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On 23 March 1994, Aeroflot Flight 593 stalls and crashes while en route to British Hong Kong, killing all 75 people on board. The pilot's 15-year-old son accidentally disabled the autopilot while in the captain's seat, causing the aircraft to bank heavily to the right, inducing the stall.
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00:05A Russian flight to Hong Kong is in serious trouble.
00:09The other way. The other way.
00:12To the left, now to the right.
00:15Gravity has become a deadly force
00:17as the crew fights to keep the plane from falling to Earth from 10,000 meters.
00:22Get out. Get out. Back!
00:24The cause of all the chaos, a 15-year-old is at the controls.
00:28Get his left. The ground is right there.
00:53Come and sit in my seat.
00:56Look over.
00:56Look over. Pilot being filmed.
01:00Are you filming?
01:03It's a family outing.
01:04A proud pilot taking his kids on their first trip abroad.
01:09But in just a few minutes,
01:10their vacation will turn into a terrifying fight for their lives.
01:24Hold the control column. Just hold it.
01:27Back! Back!
01:29Investigators would be amazed.
01:31How did a 15-year-old kid end up in the pilot's seat
01:35flying a brand-new passenger aircraft?
01:40The other way!
01:42Back!
01:49March 22nd, 1994. Moscow.
01:5415-year-old Eldar Kudrinsky is going abroad for the first time.
01:59He needs every gadget he has.
02:01Eldar!
02:02Uncle Volody is waiting.
02:03I'm ready. I'm ready.
02:05Come on.
02:05But this is no ordinary kid.
02:07Eldar's father is Captain Yaroslav Kudrinsky,
02:10an international airline pilot.
02:11In Russia, that means membership of a privileged group
02:15and access to luxuries most of the country can only dream of.
02:24Ah, Captain is here. Now he can take off.
02:28Hello, Uncle Volody.
02:30Hello.
02:31Aeroflot allows pilots' families to travel once a year at a discount,
02:35so Captain Kudrinsky is taking his children on a four-day holiday to Hong Kong.
02:39Mom, it won't all fit.
02:42Anybody would think we're going for a year.
02:45Where is your daughter?
02:47Listen to the music in a car.
02:50By the time they're our age, these kids are going to be deaf.
02:53What?
02:54Deaf.
02:55Pardon?
02:56Captain Vladimir Makarov, Volodya at his friends, is an aeroflot pilot too.
03:02He's also going to Hong Kong on holiday
03:04and will be keeping an eye on the kids during the flight.
03:08Mrs. Kudrinsky is only going as far as the airport to see them off.
03:11Oh, Eldar, Yana, promise you'll call as soon as you get there.
03:17Volodya, you will make them call me?
03:19Um, yeah.
03:21We'll call as soon as we can, okay?
03:24Come on, come on, come on.
03:33Yaroslav and I love to travel, and so do the kids.
03:38They love seeing new places, learning new things.
03:43There was a chance for them to come along with their father,
03:46and they jumped at it.
03:47And they with the worst thing, so we see us.
03:54Eldar and Yana aren't the only ones boarding flight 593.
03:58Most of the 63 passengers are businessmen from Hong Kong and Taiwan,
04:03looking for opportunities in the new Russia.
04:07Others, like Adrian DeVille, have come from London,
04:10flying Aeroflot because it offers a cheap connection to Asia.
04:13He's the manager of a camera shop in northern England
04:16and has a passion for aircraft.
04:18In fact, he's going on a two-week holiday to Hong Kong
04:21to photograph the new airport they've just built.
04:27He'd go as far as he could.
04:29If he thought there was a good airport somewhere in the world,
04:32he'd try his best to get to that airport
04:34just to go and make some nice photographs.
04:38And the trip to Hong Kong grew from that
04:41because he wanted to see this brand-new airport,
04:44which was a feat of engineering at the time.
04:49Mark Newport is a British sports promoter
04:51who lives in Hong Kong.
04:53Mark was in the army, was in the forces,
04:57and he went to Hong Kong and he just loved it
05:00and got married out there.
05:05He chose an Aeroflop.
05:06I'd never heard of it until then
05:08because it was just a cheap flight home.
05:14In 1994, Russia is in a state of great change.
05:18Three years earlier,
05:19the old Soviet Union finally collapsed.
