All language subtitles for Mayday.S26E03.1080p.WEB.H264-DJT_track3_[eng]

The plane
came flying out

of the bottom of the cloud

at 4,000 feet per minute.

Pull up! Pull up!

Nuremberg Air
Service Flight One Zero Eight

breaks apart while the pilots
attempt to land

at Dusseldorf Airport
in Germany.

All passengers
and crew are killed.

Because of the size
of the accident site,

we used a grid to identify
the positions

of every part of the wreckage.

Investigators
reconstruct the plane

to determine what happened.

There must be a thousand
pieces in here.

Over here.

They uncover
evidence of a one-in-a-million

failure that should not have
brought the plane down.

The pilots had no chance
to control the aircraft

in a proper way.

I think under
these circumstances,

there was nothing
they could have done.

Mayday, Mayday.

Pull up.

It's an hour
before sunrise

at Hanover Airport
in West Germany.

Nuremberg Air Service Flight
One Zero Eight

prepares for the first flight
of the day.

In the cockpit is 36-year-old
Captain Ralf Borsdorf.

How is the weather looking?

...and 28-year-old
First Officer Sibylle Heilmann.

They each have
twenty-five-hundred

flying hours.

It should be clear sailing.

Both of them would be fairly
typical of what you would see

at commuter operations,
people starting their careers

and getting ready to move up.

The weather
forecast predicts calm skies

with only a slim chance
of thunderstorms

near their destination.

It might get a bit rough
on landing

because of some turbulence
and a chance of thunderstorm,

but it's unlikely.
Just 10%.

Sounds good.

A 10% chance
of thundershowers,

it's 10% chance.

You want to know about it
but it's not something

you're going to put too much
thought into.

Before Flight
One Zero Eight can depart,

snow and ice that accumulated
overnight are removed.

This flight was a full flight.

It had 19 passengers on board,

all of those being
business people.

It's a 40-minute
flight from Hanover

to Dusseldorf, a major business
hub on the Rhine River.

- We started the route in 1987,

about six months before
this flight.

We had very weak train
connections between

the East and Western parts
of Germany.

So from the very, very
beginning we had full airplanes.

Flight One Zero
Eight leaves Hanover at 7:15 AM,

15 minutes behind schedule.

Flaps.

Retracted.

The pilots are
flying a Fairchild Swearingen

Metroliner III.

It's a powerful turboprop plane
designed for short,

commuter flights.

The Metro airliner is a
perfect scaled down airliner.

It hauls people fast,
fuel efficiently,

all the creature comforts
of a bigger airline.

From the very beginning,
I was impressed by the airplane.

It was extremely well designed,

it was flexible, it was fast,
it had good pressurization.

So everything a pilot likes,
the airplane had.

It takes 10 minutes
for Flight One Zero Eight

to reach its cruising altitude
of 14,000 feet.

It will stay at that altitude
for only 15 minutes.

Well, no rest for the wicked.

Pull out the descent checklist,
will ya?

Regional flying is generally
an hour and a half or less, um,

leading to increased workload

for the time that you
are in the air.

Check the radar.

The captain notices
some weather on the radar.

A thunderstorm could be
rolling in after all.

Maybe.

It doesn't look
particularly bad.

I'll check the ATIS.

Düsseldorf Airport...

ATIS continuously
broadcasts updated

weather conditions
at the destination airport.

...gusting 2-4,
visibility, 10.

Sky condition,
broken clouds at 1,500 feet.

Nothing about a thunderstorm.
We should be fine.

Okay, we'll continue
with the approach.

Their expectation was that
the weather was getting better

and that any thundershowers
hadn't really materialized.

Good morning, this is your
captain speaking.

We have begun our descent
into Dusseldorf.

Please ensure your seatbelts
are fastened.

We should be landing
in about minutes.

30 miles from
the airport...

Dusseldorf, good morning,
requesting descend to 3,000

NFD One Zero Eight.

First Officer
Heilmann contacts the Dusseldorf

Approach Controller
for landing instructions.

