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On 31 August 1986, Aeroméxico Flight 498 collides with a light aircraft over Cerritos, California, causing both to go out of control and crash, killing all 67 people on both aircraft and 15 people on the ground. The accident was caused by neither pilot making visual contact with the other aircraft and a lack of automated collision warning systems. The crash inspires the creation of the traffic collision avoidance system.
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00:01In the dark of night, over the Red Sea, a pilot struggles to control his passenger jet.
00:12The plane seems to have a life of its own.
00:29I heard a scream, a noise. After that, I didn't hear anything.
01:01The sands of Egypt hide thousands of years of history.
01:09Monuments to ancient civilizations dominate the landscape.
01:20But for sun-loving Europeans, Egypt is also a resort destination, where the most important sand is on the beach.
01:34The town of Sharm el-Sheikh is several hundred kilometers southeast of Cairo.
01:41Perched on the Red Sea, it's a natural destination for people looking for a little rest and relaxation.
01:49Sharm el-Sheikh is quite popular with Europeans.
01:52The reason is, where can you get a very warm sea with a five-hour flight?
01:59You have the Red Sea, which is crystal clear. Beautiful mountains. It's just extraordinary.
02:09The city's popularity is growing. More than four million people a year use Sharm el-Sheikh's airport.
02:20In the early days of 2004, tourists aren't the only ones drawn to the local beaches.
02:27British Prime Minister Tony Blair is also in the region visiting Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak.
02:45Just after two in the morning on January the 3rd, many vacationers are still out on the town.
02:53But 53-year-old captain Kader Abdullah is just starting his day.
03:02He's renowned for his punctuality.
03:06A former officer in the Egyptian Air Force,
03:09Kader is now a highly respected captain with the charter company Flash Airlines.
03:20He always liked to pack his own suitcase. He wouldn't let me do it for him. He always said,
03:27I would like to prepare my own things to make sure I don't forget anything.
03:31He was very precise on what he wanted and what he would take with him.
03:42Captain Kader meets up with his 25-year-old first officer, Amr el-Shafi.
03:49Together they'll fly out of Sharm el-Sheikh heading for Paris.
03:52Good morning. Good morning, sir.
03:55El-Shafi is young enough to be the captain's son.
04:01The early morning flight isn't for everyone.
04:05Pascal Mercier and his family are supposed to be on the Flash jet, but changed their plans.
04:12I was booked on the Flash Airlines flight.
04:16When my agency told me that I had to wake up very early and then we had to change planes
04:23in Cairo,
04:24I said, this is really stupid. I mean, if my daughter was like two years old and the other ones
04:29were like six and eight.
04:32So, really, I didn't feel comfortable about changing planes and so on.
04:40For other tourists, the cheap tickets that Flash offers are worth the trouble of getting up early.
04:47France Tullier was able to bring his entire family to Egypt.
04:53They need the break.
04:57My brother-in-law had just lost his father.
05:00So, he brought his children, his mother and his wife there just to have a good time.
05:07Not to see the sights or anything, just to have a good time.
05:13That's what Sharm el-Sheikh is known for.
05:22Fatima Hijaji is also heading back to Paris after a vacation in Sharm.
05:27The mother of five is flying alone.
05:31Before take-off, she calls her nephew in France.
05:40I was asleep when she called.
05:44I didn't really want to get into a conversation with her.
05:48She was someone who called you for everything.
05:51She needed to be reassured.
05:54So, even though she had the five or six-hour flight ahead of her,
05:58she just wanted to make sure that I would be there to pick her up at the airport.
06:04In all, 148 passengers and crew settle into their seats aboard the jet.
06:11It's 5 a.m.
06:14In the cockpit, Ashraf Abdelhamid is the third member of the crew.
06:20He's training as a first officer, although he's worked for years piloting corporate jets.
06:25Temperature 1, 2, 2.0...
06:28None of the crew members are happy with the poor quality of the weather information
06:32they're getting from the local air traffic controller.
06:36They didn't say sky clear, they said clouds and sky clear.
06:40How? The two are opposite.
06:42Ask him about ceiling.
06:43No ceiling and clouds and sky clear.
06:46Maybe they're scattered.
