Original subtitles

PROVENCHER: Looks like we've lost hydraulics.

NARRATOR: Air crash investigators discover Propair Flight 420

faced an onslaught of problems.

What's going on? It wants to roll left.

As pilots attempt to return to the airport their situation becomes critical.

Fire! The left engine's on fire!

Is that a passenger?

If you can't get that airplane on the ground very quickly,

it can kill you in as little as five minutes.

Left gear hasn't dropped.

No time to sort that out.

Hold on back there. It's gonna be a rough landing.

Brace!

They were within a few seconds of everybody being on the ground

safe and going home.

That must have been hell.

(theme music playing)

♪♪

For the line check, it's your leg out to Peterborough.

I'll take the second.

Roger.

NARRATOR: It's the first flight of the day

for the crew of Propair Flight 420.

Propair 420. We're holding in position Runway 2-4 Left.

Ready for takeoff.

DORVAL CONTROLLER: Propair 420, cleared for takeoff, 2-4 Left,

frequency 1-2-4-6-5.

Roger, Propair 420. Cleared for takeoff, 2-4 Left.

Captain Jean Provencher is the airline's chief pilot.

Landing lights on.

NARRATOR: Co-pilot Walter Stricker is an experienced Firs Officer,

but is newer to this type of aircraft.

- I have control. - Your controls.

NARRATOR: The Captain watches Stricker closely.

More right rudder, more right rudder.

Okay, more right rudder.

He's conducting a line check,

a crucial testing stage for the first officer.

A line check is required every time a pilot is new on an airplane.

The check pilot wants to make sure that the new pilot knows

his standard operation procedures very well

and his flying skills are good.

Gear up.

Landing gear up.

Flaps up.

As a check pilot, it's pretty busy. You're doing your duties.

You're monitoring the other guy's duties.

They get in the air just fine.

NARRATOR: Flight 420 ascends to its cruising altitude of 16,000 feet.

The pilots are flying a 14 seat Fairchild Metroliner twin turboprop.

LAPOINTE: The Metroliner was a fast airplane

without burning too much fuel.

Having a pressurized cabin, the Metroliner was able to fly at a higher altitude,

so it made it more comfortable for the passengers.

NARRATOR: Although it's a modern plane, the Metroliner has no autopilot.

The First Officer is flying manually.

For my dad, being a pilot, it was his dream job.

Um, it was his main purpose in life

other than me and my mom,

obviously, but he was always talking about it

and he was really,

it made him really happy.

NARRATOR: Today's flight is a 90-minute hop

from Dorval to Peterborough, Ontario.

The nine passengers on board ar engineers from General Electric

who are headed to Peterborough for project meetings.

The plane has been in the air for 12 minutes.

Everything has been normal since takeoff.

- All of a sudden... - (alarm blaring)

What?

What is it?

Looks like we lost hydraulics.

LAPOINTE: Not only one light but two

saying that his hydraulic pressure are failing on both sides,

meaning that he will have problem if he keeps proceeding to Peterborough.

Dorval Approach, this is Propair 420.

We've had dual hydraulic failure.

Request clearance to return to Dorval.

NARRATOR: The Metroliner has two hydraulic systems.

One controls the flaps,

the other the landing gear.

LAVIGNE: You don't really need the hydraulic systems

until you're coming in.

It's not a "we're gonna die at this very moment" kind of situation.

It's just "We have a problem. We need to turn back."

And it's standard operating procedure at that point.

Sorry, folks, we have a technical problem.

We have to head back to Dorval.

Stay in your seats with seatbelts fastened.

It looks like we're landing without flaps.

NARRATOR: With no flaps,

the pilots can't reduce their speed without stalling.

They'll have to come in fast.

LAPOINTE: Not having any flaps, it was not really a problem.

They had a 12,000-foot runway ahead of them.

Time was of the essence.

He had to land the airplane very quickly.

NARRATOR: Without hydraulics, the landing gear

will have to be lowered manually.

It's gonna make everything longer and that much harder for you.

It's gonna delay where you're normally used to doing your configurations.

NARRATOR: Then, just 30 seconds after losing hydraulics,

before they've started back to the airport...

What's going on? It wants to roll left.

Really?

I'm holding it right.

NARRATOR: Something's wrong with the controls.

I need to trim a half turn to the right.

That should do it.

NARRATOR: If the plane is rolling in one direction,

applying trim avoids the need for continuous pilot inputs.

Trimming it right brings the left wing up

and levels the plane.

But as Stricker starts to turn towards Dorval...

Still rolling left.

LAPOINTE: The airplane wants to turn to the left,

and the first officer has to apply more and more right ailerons,

which is not normal. It's getting stiffer.

I'm gonna give it a few more ticks of aileron trim to the right.

Roger.

Remember no autopilot, so that's putting a lot of pressure on this first officer.

And any pilot who has this kind of problem has to ask himself:

Is it going to get worse?

Still rolling left?

Yes.

Both engines are working. Why do we need so much trim?

The captain has to be racking his brain.

Uh, he had more than 5000 hours on the Metro.