NFD One Zero Eight,
good morning to you.

You are cleared to 3,000 feet,

and currently number three
to land.

Copy, descend to
3,000 number three to land.

When ATC gives us
a indication of where we are

in the order for landing,
it helps us set up.

It helps us get ready.
It helps us know

when you're going to start
putting flaps and gear down.

Three minutes later

Localizer alive.

Flight One Zero
Eight lines up

with the runway's centerline.

Established on the localizer.

The First Officer
checks on the weather.

It looks like a thunderstorm
has moved right in front of us.

It might be trouble.

Thunderstorms have
to be treated with respect.

I mean, they can produce hail.

They can produce downdrafts,
tailwinds overpowering

what the airplane
is capable of doing.

The Captain decides
to maneuver around the storm.

The problem was
the big thunderstorm

in the approach sector
of Dusseldorf.

They shouldn't fly through
thunderstorms.

In the Dusseldorf
Control Center...

NFD One Zero Eight,

please switch to tower
control, frequency,

1-1-8.3-0.

The approach
controller hands over

Flight One Zero Eight
to the tower.

NFD One Zero Eight,
confirm switch

to tower control,
frequency 1-1-8.3-0, bye.

Moments later,
Flight One Zero Eight

disappears from radar.

Seven miles northeast
of Dusseldorf Airport,

a maintenance worker
at a sewage treatment plant

hears the sound of
an approaching airplane.

Flight One Zero Eight breaks
out of the clouds

in a steep dive.

Five hundred...

four hundred...

three hundred...

Pull up!

The plane pulls up
just in time.

The plane came flying out

of the bottom of the cloud
at 4,000 feet per minute.

The G-force, it would have taken
to overcome that,

to pull the airplane
nose back up, it was violent.

The sound
of the engines

recedes into the distance.

That flight would have
been sheer terror,

sheer terror for people
in the back,

sheer terror up front.

You went from having
a visual reference to thinking

you're good,
to all of a sudden,

you're back in the cloud again.

A minute later,
the plane returns.

This time, Flight One Zero
Eight spirals out of control...

...and breaks up.

No. No, no!

It's a horrifying
sight.

I can't imagine what
the person watching that

would be thinking.

Two minutes
before dawn,

Flight One Zero Eight slams
into an open field

on the banks
of the Ruhr River.

The wreckage is scattered
over a wide area.

First responders make
their way to the crash site.

All 19 passengers
and both pilots are dead.

The Metroliner itself is broken
into thousands of pieces.

You're seeing that parts are
distributed throughout the area.

You'll start collecting
all the parts,

mapping where they are

and trying to put this puzzle
back together again.

Investigators
from Germany's Air Accident

Investigation Unit,
or F-U-S

begin mapping the wreckage
of Flight One Zero Eight

to determine
what caused the accident.

The first step was
to identify the positions

of every part of the wreckage.

And because of the size
of the accident site,

we used a grid, and we were able
to get the information

where every piece
was at the accident site.

Much of the plane,
along with its black boxes,

are badly damaged.

The recorders in this aircraft
aren't the new digital type

of recorders which record
300, 400 parameters.

This was the old foil
style recorders.

You had altitude, airspeed,
you had heading,

some information,
you had G loads,

you didn't have the data
we have today by a long shot.

The black boxes
and the debris

are sent to a warehouse
where investigators

begin their analysis.

Once the parts are recovered,
taken to a facility,

you can then clean where
the fractures,

where the separations are.

You can look at where
a part broke apart.

The wings, the engines,

the tail sections separated
from the aircraft.

Investigators try
to confirm witness' statements

that the plane broke up
before it crashed.

This piece looks compressed,

like it came from
a high energy impact.

But this piece is intact.

What that indicates
is that this intact piece of

wreckage did not go
to the accident site

with the rest of the airplane.

For sure an in-flight
break up.

The team
is now convinced

that Flight One Zero Eight
broke up

before hitting the ground.

The question
is what led to that?

Is there any evidence of
a pre-existing failure

that would have led
to the accident?

