AIR_TRAFFIC_CONTROLLER BEJA_CONTROLLER BOB_GRIMSTEAD CAPTAIN_AUSHEV CAPTAIN_BERGLUND CAPTAIN_REYES CHRIS_LONG CONTROLLER_DURAO DEXTER_COMENDADOR ED_REYES FIRST_OFFICER_EMERY FIRST_OFFICER_HERRERA FIRST_OFFICER_KARASHOLAKOV FLIGHT_ENGINEER_BOONE FRANK_PELLEGRINO GUY_HIRST INVESTIGATOR INVESTIGATOR_FIGUEIREDO JOE_EPPERSON JOHN_NANCE JOSE_FIGUEIREDO LEAD_INVESTIGATOR MAINTENANCE_SUPERVISOR MARSEILLE_CONTROLLER MARTIN_EMERY MARY_SCHIAVO NARRATEUR NUNO_AGHDASSI PARTS_SUPPLIER_AZAMAD RELIEF_PILOT_SOKOLOV REX_PARKINSON SECOND_INVESTIGATOR SERGEY_SOKOLOV SUPERVISOR SYSTEMS_ENGINEER_COMENDADOR TECHNICIAN TODD_CURTIS TOWER_CONTROLLER VIVIANA_DURAO NARRATEUR High above the French Alps, the pilots of a four-engine aircraft lose two of their engines. In the skies over Portugal, the pilots of a jetliner are unable to control their aircraft. An explosion knocks out flight controls. Three planes in crisis. Three crews pushed to their limit. Three investigations try to understand what turned each flight into a desperate fight for survival. Trans-Air Flight 671 is preparing for take-off at Luxembourg Airport. Captain Ingemar Berglund is a Swedish pilot who has been flying Boeing 707 aircraft for over a decade. First Officer Martin Emery is an accomplished British pilot who has worked as an instructor and an air traffic controller. Assisting the pilots is Flight Engineer Terry Boone. The Boeing 707 cargo plane will fly seven hours from Luxembourg to Kano, Nigeria. Above the Alps, the weather deteriorates. Flight 671 approaches its cruising altitude. Suddenly, it rolls to the right. The captain uses all his strength to level the plane. Engines three and four show signs of fire. An Air Traffic Controller directs Flight 671 to Marseille Airport, 75 miles (120 kilometers) away. But when the first officer inspects the right wing, the relief is short-lived. With only the left engines functioning, controlling the plane is extremely difficult. Captain Berglund manages to turn the plane towards Marseille, then reduces power in the two left engines. Airspeed isn t the crew s only concern. Thunderclouds and the risk of turbulence will make a difficult landing even harder. But the crew gets a break. The first officer contacts Air Traffic Control at Istres Airport. Istres-Le Tub Air Base is just northwest of Marseille. As they start their turn, the crew lowers the plane s flaps. But as soon as they extend the flaps, disaster strikes. Now they have an even bigger challenge. The crew decides to circle back and land on the runway s opposite end. But the captain no longer has the strength to make the turn on his own. The first officer has an idea. Adjusting the throttles will help turn the plane to the runway. It s a race to get the plane on the ground before the wing is incinerated. The plane is finally on the ground, but now the landing gear brakes fail. Thanks to its crew, Flight 671 was able to land with only two working engines. The question now is what happened to the other two? The damaged 707 is moved to a hangar to be examined by the BEA, France s air investigation authority. It s faced with an important question How did two engines fall off Flight 671? Investigators also need to know what caused the raging fire. They find the answer inside the 707 s left wing. When the flaps were extended, leaking fuel contacted live wires and ignited. Investigators are counting on the plane s flight data recorder to provide more information. The BEA sends out a team to search for the engines along the plane s route. Within 24 hours, they are discovered near one another. That suggests the engines detached at about the same time. While they wait for the engines, the team considers what role weather might have played. They turn to the crew for further insight. Investigators wonder if that turbulence was severe enough to tear the engines off the 707. The investigation gets a new clue. Investigators now need to find out what caused engine three to detach. Each engine is attached to a pylon. The pylon is then bolted to the wing using four large fittings. During Flight 671, all four fittings broke on engine number three. But one fitting stands out. Over time, the inboard mid-spar fitting on engine three was weakened because of a crack caused by metal fatigue. When it snapped off in severe turbulence, the other fittings broke too. Investigators examine the weakened fitting with an electron microscope. When they review maintenance records, the team learns that the plane passed two maintenance checks in a