Original subtitles

NARRATOR: A scene of devastation in a remote region

of Venezuela confirms the fate of a missing passenger jet.

MAN: (OVER RADIO) Whiskey-Charlie.

NARRATOR: West Caribbean Airways Flight 708

has mysteriously dropped from the sky while flying at over 30,000 feet.

It took off from Panama.

It's a Colombian operator.

There was 160 French citizens on board.

It's the biggest accident that has ever occurred in the Venezuelan territory.

NARRATOR: Investigators hope the crew's desperate last words.

DAVID: West 708.

MAN: Do you have a problem on board?

NARRATOR: Will help them pinpoint the cause of the crash.

OMAR: Affirmative.

Tell them we've had a flameout on both engines.

NARRATOR: But instead, the mystery deepens.

It's a stall, captain. It's a stall.

NARRATOR: The pilots can't agree on why the plane is falling.

(SCREAMING)

Now it's up to investigators to figure it out.

MAN: (OVER RADIO) Mayday, mayday.

(THEME MUSIC PLAYS)

(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING)

(AIRPLANE DRONING)

NARRATOR: At Panama's Tocumen International Airport

West Caribbean Airways Flight 708 begins boarding

two hours behind schedule.

It's well past midnight.

The 152 passengers on this charter flight are returning

home to Martinique, they've been visiting the Panama Canal.

Captain Omar Ospina has just flown in with his crew from Colombia.

As he's behind schedule, he must turn the plane around quickly.

But there are more unexpected delays.

First Officer David Munoz informs the captain that the flight is overbooked.

Even the jump seat in the cockpit is filled.

Let me deal with it.

Alejo, I need you onboard to do the announcements

in Spanish and English.

Yes, sir.

- Angela and Luisa can stay behind. - I'll let them know.

NARRATOR: Two of the flight attendants will stay in Panama

because there's not enough room onboard.

Sir, we just got the final load sheet.

NARRATOR: Checking the weight of the aircraft.

Take off from runway two-one-left, sir. 3,050 meters.

NARRATOR: And the length of runway,

Captain Ospina calculates that he can safely get airborne.

Their flight path will take them through some heavy weather,

something crews are accustomed to during hurricane season.

Okay we're ready for takeoff. Request pushback clearance.

Ground West Caribbean Airways.

DAVID: (OVER RADIO) 708 request pushback clearance gate two-eight.

West Caribbean 708.

MAN: (OVER RADIO) Cleared for pushback gate two-eight.

Proceed to runway two-one-left.

West Caribbean 708 runway two-one-left cleared for takeoff.

(TURBINES WHIRRING)

V1.

Rotate.

NARRATOR: At 1:00 in the morning,

flight 708 begins the journey to Martinique.

They took off from Panama Airport,

Tocumen Airport with a heavy load for a long flight

for that aircraft.

NARRATOR: The flight should take three hours.

EDUARDO: (OFF-SCREEN) They climb up to 31,000 feet,

their initial assigned flight level.

They have filed a flight plan with a final cruise level

of 3-3-0, 33,000 feet.

NARRATOR: The crew is flying an MD-80.

(AIRPLANE DRONING)

The plane is easily recognizable by its two rear mounted engines.

The MD-82 aircraft is a very good aircraft.

It's a model that was derived from the DC9.

They made it longer, more fuel efficient

and more modern instrumentation and avionics.

Anti-ice on, please.

NARRATOR: As altitude increases and temperature drops,

they activate the plane's anti-ice system.

Half an hour into the flight while cruising at 31,000 feet,

the weather ahead is turning nasty.

(THUNDER RUMBLES)

A low-intensity hurricane moving in from the Atlantic

has been whipping up winds across the region.

Request deviation left.

Barranquilla West 708 request deviation to the left to avoid formation.

MAN: (OVER RADIO) West Caribbean 708 cleared to deviate left.

(THUNDER RUMBLES)

EDUARDO: In the kind of weather they were flying,

it's common for pilots to deviate from their initial route

to avoid this bad weather.

It should get better soon.

(THUNDER RUMBLES)

(BABY CRIES)

NARRATOR: 40 minutes into the flight the plane has burnt

through thousands of pounds of fuel allowing it to fly higher.