Hey, can you bring that piece
over to the table?

Did a design flaw
or some kind of failure

create a fatigue crack,

causing the wings to break off
before impact?

Even though
the airplane is fairly new,

you don't rule out anything.

Was there a flaw
in manufacturing?

Was there a hole drilled where
it shouldn't have been drilled?

Was there some other issue
that would cause a crack

to start growing very early
in the aircraft's life?

This doesn't look like
a fatigue crack at all.

It can only mean
one thing.

Overload fracture.

Yeah.

Overload fractures
can occur

'cause the airplane's exceeded
speed limits,

uh, flight control inputs
are severe,

uh, severe turb-turbulence
can cause overload

and sometimes you
have a combination

of all three coming together.

Hey, can you get the lights?

What pushed
this plane

past its structural limits?

Investigators examine

the plane's flight path
for clues.

Nothing unusual here.

The flight path from
departure en route to arrival

for landing seemed normal.

What happened to this part,
the end of the flight?

Oh! Look at that.

They discover
that the pilots flew

an erratic flight path before
the plane crashed.

That would certainly cause
a structural overload.

Agreed.

The crew was on approach

and now suddenly goes through
some very tight maneuvers.

And you piece that together
with the wreckage you found

and where it was found
and that gives you

a much better idea of what
led to the accident.

Investigators speak
to the controller who oversaw

the approach of
Flight One Zero Eight

to determine what might have
caused the unusual flight path.

Tell me about the night
of the crash.

Uh, there was thunderstorm
activity from about 7:40

until just after 8 AM.

Mmhm.

Did your other flights
run into any trouble?

They reported moderate
icing and turbulence,

but everyone else landed
without incident.

Okay.

No go-arounds?
No missed approaches?

- No.
- Okay.

Uh, but,
about six miles out,

a 737 got hit by lightning.

Dusseldorf
approach, Lufthansa 1-3-5-4,

we just experienced a lightning
strike at 3,000 feet,

six miles final.
No immediate issues.

Lufthansa 1-3-4-5,
Dusseldorf approach, roger.

Let me know if you require
further assistance.

Typically when we're concerned
about thunderstorms

in the airport vicinity,

it's not much about
the lightning

it's more about the winds
and the wind shears

that can be powerful enough
to push the airplane

into the ground.

Since airplanes
are made of aluminum,

which conducts electricity,
most lightning strikes

flow over the skin
of the fuselage

and safely exit
through the tail.

I remember one occurrence
of flying,

the aircraft got hit
by lightning.

There was a sudden flash
outside the fuselage.

You could hear it and
the airplane kept on going.

And there was no associated
damage to the aircraft

and we continued on.

Did you report the lightning
strike to Flight One Zero Eight?

Yes.

NFD One Zero Eight,
the preceding landing

experienced a lightning strike
about miles final.

Dusseldorf approach,
we copy and are looking outside,

NFD One Zero Eight.

For flight crews,
it is not abnormal,

to deal with thunderstorms

and to deal with the probability
of some lightning.

This flight was very,
very usual.

Okay.

Great.
Thank you for your time.

If it wasn't the
weather that caused the pilots

to push the plane past
its structural limit,

what did?

Will Flight
One Zero Eight's black boxes

provide clues as to why
the plane broke up mid-flight?

It's not looking good.

How so?

The flight data recording
and the cockpit voice recording

both stop two minutes
before the plane crashed,

at the exact same time
that the plane

started flying erratically.

A total power failure?

The CVR and FDR get their
power from two separate sources.

So the fact that both
these recorders stopped

at the same time
indicates whatever happened

affected both electrical systems
not just the one.

The Metroliner's
electrical system

is powered by two generators.

In the event of a power failure
two batteries

act as a back-up system.

But...

if it was a total power failure

that means the back-up
system failed as well.

How is that even possible?

From the perspective
and the explanations

coming from the manufacturer,

the possibility of a total
electrical loss was very low.

But during the course
of the investigation,

we understood more and more
that it could be that

the flight crew had
a total electrical loss.

