
18:45That was a part of the left wing which was gone.
18:49Back, back!
18:52So they not only have to move the throttles back and forth to flatten out the plane's rollercoaster motion,
18:58but also try to apply more power to the left engine to compensate for the damaged wing,
19:02which is causing it to lose lift.
19:08After several minutes of violent pitching up and down,
19:11the crew managed to flatten out the flight path.
19:14Even after we've learned how to fly it using the throttles,
19:20we still went through, I would say three to four times,
19:25we went through almost uncontrollable conditions, you know,
19:30couldn't control the aeroplane, like very steep dives and banks.
19:37By now, the crew realise that they've been hit by a missile somewhere on the left wing.
19:42Their Airbus has become the first civilian aircraft casualty of the war.
19:45I knew we were on fire, that I knew it.
19:48So my intention was to come back and land the aircraft.
19:53And also, I was, we were afraid, I was afraid to be shot a second time.
20:04Their fears are justified. The terrorist leader Abu Abdallah is waiting for a second chance to finish them off.
20:14Allah Akbar!
20:15Allah Akbar!
20:36Iraqi terrorists have fired a missile at a civilian plane near Baghdad airport.
20:41The left wing is on fire and the crew is in desperate trouble.
20:44Now the terrorists aim to finish it off.
20:48They launched a second missile that missed the plane this time.
20:52And then he told everyone, let's go, and we all left quickly.
21:04Madame Vernier Pallier later came under a storm of criticism for not doing more to stop the attack,
21:10or at least leave the scene.
21:13I think that any journalist in the situation we were in would have reacted exactly as we did.
21:18We have been criticized for not having said to the group leader when he told us he was going to
21:23fire on an aircraft,
21:24no sir, we're leaving now.
21:26On the one hand, if we had said that to him, it would have meant a bullet in the head,
21:30that's clear.
21:31And, on the other hand, right up to the last minute, right up to the time when they fired a
21:36missile, I didn't think they were going to do it.
21:38I thought they were still bluffing.
21:46While we were trying to find our way back with our chauffeur, we saw that the plane, its left wing
21:53was on fire.
21:54It was now turning like this.
22:03It was like in a film, it was unreal.
22:06And it was only when we could see the plane on fire that we thought of the people on board.
22:13And then we were scared.
22:15I realized the plane could crash, that it would crash.
22:18And then I started to realize, why had they done this?
22:21It so happens we were there, we were filming, we were journalists, and we were French.
22:26So it seems evident that they had set us up.
22:29By the time we realized this, it was too late.
22:33Everything had gone too fast.
22:40The crew knows nothing of the second missile.
22:43Jolly 2-1.
22:44Hey, Graeme, did you guys say there's an aircraft on fire?
22:47This remarkable video, seen here exclusively for the first time, was shot with the infrared heat-sensitive camera of a
22:53US Apache attack helicopter.
22:56Apaches routinely patrol the area around the airport, watching out for terrorists.
23:13The intense heat of the fire on the Airbus shows up as a blur on the helicopter's heat-sensitive camera.
23:23There was a helicopter flying, and he could see that the fire was not from the engine, but it was
23:32from the left wing.
23:33So it gave Mario the opportunity to ask the tower again if they could still see some flames or smoke
23:39coming from the airplane.
23:45Could you confirm if there's smoke coming from the aircraft or fire or anything like that?
23:49Tower Dragon Team are 5-4.
23:50You can still see smoke and flame coming from the left tip.
23:53Of the left wing.
23:55Okay, left wing tip, fire is full now.
23:59That's your problem.
24:04We were on a heading towards the airport. We could see the airport.
24:10Lower the gear.
24:13Can I take control?
24:15No, I have control. I have control. Lower the gear.
24:20With no hydraulic power, Mario has to crank open the landing gear doors and let the wheels drop down by
24:26gravity alone.
24:26The captain said, in fact, we have to land, and he called for the gear down, which is quite a
24:34normal thing to go and land.
24:43But it has an unintended effect.
24:47Lowering the landing gear has altered the entire balance of the aircraft just when they thought they'd figured out how
24:52to control it.
24:52It causes the nose to point high in the air and the speed to fall.
24:57No, no! No, the speed!
25:00It could easily stall and then crash.
25:03I didn't expect that at all.
25:05And I saw the aircraft taking a pitch up and then the speed decreasing, decreasing, decreasing.
25:13And I was retarding the throttle and saying, no, no.
25:17No, no!
25:17You're stalling!
25:21The nose has gone up. Their speed is falling. They're about to stall.
25:25They have no choice but to pull back the throttles to bring the nose back down again.
25:29They're nearly at stall speed.
25:32That would have been the end of it. We would have fallen out of the sky.