05:22A new Russia is bursting out from behind the torn Iron Curtain.
05:27Its people want the freedoms of the West,
05:30the lifestyle, the international travel.
05:34But Russia's state-owned airline, Aeroflot,
05:37is getting a makeover too.
05:39They struggle to buy five new aircraft
05:42from the company Airbus Industry,
05:44the $70 million state-of-the-art Airbus A310-300.
05:53Though it seats fewer than 200 passengers,
05:56it can fly three times further
05:58than any of Russia's biggest passenger aircraft.
06:01Aeroflot has created a new, prestigious division
06:04around the Airbus fleet,
06:05Russian International Airlines.
06:09Pilots wear special uniforms,
06:11they fly state-of-the-art planes
06:13and travel to the world's top destinations.
06:17RIA represents a new, modern Russia to the world.
06:21After the collapse of the Soviet Union,
06:25Aeroflot, still controlled by government,
06:29was forced to look for profits
06:32and develop a network
06:35which would be commercially justified.
06:38For Russia's premier airline,
06:41Aeroflot handpicks an elite core
06:43of first-class pilots.
06:45Each of them has thousands of hours of flying time,
06:48impeccable safety records
06:49and fluent English.
06:51They're given special training
06:52by the manufacturers of the aircraft Airbus Industry.
06:59The airline had around 3,000 pilots at that time.
07:03Only 16 men were to be sent to be trained first.
07:07Only the best of the best made it.
07:13I remember how hard it was for them to master it
07:16because the technology was quite different.
07:19So they were working very hard,
07:21but they all got through it and started to fly.
07:30Yana and Eldar are finally on board
07:33the new plane they've heard so much about
07:35from their father.
07:43Kudrinsky has 900 hours of flying the A310 under his belt.
07:56First, Captain Danilov will command the flight through the busy flight corridors out of Moscow.
08:01Relief Captain Kudrinsky will then take over.
08:04When he does,
08:05When he does, First Officer Piskarev becomes his co-pilot.
08:08All three are first-class pilots.
08:13On this new A310,
08:15the flight deck is fully computerized.
08:17Like other state-of-the-art aircraft,
08:20it's equipped with a sophisticated autopilot
08:22that can fly the plane for long stretches of the flight.
08:26International routes like this one to Hong Kong
08:29are Aeroflot's lifeline.
08:30They bring in precious hard currency
08:33at a time when the domestic market is struggling to turn a profit.
08:40Flight 593 takes off at 4.39 p.m. local time.
08:48Then it will join the Trans-Siberian Airway
08:50flying east towards Mongolia and China.
08:57It's a smooth flight.
08:59Only four hours into the 10-hour trip,
09:01they've just passed over Novosibirsk in Siberia,
09:04almost halfway.
09:05But Eldar and Yana are too excited to sleep.
09:14Having negotiated the busy airways out of Moscow,
09:17First Captain Danilov takes a rest break.
09:22He hands over control to relief Captain Kudrynski,
09:25who now becomes acting captain for the next leg of the journey.
09:29You have control.
09:31I have control.
09:40Still awake?
09:42Yes, but...
09:44Should we surprise your father?
09:46The cockpit?
09:48Oh, yeah.
09:49Would you like that?
09:50Okay.
09:55Aeroflot's most technically advanced aircraft
09:57is now cruising on autopilot at 10,000 meters.
10:01It's a calm, windless night.
10:03But the peace will not last.
10:05The pilots and crew will soon be fighting
10:08to save the lives of everyone on board.
10:16One of Aeroflot's new airbuses
10:18is on a direct flight from Moscow to Hong Kong.
10:21Captain Kudrynski is taking his children
10:24on their first trip abroad.
10:25They're about to pay him a surprise visit.
10:28Here's some very important visitors.
10:30Should I bring them in?
10:31Okay.
10:37Come on in.
10:39Hi, Dad.
10:40This is first officer, Igor Vladimirovich Piskarev.
10:42Hello.
10:44Hi.
10:44So, what do you think of our new airplane?
10:47It's very nice.
10:49It's amazing.
10:51So it's quite different from our old Russian planes, huh?
10:54Daddy, what's that?
10:55Well, this is a flight computer.
10:58It flights the plane.
10:59It does everything automatically.
11:03Now, come and sit in my seat.
11:05Would you like to?