06:47Maybe he means scattered.
06:49Good morning.
06:51The captain is also frustrated that one of his instruments isn't working.
06:56Although the engineer agrees there's a problem, it's not serious enough to fix.
07:03The men laugh it off at the expense of the first officer.
07:06Probably called by Ma.
07:08Making a heavy landing.
07:18Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
07:21On behalf of Captain Kader and his entire crew, we welcome you onboard Flash Airlines Boeing 737-300.
07:37It's still hours before dawn when the plane lifts off.
07:44The Flash Airlines flight will head out over the Red Sea before turning towards Cairo.
07:56The jet climbs through a pitch black night.
08:00Without a moon to light the scene, it's hard for the passengers to see much of anything outside their windows.
08:11In the cockpit, the simple turn over the Red Sea is taking a bizarre twist.
08:18See what the aircraft just did?
08:21Captain Kader doesn't like the way his plane is behaving.
08:29Turning right, sir.
08:31What?
08:33Aircraft is turning right.
08:35Turning right? How turning right?
08:38The plane is supposed to be turning left on its way to Cairo.
08:42Instead, it's turning in the opposite direction.
08:52The captain tries to get his plane back on course, but his situation just gets worse.
09:04Knowing he's in trouble, the captain tells the first officer to engage the autopilot.
09:11Autopilot! Autopilot!
09:12But it doesn't work.
09:14No other pilot, Commander!
09:20The 737 is now flying almost completely on its side.
09:28The plane gains speed as it spirals towards the Red Sea.
09:34Just minutes after take-off, the plane is out of control.
09:39Diving towards the water, it's travelling at more than 700 kilometres an hour.
09:44Everyone on board is running out of time.
09:52Just minutes after take-off, an early morning flight has become a desperate battle for survival.
10:01A passenger jet filled with French families is plunging towards the Red Sea.
10:10Everyone on board can feel the tremendous speed and gut-wrenching turns.
10:19The enormous G-forces are making it difficult for Captain Qader Abdullah to fly the plane.
10:28Ashraf Abdel Hamid, the third member of the flight crew, tells the captain to slow the plane down.
10:36Retard power! Retard power! Retard power!
10:39The plane is travelling so fast, it's threatening to tear itself apart.
10:45After flying almost upside down, the crew is finally beginning to bring their plane under control.
10:55One more, the plane is going to be crossed.
10:59The plane is on the ground and the plane will be tied into the Sea.
11:00Then they hear the ground proximity warning.
11:05They're getting dangerously close to the Red Sea.
11:11It's in the ground proximity warning.
11:24Pascal Mercier and his family are staying at a beachfront hotel my daughter woke up
11:34suddenly screaming like hell screaming like if something happened I didn't hear the crash but
11:43maybe she did it's just before five in the morning minutes after the plane took off from
11:56the airport it's disappeared from local radar screens by the time the sun rises the crash site
12:10is found but there's little for rescuers to do the plane shattered on impact a postcard is found
12:21saying simply I think this card will arrive after me pieces of debris litter the surface but most of
12:30the plane has sunk beneath the waves there are no survivors all 148 people on board the plane
12:39are dead flight 604 was to land at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris in the morning as family and
12:54friends wait officials list the plane is delayed and then slowly break the news of the accident
13:04they asked me are you waiting for someone from Sharma shake you say yes then they say could you come
13:11with us we are going to take you to a hotel at the hotel we'll explain it all to you
13:17it was very
13:21strange since we were greeted in an hotel and we passed people who were leaving happy because they
13:28were looking for the same information as us but their families were not on the list as it came with
13:35the paper in hand here yes Madame Hijaji Fatima we apologize that you have to learn it this way but
13:44she's dead later on his voicemail Muhammad Hijaji hears Fatima's message sent during the flight
13:56I heard the scream a noise and there's that I didn't hear anything
14:05Captain Keda's wife hears about the crash from her son
14:12my son called me from abroad and told me that he had heard there was an accident in flash airlines
14:25I was in disbelief for a while until it became reality
14:30it was a very big shock for me in resort hotels workers check the empty rooms of those who were
14:43on flight 604
14:49but one of the rooms is occupied this guy from the hotel just the hotel staff began to cry he
14:59was
14:59really shocked happily shocked to see us he thought we were in the flight with everybody else
15:08they're here in my hotel 82 people were on that flight 82 people it was it really really strange
