All language subtitles for Air.Crash.S24E06.Fight.For.Survival.FRENCH.720p.H265.AAC.NOSUBS.NATGEOFR.LAGS(1).srt

A catastrophic scenario occurred
at an altitude of 1,200 meters.

Flames were coming
out of the cockpit's deck.

We were starting to get burned.

A fire broke out aboard
Pilgrim Airlines Flight 458.

This airplane was a trap.

It was a matter of life or death.

The pilots only had a few
seconds to land the plane.

All I could see was trees on the horizon.

It wasn't going to be a smooth landing.

11 of the 12 people on board survived.

But the fire destroyed all the evidence.

The plane was completely burned.

A surviving pilot delivered a
clue to the NTSB investigators.

When I turned on the switch, I saw
smoke at the base of the control column.

That was a very, very valuable
statement to one of the investigators.

There were 10 passengers
on board Flight 458.

Pilgrim Airlines Flight 458.

Hello, everyone. We're about to take off.

Make sure your seat
belts are well attached.

I'll serve.

Well done.

Just after 3 p.m., the Twin
Otter took off on the runway.

111 kilometers per hour.

111 kilometers per hour.

Flight 458 took off from
Groton in Connecticut.

To the destination of Boston.

140 kilometers north.

Positive rhythm.

Flaps up.

Flaps up.

Today, it's Thomas Prinster,
36, who is in charge of the plane.

He's been working for this
company for three years.

Thomas, everyone loved Tom.

He would show us
how to pilot that airplane.

What you could do, what you do want to do.

It was a real pleasure to fly with.

Temperature and pressure in the green.

Everything is good.

Pilgrim 458, crossing 300 meters.

Pilgrim 458, well received.
Passing at 300 meters.

The co-pilot, Lyle Hogg, 27, has been
part of the company for just a few months.

Before I went to Pilgrim Airlines,
I had about 1,500 hours of flight.

And from my arrival to this flight,
458, I had flown about 400 hours.

The pilots are in charge of a
2-Havilland Dash 6 Twin Otter,

a turbo-pulsed aircraft
frequently used on regional lines.

It was a twin turbo-pulsed twin engine
that was mainly used for short flights.

A very popular airplane in its day.

It helped lead the air revolution.

And at the time, it was
used all over the world.

Pilgrim 458, climbing 1,200 meters.

Positioning VOR.

The flight to Boston lasts only 40 minutes.

There is no flight attendant on board.

One of the passengers
of this flight is Harry

Policron, an engineer
at the US Airlines.

He goes to Boston to take his next service.

The flight to Boston
is the first of its kind.

The flight to Boston
is the first of its kind.

My flight out of Boston, the next
day, was early in the morning.

So my plan was to arrive on Sunday night,

and take a hotel room, so I
would be all set and ready to go.

Paul Ainsworth, business advisor,
has to take another flight to Boston.

Once we had started to take
altitude, I started going up into the air.

I had really just flipped
my head over, closed

my eyes, and started
going up into the air.

I was so tired.

The plane reached 1,200
meters, its cruising altitude.

The weather was typical for a
month of February in New England.

There was clouds at 900
meters and some freezing rain.

Pilgrim 458, how's it
going? Smooth flight.

...

With an outside temperature
of minus 3 degrees Celsius,

the wavy rain forms a layer
of ice on the windshield.

I'm going to pick up some ice.

It's the same as the
wavy on a car's windshield.

It's a rough and difficult to see through.

How's it going on
the wings? No ice.

...

All right, let's interview the
pilots to clean this windshield.

You go.

The pilots want to be sure that
they can unwind the windshield.

They want to make sure
that the windshield is working.

We would test the windshield
to make sure it was working.

We wouldn't change the
pump all the way because

it would consume too
much of the alcohol.

You wouldn't use up
too much of the alcohol.

You'd save it when we needed it,
when we'd be out at the next airport.

Okay, you can go to the other side.

I noticed very little fluid on
the outside of the windshield.

I first activated the switch.

Anything on your side?