In order to reduce weight, they had to climb to 31,000 feet

wait until the weight goes down and then do a step climb up to 33,000 feet.

- Okay, let's do 3-3-0. - 3-3-0.

Barranquilla West 708 request level 3-3-0.

MAN: (OVER RADIO) 708 cleared to level three-three-zero.

NARRATOR: The captain now begins the climb

to their scheduled altitude of 33,000 feet.

(AIRPLANE DRONING)

Turn off engine anti-icing.

(BEEPING)

(THUNDER RUMBLES)

I can't accelerate.

NARRATOR: The captain notices that the engines don't seem to be responding.

I'm going to the bathroom.

NARRATOR: The crew isn't overly concerned.

Almost a third of the way to Martinique...

West Caribbean flight 708 enters Venezuelan airspace.

(AIRPLANE DRONING)

Is there cake and coffee for everybody?

- Or are we expected to share? - (CHUCKLES)

(AIRPLANE DRONING)

NARRATOR: As the storm intensifies First Officer Munoz worries about icing.

- Do I turn it on, captain? - Do we have ice?

(THUNDER RUMBLES)

Put 'em on.

(BABY CRIES)

(SCREAMS)

(AIRPLANE DRONING)

NARRATOR: Soon the turbulence gets worse.

Man, there is a lot of nasty weather.

Put the fasten seatbelt sign on.

(CLICKING)

(AIRPLANE DRONING)

(SCREAMING)

Please stay in your seat.

I'm dimming the lights so the passengers don't stand up.

Should we go down to level 3-1-0?

Do it.

Maiquetia Whisky-Charlie.

NARRATOR: The Maiquetia Air Traffic Control Station

in Venezuela isn't equipped with radar.

MAN: Request descent to level 3-1-0.

NARRATOR: The controller depends on pilots to tell him where they are.

MAN: 3-1-0.

NARRATOR: Captain Ospina turns off the autopilot.

OMAR: Give me 3-1-0.

NARRATOR: And the plane starts heading back down to 31,000 feet.

- (AIRPLANE DRONING) - (SCREAMING)

The turbulence is getting even heavier.

(ALARM BEEPING)

And then suddenly the stick shaker goes off.

It's the most serious warning that a crew can get.

(RATTLING)

The captain's control column starts to vibrate

warning him the plane is flying dangerously slowly.

(ALARM BEEPING)

At close to 31,000 feet, the plane suddenly drops.

(AIRPLANE DRONING)

(SCREAMING)

(ALARMS BEEPING)

It's a stall, captain. It's a stall.

NARRATOR: The plane is falling fast.

The crew has only seconds to figure out why.

(SCREAMING)

West 708.

DAVID: (OVER RADIO) Level down to below 2-4-0.

Descending to 2-4-0.

- Do you have a problem onboard? - Affirmative.

Tell him we've had a flameout on both engines.

- We've had a flameout on both engines. - Confirm?

We've got a flameout on both engines.

MAN: (OVER RADIO) Roger.

Confirm radial and distance from Punto Cabello if possible.

NARRATOR: The controller needs to know where they are.

(AIRPLANE DRONING)

Negative. Negative.

We are at 14,000 feet.

We're about 14,000.

And going down. The plane is uncontrollable.

Keep your heads down. Stay down.

Keep your heads down.

Confirm people onboard,

intention and distance from NAV aid if it's possible.

152 people onboard.

The plane is uncontrollable.

NARRATOR: In just 30 seconds, the plane falls 9,000 feet.

(SCREAMING)

I understand 152 people onboard.

Affirmative.

MAN: (OVER RADIO) Acknowledge.

Confirm at what level you are crossing at this time, whisky-Charlie-whisky.

(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING)

(THUNDER RUMBLES)

MAN: (OVER RADIO) Whisky-Charlie-Whisky 708.

Confirm position if possible.

(AIRPLANE DRONING)

Whisky-Charlie-Whisky 708 confirm position if possible.

NARRATOR: While flying almost ten kilometers above the earth

West Caribbean 708 mysteriously drops from the sky.

Confirm position, if possible.

NARRATOR: Air traffic control in Venezuela doesn't know its location

nor if anyone has survived.

NARRATOR: The morning after West Caribbean Flight 708 goes missing,

Venezuelan villagers report that a plane has crashed on a remote farm.