15:21really really heavy but we were really lucky
15:33there had been no mayday call from the plane no warning to air traffic control that something was
15:39wrong with the plane crashing just minutes after it left the airport there are immediate concerns that a
15:47bomb had brought the jet down the plane had just taken off and it looked very strange why this accident
15:56happened so quickly after takeoff when investigators examined the planes flight path they discover it
16:04would have gone directly over the town where Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak kept a vacation home
16:12it's also close to the house where British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his family were staying
16:18Blair and his family were supposed to leave from the same airport that day security around the
16:24Prime Minister is immediately heightened
16:30two days after the crash authorities receive a phone call
16:38terrorists from Yemen claim responsibility for the crash they say it's a protest against a French law
16:46banning the Muslim headscarf the hijab in public schools but in spite of the phone call and the
16:58rumors swirling around Egypt investigators quickly rule out terrorism if you have a record distributed of a very
17:07large area that means the plane was disintegrating in the air and due to an explosion it would be
17:15disintegrating on a wide area in this case there was very very few pieces and all located in a very
17:22small area so
17:25this indicated that the plane was intact and went into the water intact if it wasn't terrorism what
17:35had ripped the plane from the sky so quickly investigators face an enormous challenge the plane has sunk below the
17:48surface of the surface of the red sea divers have to fight off sharks that are drawn to the carnage
17:57the rescue teams find few bodies intact the aircraft and most of the 148 passengers and crew have sunk over
18:061,000 meters to the bottom of the Red Sea the first task of investigators is to find the aircraft's
18:13flight data and
18:14cockpit voice recorders the black boxes if they survived the crash they will now be on the seabed
18:26but this part of the Red Sea has never been charted with so many French tourists involved the French
18:34government offers to help in any way it can the French immediately responded by sending a boat especially
18:43equipped with robots to search the bottom of the of the sea but the wreckage is too deep the sub
18:54that
18:54the French boat has can't survive the enormous pressure at the bottom of the sea the investigators
19:00desperately need another submarine but they're running out of time the black box transmits a radio signal but
19:08the battery only lasts for 30 days if investigators can't find it within a month the mystery of flight 604
19:17may never be solved getting to the black boxes before the time the fingers stopped transmitting was
19:25always a very worrisome aspect to all the investigation team everybody was working 24 hours around the clock to
19:33to try to salvage these and try to locate them first while the recovery effort continues family and
19:40friends of the victims begin to mourn those who died they pressure investigators to solve the mystery
19:50it's the biggest air disaster involving French nationals the biggest in the history of civil aviation
19:58American French and Egyptian experts join forces while waiting for the planes black boxes to be recovered they
20:06also begin focusing on flash airlines itself flying just two planes it was one of a number of low-cost
20:15charter companies that had been competing for customers in Europe in the last 10 years there had been a rapid
20:23expansion of budget airlines throughout this part of the world offering inexpensive no-frills service they
20:31fought for a piece of the holiday market seaside resorts like sharm el-sheikh were one of the many
20:39destinations they serve now one of the ways in which they provide this extremely cheap travel is by operating their
20:51aeroplanes 24 hours a day operating on such tight schedules means the planes are flown constantly
21:00former flash passengers step forward to complain about other flights there are a lot of stories I was flying home
21:10after a vacation a year before the crash while flying from sharm el-sheikh to bologna one passenger recalls
21:23seeing flames pouring from a flash airlines jet
21:40the flaming aircraft is forced to make an emergency landing
21:48Investigators learn that in 2002 the Swiss Aviation Authority performed a surprise inspection on the same plane that would later
21:56crash
21:59the pilots oxygen masks are missing there aren't enough oxygen tanks some of the cockpit instruments aren't working
22:09it's enough for the Swiss to ground the flight for eight hours until the company repairs the plane
22:16a few days later flash airlines was banned from flying in Switzerland another ban occurred in Poland in Norway tour