Some, but not a lot.

The second time, I held the switch
in the on position for a little bit longer

so we could get a good indication
of the gas being in the windshield.

Still nothing.

Something's right.

I'm going to stop trying.

Quite soon after that, there
wasn't a foot in the cockpit.

It was like a smell of alcohol.

There wasn't an emergency at that time yet,

but we were beginning our
thought process as far as,

okay, what are we going
to do to deal with this issue?

I smell the smoke.

Okay.

Around the same time,

we saw there was an acrid-type smell.

The first thought that
came to mind was Tom had

been a smoker in the
ashtray in the cockpit,

in the lower circuit.

We looked towards the
smoke from the ashtray was,

and it was not smoke
coming from the ashtray.

In the cockpit,

Harry Polycron asks himself questions.

I had my head in the paper,

and then I got that whiff of alcohol.

As a navigator,

Polycron knows that this smell
can be the sign of a serious problem.

In principle,

there's no reason to smell an
alcoholic smell in an airplane.

It's coming from down there.

The pilots then see bubbles
of smoke entering the cockpit.

We did see initially some
very light white smoke.

Before we could even talk
about that or react to that,

the smoke started to come up very quickly.

Something is burning somewhere,

and the situation gets worse.

The fire on board is something terrible.

You can't just pull off on the
side of the road with the fire.

You have to do something immediately.

Concept, Pilgrim 458,

direct on Providence,
there's an emergency.

The commander wants to
land on the nearest airport,

Providence, 19
kilometers to the right.

The choice of Providence
was out of the brainer,

because we knew exactly where
we were and knew about the airport.

Pilgrim 458, what do you need?

Directly to Providence, please.

This is an emergency.

There's a fire on board.

Pilgrim 458, understood.

Turn right.

Cap on 150 for Providence approach vector.

Okay, so we're going to try and land.

Right turn.

150.

I'll go get the runway.

The fire, the plane,

the pilots have purely limited time.

I'm pushing.

I'm pushing.

I'm pushing.

I'm pushing.

We gotta get out of these fucking clouds.

Mmm…

we needed to get up as
fast as we could and so the

turn was quite rough and
the descent was quite steep.

Pilgrim 458, how many people on board?

The controllers are preparing for
an emergency landing on Providence.

We have ten people on board.

Lyle responded that there were ten.

He was thinking of the passengers.
He didn't include Tom and himself.

It's getting worse.

What the hell is this?
Where is this coming from?

It was blinding. It was choking.
They couldn't see each other.

They couldn't see their instruments.
They were in the clouds.

The smoke spread
little by little in the cabin.

As soon as the black
smoke infiltrated the cabin,

we had more and more
trouble seeing and breathing.

I immediately grabbed
the bottom of my sweater.

I pulled it up, sat into it,
and put it under my nose.

And started to use it,
you know, as a filter.

The pilots are suffocating.

The Twin Otters are not pressurized.

They can open their hatches
to have a little fresh air.

Because at that moment, I
couldn't even distinguish Tom.

I opened the window
on my side to ventilate.

But in the cabin, the hatches don't open.

The passengers suffocate.

How am I going to get in there?

It was a matter of life or death.

The passengers and the
crew of the Pilgrim Airlines

458 flight are struggling
for their survival.

I did have that tennis racket.

I blew up a hatch.

It drew the smoke out.

And then I proceeded for a couple of times.

Well, I guess we were on the
right side of the airplane, you know.

Uh!

I was actually looking down
because of what he was doing.

Move it, Mark!

The smoke's starting to get out!

I thought, oh my god, this
is an amazing piece of good

news, not only for me, but
for everybody on the plane.

In addition to the thick
smoke, the pilots are now

confronted with the flames
coming out of the deck.

I thought I was going to try
and get to the fire extinguisher,

which was behind my seat,
and it was close to the floor.

But because of the intense heat
released by the fire, Og didn't make it.

That's when we were starting to burn.

The initial reaction
was not to feel the pain.

The initial reaction is, you
need to talk to this person first.