Colonel Lorllys Ramos is the lead air crash investigator

for the Venezuelan Government.

She has never handled a crash this big.

She's shocked by what she sees.

All 160 people onboard,

most of them French citizens from Martinique have died.

LORLLYS: (OFF SCREEN) It was a real shock for us

because it was our first really big accident.

And it had the highest number of deaths for any crash in Venezuela.

We felt a lot of pressure because of that.

NARRATOR: The scope of the investigation is daunting.

Lorllys Ramos knows the plane that has crashed

is one of the safest planes in the world.

There are more than 3,000 such planes flying every day.

EDUARDO: Investigating a crash where an aircraft so popular

as the MD-80 is a great responsibility

because of the effects it could have on the rest of the fleet.

(SPEAKING IN NATIVE LANGUAGE)

NARRATOR: The Colombian, Venezuelan and French press from Martinique,

all descend on the site demanding answers.

The plane has crashed in a lawless area next to the Colombian border.

Kidnappings are common.

The Venezuelan army informs investigators

that it can only protect them during daylight hours.

We don't have a lot of time.

Let's get everything documented as fast as.

MANUEL: Certainly, our team including myself

wasn't prepared for the emergency we faced.

MANUEL: This accident was complex.

And it was very difficult to quickly figure out what had happened.

NARRATOR: After the victims have been removed,

the investigators first goal

is to determine how much of the plane landed intact at the crash site.

If it's all there, they can rule out a mid-air break-up.

We could observe the four corners of the aircraft,

the tail, a part of the cockpit and some remains of the wings.

And this suggested that there were no explosions

or a collision that produced the accident.

NARRATOR: Investigators question the Maiquetia air traffic controller.

They told me that they had a flameout on both their engines.

Do you have a problem onboard?

Tell them we've had a flameout on both engines.

When we learned that the crew had reported a flameout in both engines,

we immediately focused on the function of the airplane's engines.

Yeah, I'm just getting up to speed now.

NARRATOR: Joe Sedor is a senior investigator at the NTSB in Washington

specializing in foreign assignments.

As soon as we're notified of an accident,

we contact the manufacturer of both the airframe and the engine.

Given the initial information of a dual engine flameout,

this caused us to start getting as much information about the engines as possible.

No sign of fire inside the engine.

Lorllys had her hands full with this accident.

It was a remote location.

There was four countries involved and she didn't have a big staff.

Let's see what we can find out about the weather they flew through.

NARRATOR: Colonel Ramos knows that severe storms can kill a plane's jet engines.

(THUNDER CRASHES)

In 1977, a DC-9 with similarly mounted rear engines

experienced a flameout while flying through a thunderstorm.

Both engines were disabled.

The plane fell 17,000 feet, slammed to the ground

and erupted in flames.

Investigators suspect that the engines of flight 708

may have flamed out either from heavy rain entering them

or due to turbulent winds.

One way to think of an engine flameout

is when you have a pilot light go out on your furnace at home.

The engine is working properly with combustion going on internally

and then the flame stops and the engine quits.

NARRATOR: If both engines flamed out,

it would explain why the plane fell from the sky in one piece.

(ALARMS BEEPING)

But Colonel Ramos knows that her best chance of finding out

exactly what happened to the engines lies with the plane's two black boxes.

They could hold critical flight and voice data.

But retrieving that data gets complicated by political concerns.

The other difficulty with this investigation

was the international aspect.

This was a Colombian operator that took off from Panama

was over-flying Venezuela and crashed on their soil.

So from the Venezuelan standpoint,

they had very little connection with the actual flight

or the passengers on the aircraft.

NARRATOR: The Venezuelan government, deeply mistrustful of the United States,

has final say on who will examine the black boxes.

JOSEPH: Since this is a United States manufactured aircraft,

we offered our facility to them to download both the FDR and CVR.

But they requested that they be downloaded at the French facility of the BEA,

our counterparts, uh, in Paris.

(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)

NARRATOR: The black boxes are sent to France for expert analysis.

The French aviation authorities participated in the accident investigation

because, um, all the passengers were French citizens that lived in Martinique.

NARRATOR: In the meantime, investigators pursue another possible

cause of engine failure, contaminated fuel.