25:36Yeah, are you doing this guy?
25:38No, I'm looking right into it. He's way out there.
25:41Yeah.
25:42It's kind of wrenching, man. They're up there doing everything they can.
25:54I was afraid that maybe one wing we stole and on this time it's finished.
26:00I think I'd rather try to crash on a runway than crash into the desert.
26:04Yeah, I'm trying to land on a runway whereas you can just belly up in the desert.
26:08Yeah.
26:08It would probably put out any fire.
26:16Cautiously, they managed to coax a bit more speed from the engines.
26:19Lowering the gear brought them to the brink of disaster.
26:22But now the plane is easier to control.
26:24The airplane miraculously became more stable afterwards.
26:28That's one of the first factors which proves how lucky we were that day.
26:42Let's land.
26:46Oscar Oscar Delta Lima Lima, Baghdad Tower. Can you make approach now? Runway is clear for landing.
26:53The Apache helicopter has been joined by others who are powerless to do anything but provide information to the stricken
26:59DHL plane.
27:00It looks like you might be too high again. I'm still looking up at the flare. Come home, buddy.
27:06You could hear other aeroplanes talking at the same time.
27:10Oh crap.
27:11And that, on its own, it was a bit difficult.
27:17Oscar Oscar Delta Lima Lima.
27:19Could you please clear 33 left for us as well? Of course I think we can have flight controls as
27:24well.
27:25Oscar Oscar Delta Lima Lima, runway 33 left is available as well if you need to land there.
27:30Okay, keep both runways open for us.
27:32No more talking. Bye.
27:49Did you know Tank 1 Alpha is empty?
27:52Fuel has been steadily streaming out of the tanks in the left wing. Now one of them is empty.
27:56Back, back.
27:58Big angle.
27:59Yes, got it.
28:00Big angle.
28:03Left wing coming up.
28:08Against all the odds, they've made it back to the airport, an incredible feat of flying.
28:13They begin making preparations to land.
28:15Which runway?
28:17We used 33 right, I think.
28:19Lima Lima.
28:21Oscar Lima Lima, go ahead.
28:22Could you please declare full emergency?
28:24Yes, sir. We need to fire the brigade because our landing gear might collapse as well.
28:29Oscar Lima Lima, all available assistance is available on the field.
28:32Everyone is on full alert.
28:34Okay, thank you very much. And no more calls.
28:36All right, that guy's good. He's pretty stressed.
28:40Rightfully so.
28:41But on the brink of success, it begins to unravel.
28:45At that time, I realized that we were a little bit too high to come in and land in the
28:52situation we were.
28:53That's what I thought as well, we were too high and too near.
28:56We must land. We are too close. We need a long final.
28:59I mean, Steve brought a very important point here. And I think it was really a saver.
29:06Steve is giving his captain news he doesn't want to hear.
29:09He can't land. They're too high and too close.
29:12If they attempt a steep descent, they'll bury it in the runway.
29:17Eric Janot will have to turn around, fly away from the airport for 37 kilometers, turn again, and come back
29:23on a long final approach, slowly descending.
29:26If we haven't done this 20 miles, we would have been circled there forever.
29:30Until we drop to the sky or the wind. You can't make it. It's impossible.
29:36Keep the speed up. Keep the speed up. I try. I will do the best I can.
29:41And then I realized they were right. We have to go on long final.
29:49But for the last 13 minutes, the wing has been on fire. Do they have enough time?
29:5920 miles final.
30:01Okay.
30:04He looks like he's still pretty high. You got this right now?
30:07He's still got a long way to go.
30:08Yeah.
30:09It looks like he's turning like an extremely extended final.
30:12Yeah.
30:13And I don't think I can make it in.
30:16Time is running out. The fire is eating up the left wing.
30:20They're still heading away from the airport. Then they have to turn and make a 37 kilometer approach.
30:25Can they land before the wing fails?
30:33If for a mistake, we stayed another 15 minutes in the air with that fire still burning.
30:40And maybe that tip of the wing would have broken off. And again, the results would have been disastrous.
30:47Two main structural spars give the wing its strength. The missile has made a five meter long crack in the
30:53rear spar. Too much stress and it will snap like a twig.
30:58There's another danger. Fuel is streaming out of the punctured tanks in the left wing. If the tanks run dry,
31:05an engine will stop and they'll crash.
31:07We were controlling the bank and the pitch of the aeroplane using the two engines. So if we had lost
31:13one engine, then we couldn't do anything with the other engine. So the end result would have been disastrous.
31:19Despite the fire, the crew's confidence is growing. Now they have some control over the plane. But the prospects for
31:26a safe landing are not good.
31:29This is the closest any commercial jet has got to a safe landing with no hydraulics.