22:25operators
22:26stopped contracting with flash
22:29it's a rare event for an airline to be banned from operating into a country they had to have done
22:34something
22:35dramatically wrong especially when it comes to safety
22:39with mounting concerns about the safety record of flash airlines investigators comb through the company's paperwork
22:47they discover that the most recent maintenance records for the plane that crashed were never duplicated
22:54they've gone missing with the aircraft
22:58the lack of having copies of the technical log and all of them being on board of course this is
23:04a violation
23:06and the civil aviation here issued very clear instructions that this should not happen
23:15the French authorities agree that there are serious questions about flash
23:21they now ban the company from flying in France
23:26while there are concerns about the state of the company's planes there are no such issues when it comes to
23:32the crew of flight 604
23:35Captain Kader was considered not only a flying ace but a national war hero for his performance in the Yom
23:41Kippur war
23:45during his career he not only flew sophisticated fighter jets but also a variety of large cargo aircraft
23:53he had over 7,000 hours of flying experience as well as 2,000 hours as a flight instructor
24:02all the evidence shows that Captain Kader was a model pilot
24:09with the aircraft and its black box data recorders still hidden deep under the Red Sea
24:14investigators wonder was this a case of a superb pilot fighting to save a decrepit plane
24:22see what the aircraft did
24:31on a moonless January night a flash airline 737 spiraled wildly into the Red Sea
24:39all 148 people on board were killed
24:44investigators trying to find out why the plane went down have uncovered a history of safety problems with the airline
24:51but trying to prove that there was anything wrong with the plane that crashed is difficult
24:56much of the wreckage has sunk deep beneath the waves
25:01investigators have been unable to find the flight's black boxes
25:06whenever an airplane crashes into the water
25:09there's always a fear by investigators that the cockpit voice recorder
25:12and the flight data recorder may not be recovered
25:14those two boxes in and of themselves give the investigator a very good picture
25:19and without them could make the investigation process very very difficult
25:24finally, after several days of searching, a breakthrough
25:29a French research ship hears the locator signals given off by the black boxes
25:36a remotely operated sub drops down over 1,000 meters
25:41the violence of the crash has spread the wreckage over a wide area
25:47two weeks after the crash
25:49both the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder are recovered from the bottom of the sea
25:57investigators finally have some hard evidence
26:08the Egyptian, French and American team examines the critical devices in Cairo
26:17after the two black boxes are found the salvage effort wraps up
26:25other than a select number of small pieces the rest of the plane is too deep to recover
26:34the cost to continue would be too great
26:40without the wreckage itself investigators concentrate on what they do have
26:46they hope the black boxes will recreate the final minutes of the doomed plane
26:58one of the things we did to depict the path of the aircraft was we created an animation
27:03based on the data we got from the flight data recorder and from radar
27:08the flight data recorder paints a devastating picture
27:14shortly after takeoff the plane began heading left just as it was supposed to
27:21but then it quickly started banking in the other direction
27:26the cockpit voice recorder shows that the turn caught the captain off guard
27:31turning right sir
27:36what?
27:37how turning right?
27:41analyzing the cockpit voice recorder showed that the pilots were experiencing
27:48definitely some kind of abnormality problem that they could not understand
27:54the investigators sift through the flight data to find some explanation for the jets bizarre movement
28:03perhaps some mechanical fault was forcing the plane off course
28:09and there is an indication that something was wrong with the flash jet before it took off
28:15on the runway the captain and the ground engineer discussed an electrical malfunction
28:21but it's impossible to tell from the cockpit voice recorder exactly what the problem was
28:26especially electrical
28:30we can't be sure which equipment was being referred to by the aircraft captain and the engineer
28:35when they were discussing faulty equipment
28:38not enough parts were brought up from the bottom of the sea to be able to determine that
28:46and tragically the ground engineer was also on the flight
28:54we believe from the data we are looking at the flight data recorder
28:59that there is a very high possibility that the plane was tending to turn to the right by itself
29:08but what exactly had gone wrong?