11:07Come on.
11:11It's a quiet flight.
11:13Many passengers are sleeping,
11:14unaware of what is taking place on the flight deck.
11:21Daddy, can I turn these?
11:23Yeah.
11:26Now, Yana, would you like to pilot the plane?
11:30No.
11:32Put your hands on the control column.
11:35Come on, come on, go on.
11:36But, you know, don't touch any buttons, okay?
11:39Especially this red one, autopilot switch,
11:42you don't touch it, all right?
11:44Okay.
11:45Kudrinsky turns the heading select knob.
11:48It doesn't disengage the autopilot,
11:51but allows him to turn the plane slightly to the left.
11:54It makes his daughter think she's flying the aircraft.
12:00The artificial horizon shows the plane is banking slowly left.
12:04This instrument is vital when you can't see the ground,
12:07as it shows the pilot how level the aircraft is in relation to the horizon.
12:11It was you.
12:13You turned the plane.
12:16Kudrinsky now puts the aircraft back onto its preset course,
12:19while First Officer Peskarev radios local air traffic control with their position.
12:24Novokuznetsk, this is SU-593, flight level 3, 3-0, heading 1-0-5.
12:33Flight 593 is now over 3,200 kilometers east of Moscow, near the middle of Siberia.
12:40Sierra Uniform 593, Novokuznetsk, flight level 3-5-0, heading 1-0-5.
12:47Sierra Uniform 593, estimating Zakir at 17.59.
12:54Now it's Eldar's turn at the wheel.
12:57He's been waiting a long time for this moment.
13:01Pilot being filmed.
13:04Are you filming?
13:05Yes, I am.
13:09Can I turn this?
13:10Yeah, but if you turn it to the left, where will the plane go?
13:14Left.
13:14Right, look out to the left, watching for the ground when we're turning.
13:20Eldar finds the control column quite stiff.
13:23It seemed to move easily when his sister was doing it, so he tries harder.
13:28But he can't make the plane turn, because the autopilot is keeping it on course.
13:37Is the plane turning?
13:39Suddenly, the column turns easily.
13:41Great.
13:42Is the plane turning to the left?
13:44Yes, yes, it is.
13:50Set the horizon to normal for him.
13:54Once again, his father switches the heading select knob back to its original setting,
13:59ending the turn and Eldar's illusion of flying the plane.
14:06Captain Kudrinsky then selects navigation mode.
14:08It tells the autopilot to put the plane back on course to Hong Kong.
14:13Dad.
14:15Dad.
14:15But Eldar is still holding the wheel to the left.
14:19It's become stiff again.
14:21Can I go back to my seat?
14:23What for?
14:24You'll only go to sleep and don't run in the first class.
14:28They will fire us.
14:31Eldar now turns his control column slightly to the right, enjoying his time at the controls.
14:37Well, I am going shopping on Temple Street.
14:40It's a famous market that's only open at night.
14:56Why is it turning?
14:58Is it turning by itself?
15:00Yes, it is.
15:03It's been just over three minutes since Eldar sat down in the pilot's seat.
15:07The plane is tilting sharply, a turn that's getting steeper every second.
15:16The plane seems to be turning by itself, but no one seems to know why.
15:20Into some kind of zone.
15:22We've gone into a zone, a holding pattern.
15:24Have we?
15:25Of course we have.
15:28An arc has replaced the straight direction line on the screen.
15:31The arc looks like a plane in a holding pattern around an airport.
15:38As they study the screen, the plane continues to turn.
15:42It's now banked at 45 degrees, which is steeper than what it was built for.
15:48Suddenly, the command bars disappear from the primary flight display.
15:52The crew no longer have any information about course or heading.
16:00The plane is flying at 650 kilometers an hour and banking hard.
16:05Like a quick turn in a sports car,
16:08the dramatic movement of the aircraft begins to push everyone into their seats.
16:13Guys!
16:20The A310's autopilot works to keep the plane aloft.
16:25Suddenly, the nose pitches up.
16:28The increased G-force makes it difficult for Piskarev to reach the controls.
16:32He does his best, but nothing happens.
16:42Piskarev's hard turn to the left has had no effect on the plane.
16:46Hold it. Hold the control column.
16:49Eldar is the only one with both hands fully on the controls.
16:52The other way. To the other way.