31:33In 1989 in the United States, the crew of this United DC-10 lost all their controls after an engine
31:40blew up and turbine blades shredded the hydraulic pipes.
31:44The pilots managed to regain some control, moving the throttles backwards and forwards like the DHL crew. There were 296
31:52people on board.
31:54But at the last minute, as they approached the small provincial airport of Sioux City in Iowa, disaster.
32:00Let's turn, let's turn.
32:01Let's turn.
32:01Let's turn.
32:11Let's turn.
32:12For more.
32:29died. So within four years, two major airliners had crashed because a loss of hydraulics had
32:35crippled the planes, killing 631 people. In its investigation report on the Sioux City disaster,
32:44the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board asked for urgent research to find ways of controlling
32:49big jets that had lost their hydraulics. But over Baghdad, 14 years later, the DHL crew only
32:57have their wits to help them as they try to land. I remember the story of the DC-10 of
33:02Sioux City,
33:03that it has been done before. The only control we still have on the aircraft, in the cockpit,
33:10was the engine. Nothing else.
33:19The crew are now 28 kilometers away from the airport, getting close to where they will turn
33:23in order to make their long, final approach to the runway.
33:2715.2.
33:3416. Now we turn right. Not yet.
33:38This is where experience counts now, and you have to rely on what you know.
33:44We were pretty sure that we were going to be able to make it to the airport, but we were
33:50absolutely not sure that we were going to be able to make it to the runway.
33:5516.5.
34:00Now we turn. 17 miles.
34:03Now we turn.
34:05The only way they can turn is by applying more power to the left engine to make them go right,
34:10and vice versa.
34:15They're swinging round to the right, trying to keep the plane steady and descend all at the same time,
34:20using nothing but the engines.
34:22Air port at 340. Come right.
34:25Now 320.
34:38Speed.
34:3910 knots and stable. Keep speed up.
34:42Yes, yes.
34:444,000 feet.
34:505,500 feet.
34:535,200 feet.
34:572,10 on the head.
35:00Against all their instincts, they'll have to keep the speed up on landing, or the nose will drop and they'll
35:05crash.
35:06They should be landing at around 300 kilometers per hour, but they're coming in 100 kilometers per hour faster.
35:13No one knows if the landing gear will take the strain.
35:24As they reach 120 meters, the hot air from the ground and strong wind blowing across their flight path upset
35:31all their plans.
35:33The wind coming from the left and the turbulence, we were drifting to the right.
35:36That's where the airport building was.
35:48As the plane approaches the runway, the nose is pointing dangerously low and the left wing is dropping.
35:53Sink rate.
35:57Come on, buddy.
36:02They're carrying too much speed.
36:05They could overrun the runway.
36:12Sink rate.
36:13Sink rate.
36:14Keep the speed up.
36:15We are going left.
36:16Sink rate.
36:17Sink rate.
36:24Sink rate.
36:26Sink rate.
36:27Sink rate.
36:27Sink rate.
36:28Sink rate.
36:33Sink rate.
36:37Sink rate.
36:39Sink rate.
36:40Sink rate.
36:41Sink rate.
36:41Sink rate.
36:41Sink rate.
36:42Sink rate.
36:44Sink rate.
36:45Sink rate.
36:45Sink rate.
36:46Sink rate.
36:46Sink rate.
36:47Sink rate.
36:47Sink rate.
36:47Sink rate.
36:47Full terrain.
36:49Come on, buddy.
36:5030, 30, 30, 30, 30, 30, 40, 30, 30, 30.
37:02Full terrain.
37:02Oh.
37:11It looks like one of those gear collapsed.
37:13Yeah, it did.
37:16Off runway.
37:43That's what's left of him.
37:51The DHL Airbus has managed to land through an incredible feat of flying.
37:59But their troubles are not over.
38:05Nice landing, well.
38:07Confirm, evacuate.
38:09Evacuate.
38:12Evacuate.
38:15There he is.
38:37A final irony, after getting safely to the ground against all the odds, one more unforeseen danger.
38:45You might blow.
38:47Hey, guys! Don't move!
38:51That area has unexploded ordnance. Do not move!
38:55What's that?
38:56He's saying there might be bombs here.
38:58I don't believe this.
39:00We're coming to get you!
39:03The area is still littered with unexploded bombs and shells left over from the battle to capture the airport from
39:09Saddam's men.
39:10Now, when we get to you, we're gonna back up and you gotta follow in our tracks.
39:17Now, we're gonna get you out of here.
39:19But you gotta walk right in my wheel tracks, okay?
39:29Cape coming. Cape coming. It's not much further now.
39:49Now, for the first time, the crew can see the damage for themselves.
39:56They've survived the unsurvivable. No crew has ever successfully landed such a badly damaged airliner.