two-year period prior to the incident. Was there an issue with the inspection process? Investigators interview a maintenance supervisor about how engine fittings are approved for flight. By 1992, most 707s were considered too old to fly passengers and were converted to freight transport. The investigation concludes that a hidden fracture in the mid-spar fitting almost took the lives of the crew on Trans-Air flight 671. If not for the heroics of that crew, the plane would never have made it to the airport at Istres. The BEA recommends that inspections of the mid-spar fittings be modified to enable the detection of hidden cracks. In 1992, the crew of Trans-Air Cargo 671 received the Hugh Gordon-Burge Award for Outstanding Airmanship. When another crew flying over Portugal loses complete control of their airplane, they must ignore their instincts to get the plane on the ground. Air Astana flight 1388 prepares for takeoff from Alverca do Ribatejo, an airbase 15 miles (24 kilometers) northeast of Lisbon, Portugal. Forty-year-old Vyacheslav Aushev is the captain. The veteran pilot has been flying with Air Astana for seven years. There s also an extra pilot, twenty-six-year-old Sergey Sokolov. After undergoing a month of maintenance work in Portugal, today s 10-hour flight will return the plane to Air Astana s home base of Almaty, Kazakhstan. The only passengers are three maintenance staff employed by Air Astana. The plane is a Brazilian-made Embraer E190, a narrow bodied, single aisle, twin- engine aircraft. The flight takes off just after 130 pm. Seconds later turbulence forces the plane to bank hard to the left and then to the right. But heading back to the airport will be an enormous challenge. Suddenly, the plane goes into a dive. The altimeter unwinds so quickly it s unreadable. The extreme G force could break the plane apart. The pilots can only guess what s wrong. One of the technicians takes water to the exhausted pilots. Ailerons are flight control surfaces on the ends of each wing. They pivot up and down to help control an aircraft s roll. As the captain turns the control column to the right, the right-wing aileron should lift. After struggling for nearly an hour, a Portuguese Air Force escort arrives. A fighter pilot directs the crew to Beja, a military airport 70 miles (112 kilometers) to the south. The reversed controls make flying difficult but not impossible. Less than a thousand feet (300 meters) from the runway, the pilots struggle to keep the plane level. The aircraft begins to veer away from the runway. With the captain and the first officer exhausted, the relief pilot takes the controls for another attempt. The captain quickly improvises an alternate plan. After a grueling two hours in the air, Flight 1388 lands safely in Beja. Now it s up to investigators to determine what went wrong. Within two hours of Air Astana Flight 1388 s emergency landing, investigators from the Portuguese Safety Investigation Authority arrive at Beja Airbase and interview the crew. The investigators need to verify the report. The inputs are indeed reversed. Up is down. They meet with the maintenance supervisor who oversaw the plane s overhaul in Lisbon. Four cables move the ailerons up and down. Each cable moves through a pulley system. Friction on the pulleys can cause the cables to wear prematurely. Instead of pulleys to guide the cables through the wing, the new installation uses square metal frames that minimize wear caused by friction. Investigators refer to maintenance records to see if anyone ensured the cables were installed correctly. They go back to the maintenance supervisor. Investigators finally understand. Mistakes on the ground resulted in danger in the air. As a result of this accident and investigation, several safety changes are made. Another crew must also make heroic decisions when an explosion threatens the lives of all 293 people on board. A Philippines Airline Boeing 7-4-7 is cruising at 33,000 feet (10,000 meters) enroute to Tokyo, Japan. Flight 4-3-4 is carrying 273 passengers. On the flight deck, Captain Ed Reyes is assisted by First Officer Jaime Herrera and Systems Engineer Dexter Comendador. Reyes and Comendador are both former air force pilots. The flight began in Manila and made a stop at the Philippines resort of Cebu. The jet is now nearing the Japanese archipelago. But three hours into the flight, a frightening sound is heard in the cabin. The plane banks hard to the right. The autopilot is still functioning. It corrects the roll. Naha, on