16:53He can only follow the most basic orders.
16:55To the left. Go back.
16:56He can't get up because the speed of the turn is pushing him back in his seat.
17:00The other way. To the left.
17:02To the left.
17:03To the left. Now to the right.
17:04To the other way.
17:05I am trying to get left.
17:06Okay. Get out.
17:08Eldar has been in the pilot's seat for just over four minutes.
17:12And now he can't leave.
17:13His body feels twice its normal weight.
17:16Get out. Get out.
17:17Kudrynsky can do nothing but struggle against the crippling G-forces.
17:21The aircraft is plunging towards the snowy earth.
17:24And there's nothing anyone can do.
17:28Crawl out to the back. Get out. Get out. Get out.
17:32Russian International Airlines flight 593 to Hong Kong is in serious trouble.
17:37There's the ground.
17:38The pilot's 15-year-old son has been at the controls for four minutes.
17:43The plane is turning steeply and losing altitude.
17:48Captain Kudrynsky desperately needs to get back into the pilot's seat.
17:51But he can barely move.
17:53The plane is turning so steeply and so quickly,
17:56the G-forces on his body make it feel like it's twice its normal weight.
18:04Everyone on board now feels the force of the plane's dramatic movements.
18:09His plane is in a serious crisis.
18:11But Captain Danilov can't get to the cockpit.
18:15He too is squashed by the powerful forces created by the plane's extreme bank.
18:21The plane still isn't responding.
18:24To add to their confusion, an alarm begins to sound.
18:27It signals the complete shutdown of the autopilot.
18:30The plane is now completely in the hands of Biskarev and Eldar.
18:36And to make matters even worse, there's another alarm.
18:42The plane is about to stall.
18:46An automatic safety system kicks in to keep the plane flying.
18:50It lowers the nose and puts the Airbus into a steep dive to regain speed.
18:55Lift, there's the go!
18:56The plane dives at a frightening 40,000 feet per minute.
19:00For the people on board, it's like having an elevator fall out from under them.
19:05In just seconds, the heavy pressure of the high-speed turn is replaced by near-weightlessness.
19:11As the plane suddenly drops away, it's now a very dangerous environment.
19:16People and objects that are not secured will land anywhere once gravity returns.
19:25They'd been flying at 10,000 meters, but now they're falling fast.
19:30Unless they do something quickly, they will hit the ground in less than a minute.
19:36Biskarev pulls back on the control column as hard as he can to bring the Airbus out of the dive.
19:44The nose finally comes up, and the aircraft begins climbing quickly.
19:52Gravity now returns with a shock.
19:54As the plane climbs, the rapid acceleration pushes people down relentlessly.
20:00The dramatic change in speed makes everyone feel four times heavier than normal.
20:08Meanwhile, First Officer Biskarev is still trying to gain control of the aircraft.
20:16Biskarev has pulled the aircraft out of the dive, but it's climbing too quickly.
20:20The engines on the A310 don't have enough power to push it almost vertically into the sky.
20:27The airspeed drops dramatically.
20:31The plane strains to climb, but it's been pushed too far.
20:37As the force of the acceleration eases, Kudrinsky leaps into action.
20:43But Biskarev has stalled the plane.
20:46The nose drops into a corkscrew dive.
20:52Now the Airbus is twisting towards the ground from 6,000 meters at a breathtaking 70 meters a second.
21:00Full throttle!
21:01For the first time since the crisis began, Captain and co-pilot can work together to save the plane.
21:07Full throttle, no?
21:08I got it! I have full throttle!
21:10Got it!
21:11Kudrinsky pumps the rudder, the vertical surface on the tail, to help break out of the spin.
21:16What's the speed?
21:17I don't see it!
21:19At last, the plane seems to be responding.
21:24Working the rudder, Kudrinsky has nearly stopped the corkscrew dive.
21:29Coming out!
21:31Coming out!
21:33Too much speed, he's back on through a little bit.
21:37After a desperate struggle, the two pilots have managed to pull the plane out of its terrifying spin.
21:43They're starting to level out, but still not completely in control.
21:47We'll get out of this. Everything is fine.
21:49Easy. Pull backwards a little bit.
21:52In all the chaos of the past few minutes, the pilots don't know exactly how far they've fallen.
21:58Suddenly, they run out of time.