Investigators
consider the effects

of a total power failure.

They would have lost most
of their instruments.

Well, except their vertical
speed indicator, the altitude,

and the third
attitude indicator.

Our Metroliners have been
installed with a third

independent artificial horizon.

It used bleed air coming
from the engine,

and as long as the engine
was running,

the artificial horizon
was working as well,

totally independent
from electricity.

The standby
non-electrical

artificial horizon could have
been used by the crew

to help keep the aircraft
level and straight.

And then the complexity of
this accident gets into,

why didn't the crew effectively
use that standby?

But even with
the limited instruments,

who's to say they could
have even seen them.

Oh, good point.

The lights that illuminated
the instruments

might not have been working.
Huh.

You need those instruments
and if you can't see them,

then you don't know
if you're up or down.

You're flying blind
at this point.

To confirm
the unlikely finding

of a total electrical failure,

the team examines
light bulbs

from Flight One Zero Eight's
instrument panel.

If the light bulb was on
when the plane hit the ground,

the hot and pliable filament
inside would be stretched.

But if the light was off,

the cold, brittle filament
would break upon impact.

All these filaments
are broken.

The outcome was that
we found no bulb

which was under electrical
power during the impact

of the aircraft.

Investigators now
have conclusive evidence

of a sudden,
total power failure.

But what could have caused it?

The controller did tell us
that another plane

got struck by lightning.

Maybe this one did too.

A lightning strike
outside of the aircraft

could lead to a problem
with the electrical system

inside of the aircraft.

If the electrical field
of a lightning strike is very,

very high, it could be
induced into the aircraft.

Investigators search
for evidence of

lightning striking the fuselage
of Flight One Zero Eight.

There must be a thousand
pieces in here.

It's a painstaking
process.

Lightning could have
struck anywhere.

Lightning marks
on the skin,

they look like a circle.

You'll see the paint burned.

You may see some localized
melting of the metal

in that particular area.

Over here.

What do you got?

I found it.

Huh...

Once you've found a piece of
metal with a lightning strike

its like okay, where does it go
in the airplane?

What's in the proximity of this?

Is it next to the electronics?

Is it next to hydraulics?

Where is this lightning
strike occurring?

The only way
to determine

where the mystery piece
comes from is to reconstruct

sections of the airplane.

No.

At the time of this accident
uh, reconstructions

were fairly typical,

mainly because we didn't have
as much data as we have now.

So reconstructing it made sense.

I think I've got it.

Investigators match
the piece of the plane

to the left side
of the fuselage,

forward of the wing.

This is where
the lightning struck.

But could a lightning strike
in front of the left wing

actually cause a total
electrical failure?

There are power system lines
running right behind

where the lightning struck.

It can't be a coincidence.

Is it possible that that
lightning strike

entered the electrical wires
on the other side

and therefore led to the loss
of electrical power?

So that would have been
the real focus

of the investigation
at this point.

(narraamine what remains of

Flight One Zero Eight's
electrical wiring in search of

evidence that the lightning
strike jumped from the fuselage

to the electrical system.

You would look for
the insulation material

on the outside's been
burned away.

Is there melting
inside the wires,

evidence that somehow
electrical energy

got through the insulation
barrier into the wiring,

uh, and then started actually
melting the wires locally.

How odd.

There's no signs of arcing.

We checked the wiring.

We checked
the electronic components

available from the wreckage
for some indication

for electrical overload.

Flight Investigator Find any
lightning damage to the wiring?

Not yet.

It's very possible
once the lightning

gets into the fuselage
you may not see

any direct impact
in that area.

It flows into the aircraft
and so even wiring

that's close by may appear
to be unaffected.

But now this high energy
is gone into the airplane

and the question
is where does it go?

Maybe I can find
something in here.

After we found no evidence
for damage

in the wiring based
on the lightning strike,

we had to do
a deeper investigation

within the systems.
And that means

we had to look for damages
in the avionic components.

The team now focuses
on even smaller components of

the electrical system:
the diodes.