the Japanese Island of Okinawa, is 40 miles (64 kilometers) to the west and has the closest airport suitable for an emergency landing. The blast has knocked out some of the aircraft s flight controls. Captain Reyes cannot tell which ones. By increasing thrust to the engines on the left-hand side of the plane and reducing it to the engines on the right, Captain Reyes forces the aircraft to circle right. Like the pilots of Trans Air 707, Captain Reyes steers his aircraft with the tools he has available. Within minutes, the airport is in sight. Reyes lines up for final approach. PAL Flight 434 slows to a stop. Despite the loss of many of their flight controls, the pilots have landed their plane safely. It s a remarkable feat. The bomb killed the passenger in seat 26K and injures another ten. But the rest of the plane s passengers and crew are safe. Investigators from the Okinawa Police Department arrive. They need to understand what happened on board the flight. They quickly determine that the explosion severed the steel cables directly above seat 26K, cables that control the rudder and elevator and the co-pilot s control of the right aileron. The downward force also blew a hole in the floor, which could have ignited the vapors in the fuel tank of most 747s. But on this flight, seat 26K was not located above the tank. The Okinawa forensic investigators immediately start collecting evidence from the explosion. They begin with the largest fragments of debris and then systematically work their way down until the smallest particles are retrieved by vacuum. They separate bits of metal, plastic and electrical wire that do not belong to the plane. One piece is a modified digital wristwatch. Another is a 9-volt battery. Investigators quickly determine that a bomb exploded beneath seat 26K. The question is, who planted it? Investigators examine fragments of the bomb that exploded on Flight 434. They learn that the 9-volt battery they found is only sold in the Philippines. That suggests that the bomber may be based there. Weeks pass without any progress in the case. Then, a month after the explosion, a call to police leads to a bomb factory in a Manila apartment and the capture of a suspect. News of the raid reaches FBI special agent Frank Pellegrino in New York City. For two years, he has been hunting a terrorist named Ramzi Yousef. Ramzi Yousef is being sought internationally for his role in the 1993 bomb explosion in the garage of New York s World Trade Center. Police are able to tie the bomb factory in the Manila apartment to the bombing of PAL 434. But can they tie the bomb factory to Yousef? Police check for fingerprints and find a match for Ramzi Yousef. Now investigators need to know How exactly did Ramzi Yousef get the bomb on to the plane? The suspect arrested at the bomb factory is identified as Abdul Hakim Murad. He admits to helping Yousef build bombs. And 67 days after his arrest, he finally divulges how Yousef got the bomb on Flight 434. Murad tells investigators that Yousef uses nitroglycerine concealed in a bottle of contact lens solution. With the rest of the bomb s components hidden in the heel of his shoes, Yousef boards the flight in Manila. Most airport security systems at the time only detected metal above the ankles. The digital wristwatch is a timer that s wired to a detonator inside the bottle of nitroglycerine. Two nine-volt batteries and a light bulb filament provide the spark that ignites it. Yousef sets the timer to detonate when the plane is scheduled to reach cruising altitude on the next leg of the flight. Then he plants the bomb under his seat and gets off in Cebu. Four hours later, the bomb goes off. On a laptop seized from the bomb factory, FBI investigators discover a plan for a team of terrorists to plant similar bombs on twelve different planes. The FBI offers a two-million-dollar reward for Yousef. The strategy works. A new recruit cashes in. Yousef is arrested in Pakistan and tried and convicted in the United States for the Philippines Airlines bombing and for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. He is sentenced to 240 years in one of America s most secure federal prisons. The First Officer is thirty-two-year-old Bauyrzhan Karasholakov. Captain Aushev sends the technician for a visual check. Flight Attendant Get me some blankets here. Please sit down and fasten your seatbelts! Hello, Captain. CAPTAIN BERGLUND The forecast says we'll get some weather in an hour. FIRST OFFICER EMERY As we cross over the