22:11Sierra Uniform 593, this is Novakuznetsk area control. Please come in.
22:17500 kilometers north of the Mongolian border,
22:19Air traffic controllers in Novakuznetsk wait for Flight 593 to radio that it's left their control area.
22:26Area control. Please come in.
22:32Less than two hours later, the first search party goes out to look for the Airbus in the frozen, rugged
22:38Siberian wilderness.
22:40They finally locate the remains of Flight 593 on a wooded hillside about 100 kilometers east of Novakuznetsk.
22:50It's soon clear there are no survivors among the 75 passengers and crew.
22:56This was a brand new aircraft, fitted with the latest technology.
23:01What could have brought it down?
23:03Why was there no warning, not even a distress signal?
23:06The Russian media are quick to speculate. Could it have been a terrorist bomb?
23:22For some time, they wouldn't tell me anything specific.
23:27And only on the next day, the airline director told me there was no hope whatsoever.
23:33It was a horrible moment, of course. Horrible. It's hard to believe.
23:50Aeroflot flies the families of the deceased out to Moscow.
23:54Among them is Brenda Clark, the mother of British passenger Mark Newport.
23:59We met my daughter-in-law there.
24:01They told us, you know, it's cordoned off. We can't go down there.
24:05And she said, you can go down there, Brent, because the Chinese are down there.
24:10They have to do rituals and things, you know.
24:17And so she said, they're down there.
24:19That's when I knew they'd lied to me and said that it's cordoned off.
24:22And that's when I told them, I want to go down.
24:26And if you don't take me down, then I thumb a lift.
24:31The authorities take them to where the plane crashed.
24:37Relatives of Chinese victims drop pieces of paper with messages written on them.
24:42Others throw flowers.
24:45Yeah, that was really moving.
24:48We had the flowers.
24:49They had the little...
24:50They wrote messages, I think, on these pieces of paper.
24:53And they threw them out. It's lovely.
24:56Yeah.
24:58The Russians take the families to a morgue in a town near the crash site,
25:02where the recovered bodies are being held.
25:05Many are too badly mutilated to be identified.
25:08They ask the families to look at recovered items of clothing to help identify the bodies.
25:14Brenda Clark finds her son's family photographs.
25:17It sends a chill through her.
25:19For the first time, she knows for certain he was on the flight.
25:29The recovery operation gets underway.
25:32The Russian government mobilizes 238 soldiers, police, investigators and rescuers.
25:39Everyone in the aviation world wants to know how a brand new, state-of-the-art Airbus
25:43could fall out of the sky without any warning.
25:46Does the A310 have problems no one knows about?
25:49They need to find out fast.
25:55Chief accident investigator Ivan Mashkivsky is in charge.
25:59The crash site itself offers few clues.
26:02The ones he does have are puzzling.
26:05Unbroken bottles of champagne.
26:07A flight attendant in an oxygen mask.
26:10And finally, the body of at least one child thrown into the cockpit.
26:17The plane's digital flight data recorder indicates the engines were running when it hit the ground.
26:22He rules out engine failure.
26:25Mashkivsky needs the expertise of a man who knows the A310 well.
26:30Someone who can also recreate the fatal flight and find out what exactly went wrong.
26:39Vladimir Biryukov is an experienced test pilot and crash investigator at the Gromov Institute in Moscow.
26:46He's an expert on the A310 Airbus.
26:49Biryukov was directly involved in testing and certifying the aircraft prior to the Russians buying it.
26:58Because of the fate of this plane, the fate of this airline, my first reaction was shock.
27:06How could such a thing happen?
27:10All I knew was that the plane had crashed somewhere over Siberia.
27:17I remember spending a sleepless night, distraught, and trying to figure out what might have happened, and what could have
27:24caused it.
27:28Here you are, come.
27:35I think you should come and listen to this.
27:39Each investigation begins with a complete analysis of the plane's cockpit voice recorder.
27:44This time it reveals something disturbing.
27:47Now, come and sit in my seat. Would you like to?
27:51Come on.
27:55Daddy, can I turn to you?
27:57Yeah.
28:01Kudrinsky was in the pilot's seat, wasn't he?
28:04According to the diagram.
28:11Can I turn this a bit?
28:13Yeah.
28:14But if you turn it to the left, where will the plane go?
28:17Left.