Let's check this out.

A diode is an electrical
component that allows current

to flow in one direction only,

preventing reverse current flow
that could damage circuits

or create malfunctions.

If the diode
is working properly,

there should be resistance
to high current flow

in one direction
and not the other.

Only 15 ohms.
Almost nothing.

Now the reverse.

Also 15 ohms.

But investigators
discover low resistance

to current flow
in both directions.

It's shorted.

The outcome of our
investigation of the diodes

was that all diodes, um,
were open in both directions.

That means the diodes
were shorted.

The question now was why.

We decided to take these
to a manufacturer and ask them,

uh, to do a deeper
investigation.

Results are in.

To better understand
why the diodes shorted,

they examine test results
provided by the manufacturer.

Oh. That's interesting.

It looks like cracks
in the center of the diode.

Once you've see
that a diode has failed

then you can do tests
and research on a good diode

to see how much energy
it would take

basically to fry that diode.

Voltage tests are
done to determine if the cracks

in the diodes were the result of

a lightning strike
or something else.

A thousand volts.

Investigators learn
that when more than 1,000 volts

are applied to a working diode,
it will crack.

A lightning bolt can carry
hundreds of millions of volts,

more than enough energy
to crack the diode.

It must have been lightning.

The damage of the diodes,

uh, only can be produced
by high voltage.

Could it be possible that
high voltage would be produced

within the aircraft?

And the answer was no.

It could be only produced by
the lightning strike.

Basically,
the lightning hit the aircraft,

flowed through the system.

It impacted the diodes
which fried them, cracked them,

took them offline
and that shut down

the electrical systems
on the aircraft.

The odds of lightning taking
out an entire electrical system

are next to impossible.

And yet, that's what happened.

But this doesn't
explain why the crew

flew into the thunderstorm
in the first place.

Okay.

The primary rule
is if you see a thunderstorm

no matter what its size
you avoid it.

You go around, you divert,
you hold,

you do whatever you can.

You do not want to fly
through a thunderstorm.

examine Nuremberg Air Service'ss

Flight Operations Manual
to understand why the pilots of

Flight One Zero Eight
ended up in a thunderstorm.

I don't get it.
It clearly states,

"flights in or near
thunderstorms

should be absolutely avoided".

So why didn't they
do the sensible thing

and go around the storm?

At that time they
had several possibilities.

One possibility was just
to prepare if they would fly

through the thunderstorm,
what could happen,

what they have to do,
what they have to prepare.

Another possibility could have
been just to divert

to another airport.

Let's have a listen to what
the pilots were saying

about the storm.

Check the radar.

A thunderstorm could be
rolling in after all.

Halfway through
the flight,

the crew learns
there's adverse weather ahead.

Maybe.

It doesn't look
particularly bad.

I'll check the ATIS.

The crew
checks Dusseldorf

airport's weather service.

...information Bravo
at zero seven zero...

But there's no
indication of a thunderstorm.

Once they got the ATIS,
their expectation bias

was that the weather
was getting better.

...broken clouds
at 1,500 feet.

Nothing about a thunderstorm.
We should be fine.

The Captain
considers the information

and makes his decision.

Okay, we'll continue
with the approach.

They just assume
best case scenario

and don't do a proper briefing.

As professional pilots,
we always brief each other

based off the worst conditions.
You never know if that 10%

probability of thunderstorms
actually happens.

And if it does happen
and it's too late,

you don't have time to brief it.

NFD One Zero Eight...

11 minutes later,

the situation becomes
more critical.

...the preceding landing
experienced a lightning strike

about six miles final.

If I were the crew
and I were on approach

and proceeding traffic
in front of me

were to get struck by lightning,
at that point

I would initiate
a missed approach,

go around and hold somewhere
and figure out

what we're going to do
because the weather

at that point is moving
on to the approach path

and you need to take that
pretty seriously.

But that's not
what the pilots do.

Dusseldorf approach,
we copy and are looking outside,

NFD One Zero Eight.

Hey, did you hear what
happened to Walter last weekend?