Alps. Typical. MARTIN EMERY The captain had been a military pilot and then he d been on air transport flying for most of his working life. TOWER CONTROLLER Kabo 6-7-1, you are cleared for takeoff, runway 2-4. FIRST OFFICER EMERY 6-7-1 cleared for takeoff, roger. FIRST OFFICER EMERY Ready to go. MARTIN EMERY We would typically night stop minimum rest and service the aircraft, refuel it, ready for the flight back to Luxembourg. The difference between this flight and the other similar flights that we'd done, this flight was in daylight. FIRST OFFICER EMERY V-1. One-seventy (310 kilometers per hour). Rotate. MARTIN EMERY He came from a similar background of cargo charter flying, passenger charter flying. He had extensive flight time on the Boeing 707. He knew all the routes. MARTIN EMERY The Boeing 707 was one of the best aircraft that led the way to long haul flying for people. MARTIN EMERY Had the captain not reacted as quickly as he did, the aircraft could have inverted. CAPTAIN BERGLUND Engine fire! FIRST OFFICER EMERY Mayday. Mayday. Mayday. Request descent for radar landing. MARSEILLE CONTROLLER Roger. Turn left heading south to Marseille. FIRST OFFICER EMERY You turn left one eight zero. CAPTAIN BERGLUND Okay. BOB GRIMSTEAD There was immense relief as they descended out of the cloud and finally could see the mountains around them. FIRST OFFICER EMERY We ve lost both engines on the right wing. CAPTAIN BERGLUND What? Both engines? BOB GRIMSTEAD Just about the worst thing that can happen in an airliner is to have an engine depart from the aircraft. The only thing worse than that would be to have two engines depart from your aircraft. BOB GRIMSTEAD When you've lost both engines from the right wing and still have a lot of thrust from the engines on the left wing, it causes the airplane to turn and to roll very powerfully to the right. Getting the airplane to turn left is a huge ask under these circumstances. CAPTAIN BERGLUND Ugh. FIRST OFFICER EMERY Can you turn one-eight-zero? CAPTAIN BERGLUND Yeah. I'm trying. BOB GRIMSTEAD It's virtually at the limit of physical capability for the captain. BOB GRIMSTEAD They had to reduce the power on the left engines to give themselves a chance of staying upright and going in the direction they wanted to go in. Unfortunately, this of course meant they then descended more rapidly. MARTIN EMERY I really needed the weather at Marseille to make a plan for an approach to land either direct, or a circuit, or whatever we could do. FIRST OFFICER EMERY Mayday. Mayday. Mayday. 6-7-1 request weather. MARSEILLE CONTROLLER It's raining on the airfield. Two octas stratocumulus 500 feet (150 meters). CAPTAIN BERGLUND No. No, no. MARTIN EMERY We were pushed to even get there with the height available and with thunderstorm activity it was really a no go. We had no Plan B at that point. That was a nasty moment. What we wanted was a runway, and we wanted it quickly. MARTIN EMERY I looked through just cloud underneath us and I glimpsed some ribboned black tarmac. It was a runway. FIRST OFFICER EMERY Kabo 6-7-1. We have an airfield ahead. What is the airfield? MARSEILLE CONTROLLER It's a military airfield at your 12 o'clock for 6 miles (10 kilometers). FIRST OFFICER EMERY Military airfield, Mayday, traffic 6-7-1. MARSEILLE CONTROLLER Uh 6-7-1, this is Istres. MARTIN EMERY The wheels were down and locked and the flaps were coming down so Captain Berglund could have more roll control. MARTIN EMERY There was another big explosion, which tried to roll us right again. CAPTAIN BERGLUND Turn. FIRST OFFICER EMERY Turn left. Turn left. CAPTAIN BERGLUND I'm trying! FIRST OFFICER EMERY Turn left to land. Left turn. CAPTAIN BERGLUND Yeah. FIRST OFFICER EMERY We missed the runway. MARSEILLE CONTROLLER 6-7-1, we have fire onboard. I confirm, fire onboard. FIRST OFFICER EMERY We need another runway. MARTIN EMERY And bringing back number one and advancing number two, it actually turned the airplane left. Then he could fly it going towards the runway, which was a miracle. FLIGHT ENGINEER BOONE I'll just reverse engine two. BOB GRIMSTEAD They used reverse thrust on the inboard left engine, the number two engine, which did help reduce their galloping speed but pulled the airplane off the runway to the left. MARTIN EMERY And lucky that was. All I can say is thank goodness that we were flying in the early morning on this flight. GUY HIRST To actually have two of the four engines fall off the wing, virtually unheard of in, in the history of aviation. TECHNICIAN I ve got