29:12a thorough accident investigation can take years
29:19but in the case of flash flight 604 there are unique challenges
29:24the problem with accident investigation is that it's very time consuming and resource intensive
29:30especially when we don't have an airplane to physically look at
29:34you want to be absolutely sure of the facts conditions and circumstances
29:37before you publish that information
29:42family and friends of the victims are becoming more and more frustrated
29:47as the months pass they demand answers
29:53we were led to protest outside the Egyptian embassy because we had no news
29:58eleven months after the disaster we had no message, no information
30:06shortly after the protest, Egyptian investigators release a factual report
30:15it contains all of the information from the black boxes
30:20but the report does not reach any conclusions about why the jet crashed
30:24ladies and gentlemen, good evening
30:30with a situation as complicated as this one
30:33the investigators don't yet have any answers
30:36the only thing they can do is to keep looking
30:44investigators discuss several possible scenarios that could have been responsible for the plane's erratic course
30:51you look into every hypothetical scenario that would create a similar profile
30:58and then you see if this profile fit the data that you have put together
31:08fifty different theories are examined in minute detail
31:15in the process of looking into all the possible hypothetical scenarios
31:20we proceeded by eliminating those that did not fit the data
31:27investigators travel to the United States to test the most likely ideas in a sophisticated simulator
31:38if they can force the simulator to repeat the movements of the flash
31:42they might be able to figure out why the plane crashed
31:49the results are brought back to Cairo
31:52there are only four mechanical faults that could have produced the flight path of the doomed jet
32:00investigators believe the key to the crash is to find out why the plane began turning off course
32:08these four scenarios were all related to what would cause an uncommanded bank
32:16so we were left with these as causes that we could not rule out
32:23two of the scenarios involved the spoilers on the plane's right wing
32:30spoilers lift up from the top surface of the wings slowing it down
32:35by producing drag or spoiling the airflow
32:39they help turn the aircraft
32:43if the pilots control wheel or the cables that connected to the spoiler jammed
32:50it could have forced the plane off course
32:55problems with the spoilers are one explanation
32:58but there's no physical proof
33:01and while there were maintenance problems with flash planes
33:04none of them had to do with the jet spoilers
33:09the team searches for another explanation
33:14another potential cause of the crash is the plane's ailerons
33:18this part of a plane's wing controls the angle of a plane's turn
33:23a malfunctioning aileron could have caused the plane to roll to the right
33:29again if the crew couldn't fix the problem the plane would have begun to spiral into the sea
33:36while so-called aileron trim runaway would create a flight path like the one seen during the crash
33:42once again there's no physical proof to support the theory
33:47and typically aileron trim runaway can be physically overcome by pilots
33:54all he would have had to do was overpower using more force to move the control wheel in an opposite
34:00direction
34:00overbanked
34:01when they listen to the cockpit voice recorder
34:04the investigators are puzzled by the constant discussion of the plane's autopilot
34:09autopilot
34:11the captain asked for the autopilot to be turned on
34:15but it had no effect and the plane began to plummet to the sea
34:21and earlier in the cockpit recording investigators uncover another curious exchange
34:30captain cader began the initial turn over the red sea manually
34:34but decided to let the autopilot take over
34:40autopilot
34:41the flight data recorder shows that the autopilot was indeed turned on as the plane climbed
34:48not yet
34:51but then the captain appears to change his mind
35:03the plane's flight data recorder shows that the autopilot was only activated for three seconds
35:11but investigators wonder if the autopilot had malfunctioned and stayed in command of the jet
35:18the automated system could have continued to control the plane
35:21flying it to the right
35:23even after the pilots thought it had been disengaged
35:27the malfunction of the autopilot of course took a lot of work from us
35:31because it was nearly impossible to show that it did not happen
35:34and quite impossible to show that it did happen
35:38so but it was always a very prominent possibility
35:44because it would give a very very close scenario to what was happening
35:51perhaps most puzzling of all though
35:53is that no matter what happened to the plane
35:55it appeared to be under control just before it crashed
36:00moments before impact the captain was seemingly back in command of his airplane
36:05if there had been some crippling mechanical problem
36:08why did it seem to disappear
36:18some members of the team want to consider something besides mechanical fault
36:22the pilots themselves
36:26i think the major concern for the united states
36:29was that the human factors elements of this accident weren't thoroughly explored
36:34perhaps the high esteem given to egyptian pilots was getting in the way
36:42in egypt pilots are very respected and in particular air force pilots are very highly regarded
36:47for the past 26 years the country's president has been a highly decorated air force officer
36:54in an environment like this the pilot is somewhat immune to suspicion