40:02They had to learn and practice a whole new flying technique.
40:05But the remarkable thing is, had they known it, the technology had already been invented to save any pilot in
40:11this desperate situation.
40:23The DHL pilots have managed to fly and land a plane without any flying controls.
40:28It's the first time it's happened.
40:30Two earlier occasions, near Tokyo and Sioux City, Iowa, ended with the loss of over 600 lives.
40:36In 1989, NASA began to investigate ways to land crippled aircraft using only throttle controls.
40:44Engineers and pilots came up with software that could cope with total hydraulic failure.
40:49It's called PCA, for Propulsion Controlled Aircraft.
40:56The PCA concept is simple.
40:58Pilots tell the aircraft's flight management computer what they want to do, turn, climb, descend.
41:03But instead of sending those commands down hydraulic lines to the control surfaces, the computer orders the engines alone to
41:10do it.
41:14To test this software, this MD-11 aircraft is landing with no hydraulics and using engine thrust alone.
41:21The pilot is not moving the throttles. The PCA software is doing it all for him.
41:30Though none of the plane's normal controls were used, the MD-11's landing was not only survivable, but very similar
41:36to a normal landing.
41:37I believe that the DHL incident has revived interest in propulsion controlled aircraft system as an augment to perhaps the
41:49systems that we have in today's aircraft.
41:52That would certainly mitigate the damage that could have been done to this aircraft and certainly could mitigate the damage
42:01done to an aircraft carrying five to six hundred people.
42:07One of the enthusiasts for the PCA system is Captain Denny Fitch, one of the pilots who survived the Sioux
42:12City DC-10 crash.
42:14This is just absolutely an amazing piece of equipment, what they have done and what they have achieved,
42:21and the success ratio that we have, the survivability that we now have with modern aircraft completely controlled in hydraulics.
42:27To have this occur again and have this aboard the aircraft is a very warm feeling as a pilot.
42:33Blue is gone. We've lost all hydraulics.
42:37America's Federal Aviation Administration conducted research into PCA, but soon abandoned it.
42:44It says the risk of losing all hydraulics is too low to make systems like PCA worthwhile.
42:50The FAA's conclusion after their studies was that these events are so rare as to not require the mandate of
43:01an additional system.
43:03And of course, they did not consider the possibility of a surface-to-air weapons attack on the aircraft.
43:15The DHL is the first plane in Iraq to be hit by a surface-to-air missile.
43:19But in recent years, the threat of terrorist-controlled, shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles has been growing.
43:25There had been roughly 30-odd incidents of commercial aircraft being attacked by manned portable surface-to-air missiles leading
43:38up to the DHL one.
43:42What makes the risk of missile attack in Iraq so serious is that for months nobody was guarding the abandoned
43:47depots of the Iraqi army,
43:49leaving terrorists free to help themselves to millions of dollars worth of arms.
43:57I believe there are weapon caches everywhere in Iraq. In my opinion, they also have many missiles.
44:03There's widespread fear these terror weapons could soon be targeting passenger airliners all over the world.
44:11The US government's Department of Homeland Security is spending over $100 million on research
44:17to adapt military counter-missile technology for civilian airliners.
44:20It is inevitable today that commercial aircraft will have to be fitted at some time with laser and infrared jamming
44:32systems.
44:33The infrared jammer will confuse the seeker for the missile, whereas the laser jammer will direct a pulse into the
44:46seeker and burn out the seeker of the missile.
44:49Singapore Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Qantas Airlines, they're all looking to install something into their aircraft.
44:58If you look at things like the Queen's flight in the UK, the President's aircraft in the USA, the King
45:06of Jordan's fleet, they're all fitted.
45:10Terrorism is with us today and will always be with us for the rest of our lives.
45:15It's impossible to defeat terrorism.
45:18But what is possible is to control terrorism at a commercially acceptable level.
45:27If we don't do that, then there's no future for us.
45:38But miraculously, without any of this equipment, the DHL crew had brought their plane to a successful landing.
45:45It's the only confirmed occasion in history when a missile has exploded on a large civilian airliner, which has then
45:51landed without crashing.
45:59For Mario Raffaele, it was a good note on which to retire.
46:03It was a good timing, actually, to say goodbye to aviation.
46:06As I said, I've been flying for 30 years.
46:09And a clean record, even to the last minute.
46:14We were lucky, but also we worked. We fight to survive.
46:21I learned some things about life, maybe, but I don't think it makes me a better pilot.
46:30The three DHL crew have received some of the highest awards that the civilian aviation community has to offer,
46:36in recognition of an unprecedented achievement.
46:40Teamwork was absolutely the key factor of bringing the airplane back to the ground with all three people alive.
46:47...
46:52...
46:56...