They track down the fuel truck that filled the plane in Panama.

It was important to test the fuel

because it was a possible cause for why the engines had failed.

We asked the Panamanian authorities

to test the fuel for contaminants,

but the results they obtained were negative.

- Hi. - Hi.

I hope I can be of some help.

NARRATOR: Joe Sedor arrives from Washington with two engine experts.

JOSEPH: Once we arrived on scene that was one of the first things

that we wanted to look at was the engines.

So my engine investigator and the Pratt and Whitney investigator...

went to each engine and examined them thoroughly.

NARRATOR: What they find is surprising.

Both engines exhibited indications of high-speed rotation at impact.

That is to say that they, that the evidence indicated

that both engines were operating at a very high power.

NARRATOR: The investigators give the engines a clean bill of health.

When we obtained the analysts results for the engines,

we realized that they worked perfectly.

- MAN: You have a problem onboard? - Affirmative.

Tell them we've had a flameout on both engines.

We've had a flameout on both engines.

It sure looks like those blades were turning when the plane hit the ground.

LORLLYS: And that the flame out reported by the crew never happened.

NARRATOR: The main suspect in the crash

of one of the most popular planes on earth is ruled out.

Investigators need another lead.

It made us want to get that FDR and CVR data as quickly as possible.

NARRATOR: The team is now counting on the plane's two black boxes

to shed light on the cause of the crash.

They travel to France where one of the boxes has been opened.

When they listen to the plane's cockpit voice recorder

investigators are surprised by what they hear.

DAVID: (OVER RADIO) It's a stall, captain. It's a stall.

After listening to the cockpit voice recordings,

he realized that the plane had entered a stall.

(BEEPING)

How did this plane stall at over 30,000 feet with two working engines?

(AIRPLANE DRONING)

NARRATOR: To create the lift needed to fly,

a plane depends on a very fast moving stream of air over the wings.

JOSEPH: An airplane stall is when the lift over the wings

is reduced to the point that the lift cannot support

the weight of the aircraft in the air.

(AIRPLANE DRONING)

(ALARM BEEPING)

NARRATOR: It's unusual for planes to stall at such a high altitude.

Investigators hope the plane's second black box will reveal

why that happened.

When we opened the flight data recorder

even though it was really damaged, the conditions inside were good.

And that was a huge relief.

NARRATOR: But for some reason, much of what's on the recorder is gibberish.

JOSEPH: Unfortunately, some of the data was not usable.

And it was some very important data points that were not available

such as elevator position, rudder position,

heading and the most important parameters engine pressure ratios.

NARRATOR: It's a disappointing loss for Sedor.

We need those engine parameters.

NARRATOR: The engine pressure numbers would tell investigators

how much power the engines were generating.

They would paint a picture of how the airplane was flying in its final minutes.

In Washington, the NTSB offers to help.

Sophisticated software may be able to recapture some of the lost data.

We wanted to work with what data we had to recover

any engine data that we could.

NARRATOR: Meanwhile, investigators look for other clues

about what may have caused the stall.

That's quite a storm probably very heavy rain.

NARRATOR: They discover that the plane flew through freezing,

wet weather capable of causing ice to form.

Ice on the wings can cause a plane to stall.

JOSEPH: When ice accumulates on an airplane,

it will have increased drag and increased weight and decreased lift.

NARRATOR: The MD-80 is equipped with an anti-icing system.

When turned on, it blows hot air from the engines onto the wings

preventing ice from forming.

Let's see what they did about the ice.

OMAR: (OVER COMPUTER) Put on the fasten seatbelt sign.

Man, that is a lot of nasty weather.

NARRATOR: As the plane rose to 33,000 feet,

Captain Ospina made an unusual decision.

Turn off engine anti-icing.

NARRATOR: A short while later First Officer Munoz wants to know

if the anti-icing system should be put back on.

Should I turn it on, Captain?

Do we have ice?

NARRATOR: Pilots generally examine the outside metal window sill

to see whether ice is forming there.

Put 'em on.

NARRATOR: It appears the captain saw ice.

DAVID: (OVER COMPUTER) Barranquilla West 7...

NARRATOR: Since they were flying through cold and wet conditions,

investigators don't know why the crew didn't simply turn on

the anti-ice and leave it on.