36:57when something goes wrong the natural tendency is to blame the equipment
37:02and on this flight the pilot was a war hero with thousands of hours of experience
37:11studying the flight data recorders again the investigators discover something peculiar
37:18even before the plane's bizarre turn to the right
37:21three things all seem to happen at the same time
37:25instead of a smooth left turn the plane begins to come out of its turn early
37:30the nose starts to rise and the plane's air speed decreases noticeably
37:36but during this time the pilot says nothing
37:40it seems that he's unaware of the changes to his flight path
37:46i've flown out of charmoche at night time and in the same type of aircraft
37:51and in no way should the pilot allow the air speed to drop by as much as 30 knots
37:54or the bank angle to change beyond five degrees
37:57without clearly stating the reasons for the change in the flight path
38:02some investigators consider a provocative theory that might explain this seemingly bizarre behavior
38:10perhaps captain cader had been affected by vertigo
38:14vertigo is a physiological condition that would exist with any person not just pilots
38:24and it's based on the inner ear over a dark ocean without a defined visual horizon
38:30no ground lights the pilot may not be able to perceive
38:34visually whether he was flying up down left or right
38:39and if the fluid in his inner ear was moving where he tilted his head
38:43that may induce a sensation a physiological sensation
38:47that may cause the pilot to believe the airplane is flying straight and level when it's actually turning
38:54the plane's flight path is ideal for creating a sense of vertigo
39:00the flash airline jet took off into a moonless night
39:05captain cader was flying manually and began to turn as he was climbing
39:11heading out over dark water it would be very difficult using just his senses for captain cader to know exactly
39:18where he was
39:19Roger when ready insha Allah left turn to establish 306 charm vr
39:24it is actually a very high workload situation and when there are no visual cues outside because it's a moonless
39:31night
39:31and you're over featureless territory with no lights in it
39:36you really as a professional pilot should be totally aware of the fact that this is a situation in which
39:44you could get disorientated
39:47it's a classic it's happened so many times it's killed so many people in the last 10 years
39:54when the plane was supposed to be turning slowly left the control wheel began inching towards the right
40:02perhaps the captain was making the turn without even being aware of it
40:09when you study the movement of the aircraft control surfaces
40:13it appears that something was guiding captain cader to the right
40:16now that could have been a false horizon or something he seen outside of his window
40:21see what the aircraft just did
40:23or perhaps he believed he was actually correcting a problem with the plane itself
40:29he thinks he's gained his flight path again and all of a sudden at this moment he receives contradictory information
40:37turning right sir
40:39what?
40:40aircraft is turning right
40:42the contradictory information adds to the pilots confusion
40:48he believes he's fixing a problem when he's told his problems have just started
40:53in this particular instance
40:55not only are you trying to fly the airplane and understand situationally what's happening
41:00but you're going through the mental gymnastics because your expectations are one way
41:04meanwhile you have the first officer who's telling him something that's totally different
41:07aircraft is turning right
41:11Egyptian investigators agree that captain cader may have suffered some form of disorientation during the flight
41:19but they don't believe it was the only problem the crew was dealing with
41:25I don't really have a very clear indication that there was disorientation
41:29but it's possible
41:31there was a recovery from disorientation
41:33the time to find out the problem and take the corrective action needed
41:39was more than the time left before impact
41:42no matter what role disorientation played in the crash
41:46investigators are about to learn that the crew wasn't properly trained to deal with it
41:54Flash Airlines never provided the pilots with basic information
41:59that could have saved their lives
42:09it's been two years since an Egyptian charter plane smashed into the Red Sea
42:16148 people were killed
42:19investigators trying to figure out why Flash Airlines Flight 604 crashed face immense challenges
42:27most of the wreck is still deep underwater
42:33by carefully examining the plane's black boxes
42:36the investigators believe that disorientation may have played a role in the accident
42:44the pitch black night and the featureless sea caused the pilot to become confused about what was happening
42:52but mechanical problems may also have plagued the plane
42:57as they continue to try to solve the mystery investigators make a startling discovery
43:04officials at Flash Airlines revealed that they hadn't provided the pilots with crew resource management training
43:10although it was a requirement for the company
43:14it might have helped the crew deal with their horrifying situation
43:22crew resource management is a program where pilots are trained to work together rather than as individuals
43:28had the pilots of Flash Air 604 received a formal CRM training program
43:33the outcome of this flight may have been substantially different
43:37American investigators believe the very junior first officer may have felt the plane was in trouble before the captain did
43:44but failed to offer suggestions to his much more experienced co-worker
43:49what?