something. TECHNICIAN These wires from the cable loom short-circuited. REX PARKINSON When the engines came away from the wing, um, they tore with them electrical wiring. Some of that wiring still had power available. LEAD INVESTIGATOR So it looks like engines three and four were producing thrust right up until here. JOE EPPERSON The flight data recorder, uh, basically showed the engines operating as normal when they left the aircraft. INVESTIGATOR Here is the flight path. JOE EPPERSON Investigators found the engines about 800 meters apart. Uh that's very close. LEAD INVESTIGATOR You said you were climbing to avoid turbulence. How bad was it? FIRST OFFICER EMERY It was severe. I wouldn't want to go through that again. LEAD INVESTIGATOR Let's see what the engines can tell us. TECHNICIAN Hey boss? TECHNICIAN You see this dent on engine four? Its shape and diameter match a dent on engine three. So does this white paint. JOE EPPERSON You could tell from the shape of the damage and from transfer of white paint from one engine to the other engine that the number three had struck the number four engine and separated it. TECHNICIAN Now three of the four fittings broke like this one. You can see from the surface they broke from stress. This mid-spar fitting is different. There s some distortion here. It likely broke from a fatigue fracture. LEAD INVESTIGATOR What about those, those little marks? TECHNICIAN Those are corrosion pit marks. BOB GRIMSTEAD Corrosion pits are tiny holes that appear in metal after water has gained access to that metal and caused corrosion to take place. JOE EPPERSON And in this case, there were corrosion pits that grew into one crack and eventually fractured the mid-spar fitting. LEAD INVESTIGATOR So how did the maintenance team miss it? LEAD INVESTIGATOR The maintenance check should have caught the problem. LEAD INVESTIGATOR So how do you inspect the fitting? MAINTENANCE SUPERVISOR Uh you're supposed to carry out a close visual inspection for cracks on the exposed surfaces of the fitting. LEAD INVESTIGATOR And? MAINTENANCE SUPERVISOR Well, cracks can start on the inside of the fitting. LEAD INVESTIGATOR So why is that a problem? MAINTENANCE SUPERVISOR Well, it's a problem cause you can't see inside unless you remove the engine and the pylon from the wing. JOE EPPERSON Boeing did not require disassembly of the mid-spar fitting. Their risk assessment basically said it s not worth it on this old airframe. LEAD INVESTIGATOR So there could be 707s out there with cracks in this fitting that no one can see? MAINTENANCE SUPERVISOR Yeah. LEAD INVESTIGATOR We need to make sure this doesn't happen again. MARY SCHIAVO The crew on this flight were really thinking about their aircraft almost as a living thing that we don't wanna push it to the point where, you know, this body breaks. They were doing everything they could to save this very damaged plane by not putting too many physical stresses on it. GUY HIRST It shows an awful lot about the spirit of, of pilots and survival that they somehow coalesced together. JOE EPPERSON The FAA decided to mandate replacement of the mid-spar fittings with a new and improved mid-spar fitting, which did not require inspections. JOHN NANCE It's not a matter of sitting there going which button do I push? It's a matter of being able to try to wrest the airplane into doing something that you want it to do. TODD CURTIS Whether you call it pure professionalism, whether you call it heroism, they brought their skills to bear on the situation. They survived. They succeeded. CAPTAIN AUSHEV Before take-off checklist. FIRST OFFICER KARASHOLAKOV Roger. FIRST OFFICER KARASHOLAKOV Flaps? CAPTAIN AUSHEV Set for takeoff. SERGEY SOKOLOV That day I was a relief pilot because the flight was long and I could switch my colleague if somebody tired. FIRST OFFICER KARASHOLAKOV V-1. Rotate. CAPTAIN AUSHEV What the ? CAPTAIN AUSHEV I have no controls. FIRST OFFICER KARASHOLAKOV Maybe it's the control column. CAPTAIN AUSHEV Engage autopilot. FIRST OFFICER KARASHOLAKOV Autopilot on. CHRIS LONG It was reasonable to expect that the autopilot will look after it for the next phase of flight. FIRST OFFICER KARASHOLAKOV Autopilot failed. Mayday, mayday, mayday. Climbing to 4,000 feet (1,200 meters) on heading zero-six-zero. CONTROLLER DURAO Kilo-Zulu-Romeo 1-3-8-8, roger, Mayday. RELIEF PILOT SOKOLOV We have to get back to the airport. CAPTAIN AUSHEV Agreed. CHRIS LONG The difficulty this crew had was they couldn't steer the airplane in any way. So to