With the weather conditions they had,

they should have been using the anti-ice systems during the entire flight.

NARRATOR: Investigators wonder if the crew made an error

that allowed ice to build up on the plane's wings causing it to stall

and fall from the sky.

NARRATOR: Promising new evidence in the crash of West Caribbean Flight 708

may help the investigative team to zero in on the cause of the disaster.

The NTSB has managed to recover missing data about the MD-80's engines.

(BEEPING)

This was very important for us because it allowed us to understand

the operation of the engine throughout the flight.

NARRATOR: If there had been ice on the wings,

the engines would have had to work harder

to overcome the friction it creates.

The engine power numbers would have gone up.

Look at this.

Engine power wasn't going up, it was actually going down.

Therefore that showed that there was no ice on the airframe.

NARRATOR: Ice didn't cause the stall.

So what did?

Investigators must determine why the engines

weren't providing the power needed to keep the MD-80 in the air.

(AIRPLANE DRONING)

The airline's troubled history of safety violations

gives investigators a possible lead.

It had been cited for flying overweight planes.

Colombian authorities used to bring the aircraft to a scale,

they have at Bogota Airport and compare against the manifest.

And on some occasions,

they found that the aircraft was heavier than what was recorded.

NARRATOR: Did Flight 708 stall in mid-air because it was too heavy?

MANUEL: During our visit to Panama,

we observed that West Caribbean

didn't have very rigorous control over the checking of passengers' luggage

and their weight.

NARRATOR: If a plane is too heavy,

it may not be able to fly at higher altitudes where the air is less dense.

Pilots need to make these calculations carefully.

The pilot knows at what altitude he can fly

by studying the aircraft's performance tables

and inputting the plane's weight and the temperature.

NARRATOR: What investigators don't know

is whether Captain Ospina did the math correctly.

Stand-by.

NARRATOR: They now try to calculate whether flight 708

was too heavy to avoid stalling at 33,000 feet.

So we went back and looked at the number of,

of passengers onboard, the number of crew onboard

and the weight of the aircraft itself along with the baggage.

NARRATOR: They already tested the plane at its reported weight of 148,000 pounds.

Alright, let's add a few thousand pounds,

we got heavier luggage, mis-weighed cargo.

Uh, let's try 155,000 pounds.

NARRATOR: Investigators now make the calculations

for a plane that's grossly overweight.

They're in for a surprise.

JOSEPH: And even with a heavier aircraft at takeoff,

the aircraft could maintain level flight at three, three, zero.

NARRATOR: It's a setback for the investigation.

We're missing something.

Let's go back to the beginning.

NARRATOR: After much research, investigators still can't figure out

what caused the plane to stall.

Thanks.

NARRATOR: The answer has to do with how a plane distributes power.

When it's turned on, the anti-icing system draws energy from the engines

reducing power for thrust.

This decrease in thrust can affect the performance of the airplane

depending on the weight and the altitude.

The performance study showed that the airplane

was perfectly safe to fly at 33,000 feet with the anti-ice off.

Anti-ice on, please.

JOSEPH: However, it could only fly as high as 31,900 feet with the anti-ice on.

It was the anti-icing.

It robbed them of the power they needed.

They shouldn't have gone higher than 31-9.

We concluded that the aircraft was flown too high

for its weight and the weather conditions it faced.

- (AIRPLANE DRONING) - Put 'em on.

The airspeed started to decelerate

when the flight crew turned on the anti-ice system.

This reduced the thrust of the engine.

NARRATOR: Investigators conclude the reduction in thrust

led the plane to stall.

Sir, we just got the final load sheet.

NARRATOR: They now assume that when Captain Ospina

calculated his maximum cruise altitude,

he failed to factor in the need for anti-icing.

There are many factors you have to take into account when planning,

and, apparently, they did not do it in this case.

NARRATOR: But if low thrust led to a stall, why didn't the crew notice?

Part of the answer is that while the problem was developing,

they weren't flying the plane.

They had their autopilot on.

NARRATOR: The autopilot should not let a plane stall.

Investigators wonder why this particular autopilot let that happen.

While researching the autopilot on the MD-80,

they discover a bulletin from the plane's manufacturer.