Yeah, I'm not surprised.

Hold on.

They should to be talking about
deviating or a go around here

not someone's weekend.

They should have been
deciding where they were going

to go and what they were
going to do

instead of going down
this rabbit hole.

But they just thought the other
person is comfortable with it

and we'll continue going,

if they're comfortable,
I'm comfortable.

Investigators
continue listening to the CVR

as the pilots prepare
for landing.

- You're left of the centerline.
- What?

You're left of the centerline.
You need to turn right.

The captain started
deviating to the left,

apparently without telling
the first officer of his plan.

I don't want to go in there.
I'm trying to get around it.

We're too close to the runway.
You can't change course now.

It sounds like the Captain

is trying to deviate
around the storm.

And the First Officer
isn't on the same page.

It's a bad idea to try
and re-intercept the approach

when you're already
unstabilized.

It's just a bad idea.
You just do a go-around.

Huh.

Okay, I hear you.

Again, no discussion
of their options.

Oh...

There's some tension
in the cockpit.

There's some issue between

the Captain
and the First Officer.

We don't know exactly
what it was but...

clearly this was not conducive
to the crew working together

to determine what was
the best course of action.

So, now the Captain
turns the plane

directly into the thunderstorm.

- Hold on tight, here it comes.
- Um-hm.

Neither crew knew
what the other one was doing.

They hadn't briefed for
the, uh, weather.

They didn't have the plane set
up for flying around

in the vicinity of thunderstorms
and they just kept going.

Why wasn't this crew
on the same page?

The understanding of
the investigation team

at that time
was the communication

between both pilots was
not in a way as it should be.

What'd you find?

Well...

Investigators
examine personnel records

for insight into the
pilots' working relationship.

The Captain had a total of
2,473 flight hours

but only 277 hours
in the Metro III.

That's not a lot of
experience on type.

No, it's not.

The FO had basically the same
number of flight hours

but over 13 hundred hours
in the Metro.

Investigators
discover that the First Officer

had much more experience
on the Metroliner

than the Captain.

With the crew having such
an imbalance in the time,

the first officer is going
to feel like they could be

the captain, that they got
passed over for the upgrade.

They have more experience
on the routes,

they have more experience
on the plane,

more experience
with the airline,

even in this case.

She probably didn't trust
his handling of the aircraft.

That's never good
in a cockpit.

Did the pilots'
imbalance in experience

make it difficult
for them to cope

with the lightning strike?

their descent here.making

Investigators
examine how the pilots of

Flight One Zero Eight
flew the plane

as they entered
the thunderstorm.

And then, a minute before
they lose power,

they start ascending again.

Why would that happen?

Let's hear what happens here.

Okay, glide alive.

Quarter flaps.

Selected.

Three minutes
from the airport,

the Captain begins configuring
the aircraft for landing.

And half flaps.

Half flaps, please.

As they descend
towards the runway,

the Captain rushes
his flap settings.

The plane is now climbing
instead of descending.

The captain requested
the next flap setting,

half flaps.

The airplane then ballooned up,

climbed in altitude 400 feet.

I'm not sure that was so good.

The Captain trims
the plane's nose down

to counteract the increase
in altitude.

In response
to the 400-foot climb,

the Captain trims the airplane.

Rather than just putting
a few bits of electric trim in,

he holds the electric trim,

pitching the nose down quite
substantially.

He then adds even
more nose-down trim.

We're still slightly high.

Okay, descending.

With all that trim
the Captain has added,

the plane is in a nose heavy
position

when the lightning strikes.

So now the Captain loses
the ability to recover.

When the lightning
strike happens,

he loses electrical power.

So he may have a lot more
heavier flight controls

than he was prepared for.

And when the lightning
strikes,

the instrument lighting fails,

making the instruments
impossible to read.

There's no emergency procedure
in the Metroliner manual,

uh, that tells you what to do

if all your batteries
fall offline.

Uh, you're a test pilot,
and at that point,

you use your pilot experience.