get back to the airport with the best will in the world wasn't going to happen. CAPTAIN AUSHEV Pull up! FIRST OFFICER KARASHOLAKOV Pulling up! CAPTAIN AUSHEV Keep it up. We ve got this. Sergey, we need power. FIRST OFFICER KARASHOLAKOV Eight thousand feet (2,400 meters) and climbing. CAPTAIN AUSHEV Well done. CAPTAIN AUSHEV What do you know about the maintenance that was done on this aircraft? PARTS SUPPLIER AZAMAD They did a lot of work, replaced some parts too. CAPTAIN AUSHEV Anything flight control related? PARTS SUPPLIER AZAMAD We ordered new aileron cables. SERGEY SOKOLOV When we learned that aileron cables were changed, we realized the possible cause of the problem. CAPTAIN AUSHEV Inputting ailerons right. PARTS SUPPLIER AZAMAD Aileron going down. CAPTAIN AUSHEV The ailerons are reversed. RELIEF PILOT SOKOLOV With opposite inputs, we might be able to control the aircraft. SERGEY SOKOLOV Now we know what's happening. Let's start to work with this. Okay, let's fly this aircraft oppositely. If you want to turn left, turn to the right. CHRIS LONG You have to learn a completely different process against the ingrained teaching you've already had, and that's very difficult. CAPTAIN AUSHEV This is going to take some getting used to. AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER Astaline 1-3-8-8, you have two F-16s reaching your position. VIVIANA DURAO They were having trouble navigating and so we hoped that with the guidance of the F-16s, they could reach an area with, with better weather conditions. SERGEY SOKOLOV We understood that landing will not be easy. CAPTAIN AUSHEV Go around! RELIEF PILOT SOKOLOV Going around. RELIEF PILOT SOKOLOV One thousand (300 meters). FIRST OFFICER KARASHOLAKOV We re drifting too far to the left. RELIEF PILOT SOKOLOV I m trying to get back to center. CAPTAIN AUSHEV We can make it to the other runway there, 1-9 Left. RELIEF PILOT SOKOLOV I see it. I ll try. CAPTAIN AUSHEV Can we land on the left runway? BEJA CONTROLLER Confirmed. Cleared to land on left runway. CAPTAIN AUSHEV Roger. RELIEF PILOT SOKOLOV Here we go. RELIEF PILOT SOKOLOV We did it! INVESTIGATOR FIGUEIREDO Were there any alerts or indications of what went wrong? CAPTAIN AUSHEV No, but one of the maintenance team onboard remembers ordering new aileron cables for the aircraft. So we did a visual inspection, and it seems the ailerons were moving in reverse. INVESTIGATOR FIGUEIREDO Okay. Show us the left aileron. INVESTIGATOR FIGUEIREDO The plane would have been next to impossible to control. NUNO AGHDASSI The next big question the investigation was facing was how did this happen? INVESTIGATOR FIGUEIREDO Why did the plane require aileron maintenance service? MAINTENANCE SUPERVISOR The aileron cables were old. JOSE FIGUEIREDO Operators had complained to Embraer about the premature wear on the stainless-steel cables, so Embraer came up with a design fix to this issue, and the aircraft was being refitted with the new contactless system. INVESTIGATOR FIGUEIREDO And what did the structures team do next? MAINTENANCE SUPERVISOR They reinstalled the old cables. INVESTIGATOR FIGUEIREDO Is it possible that they inverted the old cables when they reinstalled them? SUPERVISOR It s possible. MARY SCHIAVO When you're changing cables on an aileron system, or you're changing cables on a pitch control system, that's not something that mechanics on the maintenance line will be familiar with. And so it's really important that the instructions be absolutely accurate. INVESTIGATOR FIGUEIREDO Uh on October 26th they finished the additional maintenance and powered up the plane. They got a fault warning in the cockpit. INVESTIGATOR FIGUEIREDO How did they resolve the error message? MAINTENANCE SUPERVISOR They replaced the flight control computers. When they powered up the plane, the error message was gone. NUNO AGHDASSI When those four flight control modules were replaced, the message disappeared, and the plane was cleared to fly. SECOND INVESTIGATOR Did you test the ailerons after that? MAINTENANCE SUPERVISOR Sure did. We checked all the flight controls. SECOND INVESTIGATOR And what about a visual check? MAINTENANCE SUPERVISOR Absolutely. They were moving up and down, no problem. INVESTIGATOR FIGUEIREDO Did they check to see that they were moving in the right direction? MAINTENANCE SUPERVISOR I m sorry. I m not sure if they did or not. NUNO AGHDASSI No one really noticed that the ailerons were moving in the opposite direction to what is being commanded. RELIEF PILOT SOKOLOV What s