It was sent to the airline three years earlier.

Under some conditions, airspeed could decay to stall warning

before the autopilot disconnects.

In the bulletin issued by Boeing, it described another incident

with an autopilot that was almost the exact same

as what had happened with West Caribbean.

NARRATOR: The bulletin warned crews

that if they set the autopilot to maintain the plane's altitude,

they should keep a close eye on their airspeed.

JOSEPH: The operation bulletin warned that with the autopilot on

and at altitude that a similar situation could occur

where the aircraft could maintain altitude

and airspeed could decrease

if the pilots were not monitoring the airspeed.

So in order to maintain altitude as the speed goes down,

the aircraft starts to pitch up, nose up attitude increasing the angle of attack

to have a better lift.

But that has a problem because you cannot exceed certain angle

because you can enter a stall condition.

In this case, the autopilot led the aircraft

into a condition that caused an excessive angle of attack.

That generated the stall.

NARRATOR: As important as the bulletin was,

there's no evidence that it ever reached West Caribbean's pilots.

Investigators now have a deeper understanding

of the events causing the stall.

The crew were not monitoring their instruments

believing that the autopilot would maintain the correct speed.

They were wrong.

It was at this moment that the captain began to notice

that something wasn't right.

I can't accelerate.

I'm going to the bathroom.

They were aware that they had a problem but they didn't know why.

(AIRPLANE DRONING)

NARRATOR: The captain decided to descend to an altitude

where the engines would perform better.

MAN: (OVER RADIO) Three, one, zero.

And descending to 31,000 feet was the right choice.

That's why he disconnected the autopilot to begin the descent.

OMAR: Give me three, one, zero.

NARRATOR: The plane is very close to stalling.

But the crew is just a few seconds away from overcoming the problem.

If he would have attained 31,000 feet

during that descent the speed would have gone up

and he would have recovered the lift.

And after leveling off, there would have been no problem at all.

NARRATOR: They almost made it.

But the captain was oblivious to his biggest threat.

The plane is still traveling slowly with its nose raised

at a dangerously high angle.

That's when the crew experienced some bad luck.

The weather they were flying through was turbulent.

Winds were intense and the plane was vulnerable.

Our study showed that it would only take a 20 mile an hour updraft

to push the aircraft into a stall.

(AIRPLANE DRONING)

NARRATOR: Investigators conclude that the plane was hit with a ferocious updraft...

that lifted the plane's nose just enough to put it into a stall...

a crisis the crew then mishandled.

There was very little communication between them.

The captain thought he was having a flameout in both engines.

OMAR: Affirmative.

Tell him we have a flameout both engines.

(BEEPING)

DAVID: (OVER RADIO) We have a flameout on both our engines.

The captain was not telling the first officer what to do.

The captain was only fixating, or if you will have tunnel vision,

on the engines...

which is a very big problem in this situation.

NARRATOR: As the investigation into the crash of flight 708

nears completion only one mystery remains unsolved.

It's a stall.

Munoz seems to know what was happening.

NARRATOR: Why did the crew fail to recover from a stall

that they'd been trained to overcome?

To get out of a stall, a pilot should increase thrust

and pitch over, that is push forward on the control column.

NARRATOR: But as the recovered flight data shows

that is not what Captain Ospina did.

There is no indication that the pilot pushed forward on the control column

to reduce the angle of attack and to increase speed.

(ALARM BEEPING)

He's pulling back on the control column.

At that point, it was impossible to recover from the stall.

NARRATOR: The captain should have pushed forward.

The question remains, why didn't he?

Investigators get their first clue when they re-examine the engine data,

at the precise moment of the stall.

That's what distracted the captain.

At the time that the airplane stalled,

we also saw that both engines rolled back at the same time.

JOSEPH: This most likely confused the pilots.

NARRATOR: When airflow to the engines is disrupted

it causes a rollback reducing thrust.

Because of the updrafts in the area,

it most likely increased the angle of attack of the engine inlet

which then caused the engines to roll back.

NARRATOR: With his engine power temporarily reduced,

the captain wrongly concluded that his engines had quit.

It's a stall.

The first officer yelled, "It's a stall, captain, it's a stall."

(THUNDER RUMBLING)

JOSEPH: There was no response from the captain.