43:51nor did he attempt to take control of the plane
43:55formal CRM training would have empowered the first officer
43:58who had the best situational awareness and the most information about the position of the airplane
44:03to take command of the airplane when he saw that the captain wasn't taking the appropriate corrective action
44:14an earlier conversation in the cockpit before takeoff may reveal why the young first officer would have been reluctant to
44:21challenge the captain
44:23yesterday
44:24we were coming in at dusk and the sun was too too
44:28I felt I could hardly see the runway
44:30he's already saying in sight
44:32what in sight?
44:34aid sir
44:36it may not have meant to be insulting but it may have reinforced the first officer's feeling that he was
44:41the student and the captain was the teacher
44:45I am unable to raise my eyes and he says in sight
44:50where in sight?
44:53it is going to serve as negative feedback
44:56the young first officer is bound to hesitate
44:59he doesn't want to be wrong again
45:01he doesn't want to lose the respect of an air force general
45:07in a crew an effort must be made to bring together people who are able to co-pilot
45:13not a crew in which one person pilots and the other person looks on without saying a word
45:19but the captain and the co-pilot weren't alone in the cockpit
45:23a third crew member with more experience than the first officer was also there
45:29maybe it is scattered
45:31he too never said anything until the final seconds of the flight
45:35otherwise how do we know when we clear the cloud?
45:38we hear him speak very clearly and very openly
45:43all during the time before the engine start up
45:46he was in conversation with the first officer and with the captain
45:49so this experienced person being very quiet all through
45:54we believe that if he saw any of the crew members doing something that he should not be doing
46:01or not doing something that he should be doing
46:03would have said something
46:06retard power! retard power!
46:08the only word he said was
46:10retard the throttles at the later stage of the event
46:15shows that that's the only thing he saw that should be done
46:19even if the co-pilot had taken control sooner
46:23there's no way to know if he could have saved the jet
46:26whatever took place on flight 604 happened quickly
46:29and since the plane had just taken off
46:32the crew had little time to react before they crashed into the sea
46:41the final report on the Flash Airlines crash was released in March 2006
46:48there are no clear answers
46:51Egyptian officials say that any of four mechanical problems could have caused the crash
46:58they say disorientation may have played a role
47:01but it's not the reason behind the accident
47:05American investigators refuse to blame the plane
47:10instead they say the problem lies with the airline
47:13which didn't sufficiently train their crews
47:17the pilots are responding based on skills abilities knowledge
47:20and what they got out of training
47:22if the training was deficient that's a company responsibility
47:26two months after the crash Flash Airlines went out of business
47:31and as a result of the Flash 604 tragedy
47:34new rules came into place to ensure that in the future
47:38aircraft safety violations will be judged more harshly
47:44the Flash Airlines crash gave the final political impetus
47:49to a move to create a European blacklist
47:53where if one state
47:56banned an airline
47:58then all the other European Union states would automatically ban that airline also
48:09The Egyptian investigation concluded with an important recommendation
48:13We have recommended that some kind of training or awareness program should be made
48:21to be able to have a pilot observe another being disoriented early
48:27and what he should do to first maintain safe flight
48:32second to pull the pilot from his disorientation back to orientation
48:39Was there a mechanical problem at the heart of the crash?
48:44Investigators will likely never know
48:47With so much of the plane still at the bottom of the Red Sea
48:51questions will always remain for investigators and everyone else who was affected by the crash
49:05I lost my nephews and my niece
49:08They were just kids
49:10What future would they have had?
49:12How can you put a price on that?
49:15What a waste
49:24The families will never be able to fully mourn
49:27Me included because we'll never know what's really happened
49:30The Americans
49:32The Americans