happening? CAPTAIN AUSHEV I ve never felt anything like this before. JOHN NANCE An absolutely unsolvable, unfathomable and unexpected situation. The maintenance guy zeroed into the fact that, that when you went to the left it was going to the right. That was the key that got em back. CHRIS LONG The really impressive thing is just how quickly they settled down to work it through logically. They did really well. NUNO AGHDASSI New procedures were made for checking the flight controls, including making sure the correct movement of the ailerons. TODD CURTIS It was an example of the kind of training and professionalism that crews can transition from a normal flight to a flight with a very serious emergency. CAPTAIN REYES Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. I expect we'll be landing at Narita airport in two hours time. ED REYES I thought, you know, I think I'm going to die now. Then, after that, I had to do what I had to do. FIRST OFFICER HERRERA Oh, I've lost control! CAPTAIN REYES I have control. Dex, check the pressurization loss. Be prepared. SYSTEMS ENGINEER COMENDADOR Checking QRH for rapid loss pressurization. CAPTAIN REYES Okay. Keep the passengers calm. Make sure they stay in their seats. There s been an explosion in row 26. One dead and several injured and the cabin s full of smoke. ED REYES Then I said, okay, I'm going to try to turn the airplane using the autopilot. But there was no reaction. Whether I tried it to make it go down or up or left and right turns, no reaction. I said, now, we have a problem. FIRST OFFICER HERRERA Naha. PAL 4-34, heavy, declaring emergency. Explosion on board. We have casualties. Requesting emergency landing at Naha. We will need full emergency services on landing. CAPTAIN REYES I can t turn using the controls. ED REYES So while we were descending on low speed, I tried to test the flight controls and there are, there are some little reactions. CAPTAIN REYES We gotta turn. We'll have to use differential power. Disengage auto-throttle, pull back three and four. MARY SCHIAVO An asymmetric thrust is literally you work one engine on one side of the plane against another engine on the other side of the plane. Asymmetric thrust has been able to save a few planes from disasters in history. FIRST OFFICER HERRERA Speed 2-2-5. CAPTAIN REYES Okay, she s turning. FIRST OFFICER HERRERA Three green, sir. CAPTAIN REYES I'm disconnecting the autopilot and landing manually, okay? Flaps thirty. FIRST OFFICER HERRERA Is set. CAPTAIN REYES Help me with the elevator. When I say push, I want you to push. SYSTEMS ENGINEER COMENDADOR Okay. Two hundred (60 meters), slightly left. CAPTAIN REYES Correcting. Push. SYSTEMS ENGINEER COMENDADOR One hundred (30 meters). Fifty (15 meters). Thirty (ten meters). Power off. CAPTAIN REYES Pull! DEXTER COMENDADOR Your last, uh, command was, Pull! ED REYES Yeah. My last command was, Pull! DEXTER COMENDADOR Fortunately for us, we took a different version of the 747 that day. And that specific seat for that version was two seats forward of the center tank. FRANK PELLEGRINO At the time that was the, you know, he was the biggest fugitive around. FRANK PELLEGRINO There was a similarity between the watches that were found in the apartment and the type of watch that was used in Okinawa. The way that the timing device was hidden inside the Casio watch -- very worrisome. FRANK PELLEGRINO All bombs would go off within about a six-hour time period. Any more than one would have been, been an airline disaster. FIRST OFFICER HERRERA Oh, I've lost control! CAPTAIN REYES I have control! Dex, check the pressurization loss. Be prepared. JOHN NANCE In these three accidents, the one thing that I see very, very clearly is the teamwork. CAPTAIN AUSHEV We can make it to the other runway there. One-nine-left. RELIEF PILOT SOKOLOV I see it. I'll try. MARTIN EMERY The captain did a perfect landing, kept it just left of the center line and we were safely on the ground at a great speed, but we were on the ground. TODD CURTIS They were coordinating with one another to keep the airplane in a stable enough situation so that they could affect a safe flight and landing. CAPTAIN AUSHEV Go around. RELIEF PILOT SOKOLOV Going around. ED REYES Pull! MARY SCHIAVO They were able to think up things to save their aircraft, to save their passengers. They fought to the finish, and they did it in very intelligent ways. National Geographic Air Crash Investigation Special Report 6 Ep. 2 Final Air Crash Investigation Special Report 6 2 6/21/24