This showed that the captain was fixating most likely on the engines.

NARRATOR: Unaware he had stalled,

the captain made things worse by pulling back on his control column.

That kept the nose of the plane angled dangerously high.

Tell them we've had a flameout on both engines.

We've had a flameout on both engines.

The crew couldn't understand the situation presented to them.

West 708 go down to level two-four-zero.

Do you have a problem onboard?

We've got a flameout on both engines.

They had a heavy buffet from the stall.

They were looking at the engines which were rolled back

and they were also communicating with the air traffic controller.

During that time there was not much troubleshooting going on in the cockpit.

This was a very, very difficult time for the pilot.

It is very important that the crews communicate in an effective way.

And, in this case, you don't hear the two pilots

communicating between themselves.

It was an almost silent cockpit

until the time just before the accident

when they realized they were in deep trouble.

NARRATOR: But by that time, it was already too late.

They were past the point of no return.

During that descent according to the flight data recorder,

they reached a rate of descent,

an average of more than 12,000 feet per minute.

At that rate of descent not only the G-force will prevent them

from any coordinated action, the vibration in the aircraft would be a lot.

That's why when you hear the voice recorder you hear the voice trembling.

Negative. Negative.

We are at 14,000 feet.

We're about 14,000.

We're going down. The plane is uncontrollable.

And that's because of high vibration in the aircraft.

NARRATOR: For everyone on board,

the final plunge was a nightmare lasting almost three minutes.

(EXPLOSION)

Whisky Charlie Whisky.

NARRATOR: When Colonel Lorllys Ramos

and her team interview friends and family of the pilots

of West Caribbean flight 708.

How was he when he was at home?

NARRATOR: They uncover other longstanding issues

that may help explain the crew's behavior.

West Caribbean Airline, uh, was going through a very critical financial status.

Because of West Caribbean's economic struggles,

the crew members hadn't been paid for six months.

And this could have influenced,

the captain's concentration.

NARRATOR: Investigators discover that Captain Ospina

was forced to take a second job moonlighting in a bar

in order to make ends meet for his family.

MANUEL: The level of stress that the captain was under

because of his financial situation was huge.

- Have we solved the fuel situation yet? - I think we're getting close captain.

NARRATOR: Before the accident, the crew was delayed in Colombia for hours

because the airline couldn't pay for their fuel.

That was their third of four flights that day.

The crew was under a lot of stress because they were already late

and they didn't know if their flight would be canceled.

T's a stall, captain. It's a stall.

NARRATOR: Investigators also believe that the 21-year-old first officer

should have voiced his opinions more clearly.

There was a considerable age difference between the captain and the co-pilot

and this might have intimidated the co-pilot when he needed to speak up.

- Do I turn it on, captain? - Do we have ice?

EDUARDO: No matter how young the copilots and first officers are,

how old and experienced the captain is,

they have the right to preserve their life.

If they see something that's going wrong.

It's a stall, captain. It's a stall.

And they alert the captain and he does not react,

they should react by themselves.

(AIRPLANE DRONING)

NARRATOR: The investigation's official report concludes

that there was an insufficient level of situational awareness

in both pilots.

Although, the pilot's actions are in question in this flight,

we also have to look at the operator.

Did the operator provide proper training?

We found that the training was insufficient,

that they did not receive proper CRM training,

and they did not receive proper stall training.

LORLLYS: This accident happened as a result of numerous factors

that aren't only attributable to the crew.

There were deplorable conditions in the operation of the airline.

And over time, these faults can lead to accidents.

- Negative. Negative. - Do you have problem on board?

We're 14,000 feet. We're going down. The plane is uncontrollable.

NARRATOR: The report makes a long list of recommendations

to ensure that the tragedy of flight 708 never happens again.

We made recommendations to the Colombian aviation authorities

to improve pilot training.

Specifically, better training in crew communication

and having a better awareness

about the use of the plane's autopilot.

After this accident occurred, the airline was grounded and it never operated again.

It went bankrupt and simply disappeared.

(AIRPLANE DRONING)

NARRATOR: But West Caribbean Airways did leave a valuable legacy.

Better safety measures for every other MD-80 taking to the skies today.

(AIRPLANE DRONING)

(CLOSING THEME MUSIC PLAYING)