28:17Right.
28:18Look out.
28:22Again.
28:26Can I turn this a bit?
28:28Yeah.
28:29But if you turn it to the left, where will the plane go?
28:31Ten years ago, it wasn't unusual for people to be invited up to the cockpit.
28:36Of course, since 9-11, it's become a lot tighter, and you will find cockpit doors are locked, generally, throughout
28:43the flight.
28:44Every country sets its own rules as to who has the authority or the access to the cockpit.
28:50In some countries, it's up to the captain, so the captain can invite guests up to the cockpit.
28:56But to have them actually manipulating the controls of an airplane, regardless of whether they have people on it or
29:03not, the fact that this was allowed to occur is definitely exception in the industry.
29:08Dad, can I go back to my seat?
29:10The two investigators are stunned by what they hear on the cockpit voice recorder.
29:15It's unbelievable.
29:17These two youngsters, the ones who we couldn't identify, they were not thrown into the cockpit by the crash.
29:26They were his kids.
29:28And they were flying the plane.
29:34The investigators are speechless.
29:36How could three experienced pilots allow children to fly a commercial airliner?
29:42They're about to learn something even worse.
29:44The children are only part of the problem.
29:47A little-known feature of the plane proved deadly.
29:52Why is it turning?
29:54Is it turning by itself?
29:58Turning to the left.
30:00The other way.
30:01The other way.
30:03To the left.
30:04Now to the right.
30:05The other way.
30:05I'm not trying to get left.
30:07OK, get out.
30:08Get out.
30:09Get out.
30:11Get out.
30:12Get out.
30:13Get out.
30:13Get out.
30:14Get to the left.
30:14The ground is right there.
30:17Russian investigators listen to the cockpit voice recorder of an Aeroflot Airbus that has crashed in Siberia.
30:24What they hear makes their blood run cold.
30:27Get out.
30:29Get out.
30:30Get out.
30:31Get out.
30:32Get out.
30:32Get out.
30:34Get out.
30:41Get out.
30:44Get out.
30:48Get out.
30:49Get out.
30:52Get out.
30:54here. What I'm trying to say is that no disaster occurs for just any single
30:59reason. There's always more than one all coming together. But this time it really
31:05does look like a single cause. A child flying the plane. And it sends shock
31:11waves through Aeroflot's higher echelons. Investigators feel the
31:18pressure. The media has learned that Eldar was at the controls. Aeroflot
31:23trying to improve on its Soviet-era image wants to minimize the damage. Boris
31:29Rybak is an aerospace consultant in Moscow. Aeroflot managers and executives
31:35indeed try to conceal results and try to downplay importance of this accident
31:46because it was very embarrassing.
31:52Managers at Aeroflot aren't the only ones following the investigation. Airbus, the European company which
31:59made the plane, is also intensely interested.
32:09If the accident was caused by Eldar, it will vindicate Airbus. At the same time, grieving families are also clamoring
32:17for answers.
32:18Are you sure?
32:20For Mashkiewski and his team, it's a delicate balance.
32:23There is always more than one reason for a plane to crash. We must find it.
32:28I'll do my best. His reputation, the reputation of Airbus, as well as Aeroflot, all now depends on finding this
32:37other cause.
32:40This was an international flight. It was a Western-built aircraft. And it was inevitable that the investigation that would
32:48be conducted by the authorities and the inquiries that would be conducted by claimant lawyers would expose information.
32:56At the same time, the manufacturer of the aircraft, Airbus industry, was very keen to get as much realistic explanation
33:10of what happened because the reputation of these aircraft was at stake.
33:17What I objected to was the way we were treated by Aeroflot. After the accident, they wouldn't tell us anything
33:24what was going on.
33:25They denied everything. I wanted to know why my son died. I wanted to know why these men had been
33:32allowed to do such a thing.
33:33But all we got from Aeroflot was blank, blank, blank. Every time we tried to find something out, they just
33:42didn't want to know.
33:44Families aren't the only ones desperate for answers.
33:47Vladimir Biryukov continues trying to learn all he can about why the Airbus fell out of the sky.
33:53Analyzing information from the flight data recorder, he can trace and repeat every command given to the aircraft during the
33:59flight.
34:04We were trying to get as close to the truth as possible, to find the cause, because that was the
34:12precedent, the first foreign-produced plane to crash while flying for a Russian airline.