You need to talk to him quickly.

As they are still 18 kilometers
from Providence, the pilots deliver

a race against the watch to
manage to put their plane on fire.

We were doing an
emergency descent towards

Providence without
knowing if we could get there.

The navigator, Harry
Polycron, heads towards the

cockpit to make sure the
pilots were in the cockpit.

It was horrible.

I was having a hard time standing up.

The plane was hanging in all directions.

It was a wild ride.

We were swinging from right to left.

When I passed the head in the cockpit,
he was invaded by a cloud of smoke.

They couldn't see their instruments,
and they couldn't see outside.

How they managed to keep the
plane on the right side up amazes me.

I just wanted them to know that
the passengers were doing well,

and to tell them to keep it up,
that they were doing a great job.

I said to them...

You guys keep doing what you're doing.

At the back, we're managing.

My intention was just to
show them that we were

supporting them in this
almost superhuman challenge.

It was just heroic.

The flames are now winning the cockpit.

Time is running out.

It is more urgent than urgent to land.

It was an extremely scary,
painful, frightening, deadly

set of circumstances that were
getting worse every second.

The pilots can't see each
other anymore, and with

the windows open, they
can't hear each other.

I needed to make sure that Tom
was in fact still in the plane's aircraft.

And that's when I rested my hand on his
neck to follow along with his movements.

The commander, Prinster,
pursues a quick descent,

but he has no idea
where he's going to land.

I initially did not see him.

I was still in the clouds, and I
didn't see an adequate landing site.

The passengers prepare for the worst.

I sat up very straight on my
chair, and took the seatbelt, and

ensured that it was down across
my hip, and not across my stomach.

And tightened it as
tightly as I possibly could.

At 450 meters from the ground, the
heat released by the fire in the cockpit

has become so intense that the
pilot's helmets are starting to melt.

I had to take this rubber helmet off.

These circumstances
were absolutely desperate.

At that point, it was
very clear to the pilot...

...that the plane had been
transformed into a death trap.

The plane approaches Providence Airport.

Pilgrim 458, you can go
straight to Providence VOR.

Without a helmet, the pilots are no longer
able to communicate with the control tower.

One of the pilots was
gripping the elbow so hard...

...that his thumb was on
top of the button that acted...

...the microphone.

And the result of that was...

...the air traffic control
has heard this roar.

Pilgrim 458.

Pilgrim 458, do you copy?
I do not receive you.

At 300 meters above the ground,
the Twin Otter pierces the clouds.

At a high altitude, I could only see trees.

Tom was taking a turn.

I could not see him, but I felt
that he was... ...turning to the left.

Pilgrim 458. Pilgrim 458.
Pilgrim 458. Pilgrim 458.

The pilots must land before
the fire reaches the fuel tank...

...highly inflatable, located
in the belly of the plane.

Pilgrim 458. Pilgrim 458.
Pilgrim 458. Pilgrim 458.

The plane is just under the passengers.

I was wondering, at this point... if we
were going to be able to land on the ground

or if the plane was going
to explode on the ground.

Are you ready?

Oh my God!

Looking out the window, I saw trees, I
saw the shore of this frozen reservoir,

and my immediate thought
was, hey, we're going to make it.

The pilots spotted the
Situate artificial lake near

Providence, which extends
over 13 square kilometers.

It was a wide open flat area,
there were no trees, there

was no obstacle, there was
just ice that was in the open.

The pilots direct their
aircraft in fire towards the lake.

The next thing was just to get down as fast
as we could and get out of the aircraft.

They had never crossed the ice before.

They could have supported
the weight of the aircraft.

In the cabin of the Pilgrim
Airlines 458 flight, the

passengers were waiting
for an emergency landing.

I looked out the window and I
saw that the impact was imminent.

I wanted to get back
in, but the seat was on

fire, so I put myself
against the bulkhead.

Flight 458 is about to crash.

It was a matter of
putting this plane on the

ground as absolutely
as fast as we could.

It was not going to be a smooth landing.