One of the things
to do was for

the non-flying pilot to get
a flashlight to illuminate

the standby instrument
to help the flying pilot out.

The flashlights weren't found,

we don't know if they were
on the aircraft or not.

The power failure
cuts off their ability to see

and to communicate
with each other.

They couldn't hear each other.

We've lost electrical power.

We have nothing!

You've got a crew that
can't communicate

because you've lost
the intercom system.

You've got a headset on,

and the Metro's a very
noisy cockpit,

so you can't hear
the other person

and what they're saying to you.

If they couldn't see
their instruments

or hear one another,

could the pilots
still fly their plane?

They have aileron
and rudder controls

which aren't electrical.

The engines are still running.

The runway is about
seven miles away.

They should have been able
to use the controls

they did have to land
the plane.

They still had control over
the ailerons, over the rudder.

It was difficult,
but technically still flyable.

But without the ability
to see their instruments,

they'd have no way of knowing
where they were.

Seconds later,
Flight One Zero Eight

is diving towards the ground.

The pilots had no chance
to control the aircraft

in a proper way
because the light

for the third artificial horizon
was not there

and they had no visual
ground contact.

And I think under
these circumstances

it's nearly impossible
to control the aircraft.

Investigators
finally understand

how a lightning strike
caused a fatal crash.

- You're left of the centerline.
- What?

It starts
with a poorly functioning crew.

You're left of the centerline.
You need to turn right.

I don't want to go in there.
I'm trying to get around it.

We're too close to the runway.
You can't change course now.

Okay, I hear you.

Instead of giving
him the advice

or the two-crew mentality that
we're not where we should be,

we shouldn't be here,
the First Officer

chose to go the other route,
which was shut down and

only make the minimum calls,
which were deviation calls.

Half-flaps please.

The pilots decide
to fly their nose heavy aircraft

into a thunderstorm.

A powerful lightning strike...

We've lost electrical power.

...causes a total
power failure.

We have nothing!

And the disoriented
crew...

- Where are we?
- I can't tell.

...loses control
of the plane.

Five hundred...

four hundred...

three hundred...
Pull up!

Pull up! Pull up!

After you've been
struck by lightning,

you've got winds that are
gusting all over the place.

It starts to become a pretty
violent situation pretty quick.

The combination of
turbulence and the pilots' blind

actions lasting more
than a minute,

sends the plane into extreme
turns and banks.

Are we banking?

- Can't tell.
- What's the airspeed?

Don't worry about
the speed, just pull.

You think you
can trust your senses,
but you can't.

You don't know if
you're banking to the left.

You don't know if
you're banking to the right.

You can't tell if you've got
your nose low or your nose high.

Uh, you can think you do.
You can think you trust it.

At the end of the day,
your gut instinct will be wrong.

The plane is so overloaded
with the G-forces

in these turns...

it broke up.

Yeah.

Pull up!
Pull up!

I'm trying.

You're looking at a G load
that literally ripped

the engine pylon off the wing,

that literally broke
the wings apart

on the strongest part of
the airplane,

broke it like a toothpick.

It way exceeded what
the aircraft manufacturer

ever designed that airplane
to go through.

The main conclusion
of the report by Germany's Air

Accident Investigation Unit
is clear,

the crew flew into
a thunderstorm

even though they could have
flown around it.

You have two fairly
experienced pilots

that they never ever should
have been in that situation.

There were red flags throughout.

If anything can be learned
from this one,

you gotta speak up
on a two crew airplane.

You can't let the other person

take you to the scene
of the crash.

In their
recommendations,

the F-U-S reiterates the need
for training and manuals

that clearly describe
how to operate

in and near thunderstorms.

This is a very different crew
than we see today

who are well-trained in cockpit
resource management,

who work together as a crew.

And the systems changed
for the better

and the airplanes
are much better.

As for Nuremberg
Air Service,

the company soon replaced
the remaining Metroliners

in its fleet.

I made myself one of the last
flights with the Metroliner.

I had some tears in my eyes

because I think it
wasn't the aircraft's fault.

Subtitling: difuze