34:20The investigation confirms the autopilot was on when the plane got into trouble.
34:25Even with the children in the cockpit, the plane should have flown on course.
34:29What went so terribly wrong?
34:32So, and he had new developments.
34:35We can discount Kudrynski's daughter. She sat in the chair, but she didn't fly the plane.
34:44At 17.47, in six seconds, Captain Kudrynski tells her not to touch the autopilot switch.
34:51Her father gave the autopilot the command to turn, while Yana just rested her hands lightly on the controls.
34:58It was you. You turned the plane.
35:02But when Eldar took the controls, Biryukov discovers, something dramatically different happened.
35:11No one could possibly have guessed.
35:13Not even the three pilots in the cockpit.
35:16Biryukov may have found the key to the puzzle.
35:19The plane's flight data recorder shows that two and a half minutes before the crash, while Eldar was at the
35:25controls, the autopilot partially disconnects.
35:29This is the start of all the plane's troubles.
35:32But how did that happen?
35:35The autopilot is a sophisticated computer which manages an aircraft's speed, altitude and heading.
35:42Altitude and heading are controlled by three key functions.
35:46The rudder, which controls sideways movement.
35:49The elevators, which control vertical movement.
35:52And the ailerons, which are for turning.
35:56On flight 593, the autopilot had disconnected itself from the ailerons.
36:01And the autopilots that were used in transport airplanes years ago were an on-off.
36:08In today's sophisticated flight management systems, you can literally take fragments of the autopilot.
36:15And disengage them, but not necessarily turn the switch off and turn it all off.
36:19Unless you want to.
36:23The question that really worries accident investigator Biryukov is how did the autopilot become partially disconnected?
36:30There's no mention of it in the cockpit voice recording.
36:33If this is a fault with the aircraft, it could prove fatal to future flights.
36:42The only way to know for certain is to reconstruct the accident on a flight simulator at Airbus Industries headquarters
36:49in Toulouse, France.
36:53Biryukov's experience as a test pilot and his detailed knowledge of the A310 is crucial to the investigation.
37:00Using information from the flight data recorder, Biryukov reconstructs the events,
37:06beginning at the moment Captain Kudrinsky allows his son to sit at the controls.
37:10A co-pilot will help replicate Piskarev's actions.
37:17Look out to the left, watching for the ground while we're turning.
37:23Unlike his sister, Eldar turns the wheel before his father can tell the autopilot to turn the plane.
37:29The controls are stiff because he's fighting the autopilot.
37:35In the simulator, Biryukov reproduces Eldar's every movement.
37:45Now, it's starting to go.
37:51Going, going, there.
37:58Hold it long enough and it disconnects.
38:01How long?
38:0330 seconds.
38:05And it disconnects smoothly.
38:09No warning.
38:11No.
38:13No.
38:14No one in the cockpit knows it, but this is a critical moment.
38:18Eldar's resistance actually turns part of the autopilot off.
38:22It takes just half a minute, but from here on, Eldar is controlling the ailerons.
38:27Eldar is actually steering the plane.
38:29Why is it turning?
38:31Is it turning by itself?
38:33Yes, it is.
38:34What seemed like an open and shut case is suddenly much more complex.
38:38To the left, to the back.
38:40The other way.
38:41The 15-year-old flying the plane isn't the only reason they crashed.
38:44The discovery highlights an apparent flaw in how pilots are trained on the A310.
38:54But why didn't anyone realize the autopilot had disconnected?
38:59Another peculiarity of the plane is that it has no alarm signaling the disengaging of the autopilot in the list
39:05channel, while our Russian planes have an alarm sounding in such an event.
39:17So I think that the captain allowed the boy to do it, irregular as it was, believing that even if
39:23the autopilot got disengaged, the crew would be alerted to the fact.
39:34The A310 airbus has only a small light to tell the crew the autopilot has disconnected.
39:40There's no alarm.
39:41There's no alarm.
39:42And the Russian crew was obviously unaware of it.
39:45But there's also another reason why no one realized what was happening.
39:48The autopilot still appears to be working normally, because it's controlling the plane's other functions.
39:56Although the plane is now banking, the situation isn't yet critical.
40:00At this point, if the crew takes the proper action, they can still stabilize the plane.