Get ready for the impact.

All of a sudden, there
was an enormous bang.

Enormous bang.

Oh yeah!

Flight 459 got a big hit.

Flight 459 was about to crash.

Flight 458 was about to crash.

It was about to crash.

All of a sudden, the
aircraft lost consciousness.

When I got back to consciousness, the plane
was stopped and everything was silent.

All of a sudden, the plane was
cut off and everything was silent.

The pilots have managed to land
their plane on fire on the frozen lake.

They must still make
sure that everyone can get

out of it before the fire
consumes it entirely.

We find ourselves in
the middle of this white

and icy expanse. What
are we going to do now?

I just released my belt and
jumped up and hit the main

door and attempted to open
it, but I was unable to do so.

Because the fuselage was compressed.

I glanced and I saw a slit in the
fuselage right behind the doorway.

I've made the decision that I
was going to expand that area of

the fuselage and make a hole
in it so that we could get out of it.

There's a hole! There's a hole in the back!

There's a hole! There's a hole in the back!

Hainsworth knows that
you have to act very quickly.

I still had the concern that the
plane would imminently explode.

I jumped out first and I then
started to assist other people.

Harry Polichrone, gravely injured,
is still at the front of the plane.

That was filled with adrenaline
and shock. I had dislocated

my shoulder, I had injured
my knee, I had a burnt leg.

My very first instinct was to
get out of that airplane right now.

And I got a little proceed
to the back of the airplane.

I heard a young woman
say, someone please help me.

I heard a young woman
say, someone please help me.

Come!

This way to the back!

Come on!

Come on!

Come on!

You're okay?

Come on!

I grabbed the young woman by the
arm and I pulled her towards the opening.

I think I was the last one to go out.

Are you okay? Yeah.

..

Yeah...

I think I'm gonna make it.

At the point where we were, it was no
longer a question of procedures to follow.

We have to get out of here.

The two pilots, as well as
nine of the ten passengers,

left the plane and
headed for the mainland.

A few minutes later, the Twin Otter
was completely destroyed by the fire.

I think it's a real
miracle that I'm still alive.

And I'm very grateful to the pilot,
the co-pilot, and the other pilot,

who was patting on
the plane for the actions

that were quite reckless,
beyond remarkable.

A passenger is dead,
suffocated by the smoke.

All the others, injured to varying
degrees, are transported to the hospital.

The two pilots are severely burned.

Lyle was burned for 25% of his body,

and the captain was burned for 75%
of his body, much of it at third degree.

Volunteers are in charge of removing the
essential parts of the wreck from the lake

so that they can be
examined by the investigators.

And I'm going to have to do an operation.

We have a portable electric
generator around here with lights.

We're going to mop up the fuel oil, and
wait for the FAA representatives to come.

If it's obvious that the plane was
destroyed by the fire, we don't know why.

Knowing that there was a
fire on board is not enough.

You need to understand exactly
what happened, how it happened, when,

and how the crew was able to
pilot the plane with the fire on board.

The two pilots being too seriously
injured to make a statement,

the investigators turn
to the air controller.

What did they tell you?

Just that there was a fire on board and
that it was going to land in an emergency.

And when did they tell you?

The call came in at 3.29, so
less than 20 minutes after takeoff.

What would cause a fire on board?

You're looking for a flammable source,
you're looking for an ignition source.

Well, we're going to have a hard
time finding something useful in there.

The investigators examine the
cockpit manometers of flight 458,

hoping to find clues
to the origin of the fire.

But after a fire, after impact, the
instruments are often so damaged

that they take a considerable
amount of work to get more out of it.

Sometimes we get nothing
we need, because we

just can't make it to
understand what they say.

One moment.

The plane's clock is still readable.

Stopped at the crash.

3.34.

We don't know what
happened, but it happened.

Less than five minutes after
signaling the emergency,

the pilots hit the frozen lake.

The investigators conclude that
the situation has deteriorated rapidly.

Engine fire?

The flight 458 not being
equipped with a flight recorder,

the investigators will have to work on the
most probable sources of a fire on board.

...

It makes the investigation a
little more time-consuming.

It takes a little more time to get out.

It doesn't keep us from
doing an investigation,

but it increases the
amount of work that

needs to be done to
complete an investigation.

They examine what's left of the engines to
see if they played a role in the accident.

Both engines were
running at the time of impact.

The best way to know if
the engines were running at

the time of impact is to
look at if they were damaged,

look at if the propellers
were twisted or bent,

and in that case, look at in what
direction and in what proportion.

It clearly appeared that both engines
were deploying power at the time of impact.

The fact that the engines were
running at the time of impact

proves that they were
not at the origin of the fire.

All of them are talking
about the same thing.

The smoke.

While the pilots are recovering,

the passengers' testimonies
provide an important clue.

A thick smoke from the
cockpit has invaded the cabin.

If passengers say they
saw smoke during the flight,

the focus of the investigation

would be to focus on
the source of the smoke

and be interested in the source of the
smoke and the time when the smoke appeared.

They examine the
calcined wreck of the plane

to try to find out where the fire started.

The fire must have started somewhere.

We look for concentration points

which would give us an
indication of where the fire started.

The plane is completely burned.

Yeah, but the cockpit floor
here is the most damaged.

I guess the fire started
somewhere under the cockpit.

The plane burned
after it landed on the ice.

It is therefore impossible to determine
the precise origin of the fire on board.

We could tell in the area
where the fire started,

but we needed to do more to
look at potential flammable sources.

The pilots are now able to testify.

The pilots are the most
experienced people on the airplane,

and they can tell us about
the events that occurred

around them at the time
that this was going on.

All their sight, sounds, and feelings
can be used in the investigation.

Thank you for your interview.

Maybe you just want to tell
me what you can remember.

Towards the end of the week,

they asked me if I wanted to
talk to the NTSB, and I said yes.

...

We tried to unwind the windshield,

but there was no liquid,
and almost immediately,

I smelled an alcohol
smell, and then smoke.

...

And then I saw the smoke,

at first, light and white.

It was coming out of the control column.

It took a long time for this
smoke to get thick and black.

Just after, we couldn't breathe anymore,

and we started burning.

How long did it take for
the first signs of smoke?

It happened real fast.

I don't know.

Maybe a minute, or less.

...

And that's where you
called for an emergency?

Yes.

And we started going down right after.

He hit the switch

to get the liquid out,

and clean the windshield.

And very shortly thereafter,

he had what he described as a
white smoke with an alcohol smell.

That was a very
important statement for an

investigator, for an
investigator looking for a fire.

So,

it all starts right here,

with the deflation.

The co-pilot's interrogation
led the investigators

to focus on the plane's
deflation system.

We'd start looking in the rest of the
plane for clues to this deflation system,

and then begin a parallel
investigation with Mitch to see

if there was any history or
other problems with that system.

The reservoir contains five and
a half liters of anti deflation liquid.

The 28-volt pump is activated by an
interrupter located on the upper console.

A flexible plastic pipe connects
the pump to the spray nozzles.

It's a pretty basic system.

The use of chemical deflation in
airplanes had been used since the 1920s.

So it was not an unknown, or
not a system that they were using.

The investigators hope to find some of
the components of the deflation system.

If they found the pump and the attachments,

it clearly would have shown
them where the problem was.

That's all that's left.

No trace of the pump.

The wires are all out.

The only part of the
system that escaped the fire

is a half-consumed
piece of the plastic tank.

It can't be of any use to us.

The pilots have reported
a smell of alcohol.

The investigators are studying a
sample of the deflation liquid used

by Pilgrim Airlines to find
out how flammable it is.

87% isopropyl.

It's a rather flammable product.

They are now more
or less certain that, the

deflation liquid from the
flight 458 has inflamed,

triggering a fire.

But they still don't know how.

We really have not had
any experience with this type

of system of putting the
fire on board an airplane.

He reports to the co-pilot's statement

concerning the start of the fire.