40:06Eldar is the first to notice that the artificial horizon is at an angle.
40:10Why is it turning?
40:11Is it turning by itself?
40:14Yes, it is.
40:16The three pilots don't understand this at all.
40:18After all, Kudrynskiy returned the flight to its autopilot heading.
40:23Makarov offers an explanation.
40:25We're going into some kind of zone.
40:28We've gone into a zone, a holding pattern.
40:31Have we?
40:32Of course we have.
40:35Increasing one degree per second.
40:4027 degrees.
40:42Now we should be entering into the zone.
40:46What's that?
40:49A strange arc now appears on the navigation panel.
40:53It looks like the course a plane would take circling an airport, waiting to land.
41:01There appeared an arc very much resembling the arc that appears on the display when a plane enters a waiting
41:07zone.
41:08There are waiting zones around airports.
41:11When too many planes accumulate, they enter such a zone and circle around while they wait.
41:16But there could be no such a zone at that point on the route.
41:20And yet we hear in the voice recording, hey, we're entering a zone.
41:28This false holding zone distracts the crew for nine seconds.
41:32In that time, the plane crosses a critical threshold.
41:37The Airbus is now banking at 45 degrees, far beyond its design limits.
41:43It cannot turn this steeply and maintain height.
41:46It's now losing altitude.
41:49Guys!
41:50But the Airbus autopilot is no longer controlling the ailerons.
41:54Its other functions try to compensate by pulling the plane's nose up and increasing power to maintain altitude.
42:01Passengers are pushed back into their seats.
42:03It's on the verge of stalling.
42:05It starts to shake like a leaf.
42:07Hold it.
42:09Just hold it.
42:10Part of the flight control panel now goes dark.
42:13It's a warning sign that the plane has gone beyond its design limits.
42:17From here on, the Airbus is out of control.
42:23By recreating the fatal flight,
42:26Biryukov has worked out how a lapse in judgment and concentration has resulted in a catastrophic crisis.
42:32But could the crew have saved the plane and its passengers?
42:38The pilots of flight 593 tried to bring the plane out of its fatal dive by pulling up.
42:43But they go too far.
42:45The plane climbs steeply and stalls.
42:49We're losing altitude.
42:52Now we've started to spin.
42:53So what do we do?
43:02It's coming out of the corkscrew.
43:05Now we're leveling out.
43:08In a moment we'll come out of the dive.
43:12All they had to do was let go.
43:15The plane has an inbuilt survival mechanism which won't allow it to stall, even at very low speed.
43:21But the pilot has to know that.
43:28The team's perseverance in an open and honest investigation
43:32did show that there was more than one simple cause behind the accident.
43:36Their findings benefited the whole industry,
43:39especially the revelation that the autopilot can partially disconnect.
43:44This remains a feature of the A310,
43:46as it enables pilots to control certain elements of a flight
43:50while leaving the rest to the computer.
43:53But crews are now made aware of this.
43:56Captain Kudrinsky's misfortune is that it was triggered in a way
43:59that was unexpected and difficult to detect.
44:06Adrian DeVille's body was one of 22 that were never identified.
44:10Their remains were cremated together by the Russian authorities.
44:15In my mind, he was asleep, and that's the way I deal with it.
44:19And, you know, he didn't know much about it.
44:27The crew of the Airbus are buried in Mitinskoye Cemetery in Moscow,
44:32in a hero's grave,
44:33next to the firefighters who died at the Chernobyl nuclear plant.
44:39Yana and Eldar lie next to their father.
44:47I can imagine the horror they experienced in their last moments.
44:55He knew there were not only all those people depending on him,
45:01but also his own kids.
45:08Yes, it was a violation.
45:10Yes, he did it.
45:11But how it all happened,
45:13it was just a freak accident,
45:15a bizarre coincidence.
45:20I can forgive the pilot.
45:23I can forgive the children,
45:27because they were innocent.
45:29This man was 39 years old,
45:31and for those 39 years,
45:34he had an exemplary flying career.
45:37He had a family, he was proud of them,
45:39and it was the final five minutes of those 39 years
45:44that went awry.
45:47Yeah, children shouldn't have been allowed in the cockpit,
45:50I don't believe,
45:51but me saying that now
45:54won't bring my old back for that.
45:57But it might stop things happening in the future.