He did say that the
system didn't work very well.

The first time I switched on the switch,

I got a tiny bit of liquid on my side.

So I tried a second
time, and nothing.

...

So what did you do?

That's when I felt a
strong smell of alcohol.

So I stopped trying.

A few seconds later,

we felt the smoke.

The investigators must now
determine which part of the

deflation system could have
been the source of the fire

that destroyed the aircraft.

The investigators read the
maintenance reports to see

if the deflation system had
already caused problems.

He's talking about a leak.

According to the reports,

the plastic pipe had already
split and separated from the pump.

Pilgrim's mechanics
solved the problem by cutting

the pipe and fixing it
with tightening collars.

As the alcohol comes
into contact with this tubing

from the inside, it changes
the properties of the pipe.

It tends to harden and swell,

so at the place of the connection,

the contact is less good.

They take up the history of the plane

by looking for what could explain how the
deflation system could have led to a fire.

A few months ago,

they detected a leak on this plane.

The maintenance discovered that the
pipe was too short to reach the pump.

They had trimmed and reconnected the pipe
so often that it was no longer adjusted.

By shortening the cracked pipe,

it ended up no longer being
in contact with the pump.

...

Over time, you wouldn't
have enough length of the pipe

to fix it correctly and you
would have to change it.

Apparently,

the same thing happened on this
plane just three days before the accident.

The same thing happened on this
plane and they made a leak, it seems.

The pilots noticed a leak

when they stopped at New Haven.

They tried to reattach
the pipe to the pump,

but they couldn't
because it was too short.

They reattached it

and a mechanic worked on it.

The mechanic repaired the pipe,

put it back in place,

tightened it,

then he filled the tank again.

The mechanic says that after he
had reattached the pipe to the pump,

he then signed off on the
anomaly and then repaired it.

Three days later, the plane was
on fire when the pilots tried to de-ice.

The investigators think that the
pipes in which the liquid circulated

were not properly secured and were
detached from the pump after the repair.

There's a good chance that the pipe
wasn't as long as it should have been.

That it was probably pulling on the pump
and because the house was detached,

because it was badly tightened.

It's still nothing.

If the de-ice system on flight 458
didn't work because of a bad repair,

that doesn't explain the fire as much.

In order to know the effect

that this system could have had on a fire,

either by starting it
or by contributing to it,

the NTSB investigators
took a tank and a pump

from the laboratory and
they connected the system

to an electrical power supply system

to see what it would do.

They want to know

what amount of the highly inflatable liquid

would be concentrated under the cockpit

if, as they think,

the pipe was well detached.

Well, let's see.

Even without connecting the system,

it leaks when the pipe is not attached.

They measure the amount of
liquid lost at the level of the pump.

The test has revealed that the pump would
leak to a level of 90 milliliters a minute.

And so, over time,

that could actually empty the 5.

5-litre tank

of gas completely.

The test shows that if the pipe
was detached from the pump,

a large flask of inflatable liquid
would have formed under the cockpit

even before the pilots tried
to defuse the windshield.

Let's see what happens

when we plug in the system.

Seven feet.

Oh, it's not too far.

When Hogg tried to plug
in the deflating system,

the pump would have
pulverized the liquid at

two metres in the
compartment under the cockpit.

The consequences of that,

given what is down in that area,

are quite severe.

The deflating pump gets
pretty hot when it's operating.

The air from the air duct is
at 150 degrees Fahrenheit.

The discharge from the silencer
gets heated into the cockpit.

And the electric motor
that drives the flaps

could also inflate the liquid.

The investigators say
that several components

could have inflated
the deflating liquid jet.

The investigators have never
been able to identify with precision

the components that had inflated the liquid
because there was so much down there.

It could have been the heat
from the hydraulic pump.

It could have been the
heat from the hydraulic pump

that was released by the
hydraulic pump or its engine.

...

It could have been any component of
the aircraft at the back of the dashboard.

Directly to Providence, please.

There's an emergency.

We've got the fire on board.

Once the liquid has inflated,

it doesn't take long
for the fire to spread.

Older aircraft are less
resistant to the newer aircraft.

And if you have alcohol
from the deflating system

spreading through the airplane,

it could easily take fire than
probably the newer materials.

Flying around in a time bomb for
years, no one was worried about that.

I think it's surprising to
discover something new

in aircraft that's been in service

for so long in such
a good history, to find

something new in the
future in the investigation.

The investigators are now
asking one last question.

How the hell did they make
it to make it to the ground?

The investigators are studying
the way the pilots have responded

to the emergency
situation aboard flight 458.

At the first sign of black smoke,

they've alerted the control tower.

Soon after,

they've changed course for an
emergency landing at Providence.

...

He pushed the deck forward to
make the airplane descend very quickly.

...

They were still in the clouds and
the airplane was coming down rapidly.

...

Turn right and point 150 for
Providence approach vector.

Let's get on board.

The pilots start a
1,200-meter rapid descent

all the way to the right
towards Providence.

All their obsessions
will get the plane down.

At this point,

the cockpit is on fire and
packed with black smoke.

So what do these guys do?

They stick their heads up
and try to get out of the clouds.

...

While they're no longer able

to see or breathe and
are seriously burned,

the pilots fight

to bring the plane
under the clouds.

They were burning
some of their burns on

their bodies and they
never left their seats.

...

They never left their seats
in the fact that they were

bringing in the damage to
the control of the airplane

and getting it to land
on that frozen lake.

It was amazing.

Despite the pain and the terror,

these pilots stayed in their
controls they kept flying the airplane.

...

They were determined
to get down successfully

despite the agony
they were feeling.

The plane landed

They reported their exit
from the clouds at 300 meters.

...

Quick left turn,

landing in a few seconds.

When there's a fire,

you know,

the main rule is to bring the plane
to the ground as fast as possible

and that's what we did.

It wasn't easy, but we did it.

We landed

and almost everyone survived.

...

Six minutes to get
out of the clouds,

find a place to land
and get out of the clouds.

And I'm bringing
in the plane on fire.

...

The investigators
congratulate the two pilots

for their heroic action

facing this emergency situation.

Here's an example of a crew you know,
that has the skills and professionalism

to save the lives of
all the people on board.

Yeah.

Let's get out of here.

Lesser men would have let it go.

They didn't give up.

They didn't give up.

They fought like the devil until the
end and that's why I'm still here today.

The passengers also highlight
the courage of the navigator

Harry Polycron

who has contributed
to saving lives.

Without the action

of the passengers sitting in
front of me with the tendency

to break the window
with a tennis racket,

I absolutely believe

other people would have
lost their lives in this crash.

...

The NTSB concludes that
the fire aboard flight 458

has been due to a bad conception
of the windscreen deflating system.

I didn't know how flammable
isopropyl alcohol was.

They took the industry by
surprise that it was so flammable

and that it could trigger a
devastating fire just as quickly.

The investigators have
recommended replacing this crash

on all the Twin Hotters
with an electrically heated

The alcohol system has been ruined
as a result of this accident and I think

the realization that the
hazards were just too high.

But what will remain in
the history of flight 458

is the heroism and
the professionalism

of the two pilots

who managed to land their
plane and save the passengers.

I don't consider myself a hero.

...

I consider that we have done what
we did and what we had to do that day.

...

We have done what
we had to do to survive.

...

The pilots

Prinster and Hogg

have received numerous
marks of honor for their bravery.

Today at Situate

in Rhode Island a park close to the
place where they landed bears their name

and houses a
commemorative monument.

41 years later the
heroes of flight 458

have returned and reflect on
the hard lesson learned that day.

I mean, you guys

were a strong power of your own

to just stay with the band.

...

Fortitude is the word.

...

I think your body takes over
and you just hang in there.

...

It's actually when things
get real you can really kind

of share everything and
hold it and just go for it.

I think we all go
out a little bit of that.

It's a great day.

It was a great day.

It was a great day.

What a day.

Yeah.

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.