He was the chief pilot, a check pilot,

and he can't seem to make sense of the situation.

NARRATOR: They are 12 minutes from Dorval airport.

As they descend through thick clouds,

visibility is near zero,

and they have to fly on instruments.

Rolling to the left. Bank more to the right.

Pulling the approach plates for Dorval.

Roger.

NARRATOR: As Flight 420 gets halfway back to Dorval...

Fire! The left engine's on fire.

...an even bigger problem emerges.

Fire in the left engine?

Confirm.

Yes, I see smoke.

The moment that any pilot hears "fire,"

he has to take immediate action.

It's a very serious situation.

It can kill you in as little as five minutes.

Left engine shutdown procedure.

NARRATOR: The pilots attempt to extinguish the fire in the left engine.

He's gotta plan.

"What am I going to do,

and how much time do I have before I have to land this airplane?"

Left power lever?

Confirmed left.

NARRATOR: The captain executes the engine shutdown procedure.

Back to idle.

- Confirm left shut off lever? - Confirmed.

Pulling left engine stop lever.

NARRATOR: Shutting down the engine also cuts off its fuel supply.

The rationale for shutting that engine down is

you don't want the fire spreading.

That's the biggest concern at this point.

This isn't good.

Keep the speed up. Let's get back to Dorval.

Roger.

LAVIGNE: When you're shutting down an engine,

it's a bit of an alarming situation.

It's not a comfortable experience

no matter what you're doing.

Airplanes have two engines for a reason,

and you've cut your redundancy down to one.

My controls.

Your controls.

NARRATOR: Facing fire, control problems, and an engine shutdown,

the captain of Propair 420 assumes control.

The airplane was descending from 8,000 feet for its approach.

You had altitude that you could trade for airspeed.

So with Captain's Provencher experience,

shutting down the engine was not a problem.

Dorval Approach, Propair 420.

Left engine is on fire. We've shut it down.

MAN: Propair 420, I see you are returning to Dorval.

I can give you direct to Mirabel.

Affirmative. Direct to Mirabel.

NARRATOR: While Flight 420 is only 11 minutes from Dorval,

they re-route to Montreal's other airport, Mirabel, which i closer.

Montreal Approach, Propair 420.

Requesting ILS,

Runway 2-4, please.

What is the frequency?

NARRATOR: The long runway at Mirabel will give the crew more room

for a high-speed landing.

MAN OVER RADIO: ILS 2-4, frequency is 111.7,

inbound course is 2-4-0 degrees

Roger 111.7.

Thank you.

NARRATOR: Emergency crews are dispatched to runway 2-4.

Firefighter Michel Brisson remembers the moment the call came in.

BRISSON: We received a crash call from the tower control.

So we take position.

Mirabel airport being an international airport,

they got ready pretty quickly.

The airport is fully equipped to receive the crippled airplane

with their level of experience with the firemen.

Folks,

air traffic control has asked us to re-route to Mirabel.

NARRATOR: Flight 420 is now seven minutes from touchdown.

LAVIGNE: At this point, they know that behind them are nine people

and they're going to do everything n their power

to get that airplane on the ground

as safely and quickly as possible.

WOMAN: I see flames now,

flames from the engine nozzle!

NARRATOR: The situation goes from bad to dire.

The engine shutdown should have contained the fire.

Instead, it's growing.

When the passenger tells the crew that their engine is on fire,

they're puzzled.

Let's get this plane on the ground.

Landing checklist.

- Flaps. - Zero.

- Speed lever. - High RPM.

LAPOINTE: Their main focus is to fly the airplane,

fly the airplane, and fly the airplane.

NARRATOR: Fire crews park alongside the runway at Mirabel airport

for the emergency landing of Flight 420.

Michel Brisson is one of the first on the scene.

BRISSON: We were waiting for the aircraft.

The weather was not too good.

You couldn't see far.

Trim set to max.

NARRATOR: Captain Provencher is struggling to maintain control.

He's flying on one engine,

with no hydraulics

and his plane is on fire.

Now he has to lower the landing gear manually

with no guarantee it will work.

Gear down now.

Gear down.

NARRATOR: The nose and right wheels have dropped.

But one light stays off.

Left gear hasn't dropped.

No time to sort that out.

NARRATOR: Provencher has no choice

but to put the plane down on only two sets of gear.

If I'm in an airplane fighting fire,

an engine that I've shut down, controllability issues,

we're not going around. You're landing that airplane

on that runway whether you land gear up,

uh, or not.

NARRATOR: Flight 420 is one kilometer from the runway.

LAVIGNE: The clock is ticking.

You have to get down and get that airplane on the ground now.

300 feet.

LAPOINTE: The moment he gets to about 280 feet, he sees the threshold.

He sees the fire truck,

and he thinks that he's made it and saved 11 lives.

NARRATOR: Propair 420 is 20 seconds from touchdown.

BRISSON: There was some smoke coming out of the aircraft and my heart

tight a bit there and I said to myself

we got some business here this morning.

Okay. Here we go.

200 feet.

Hold on back there. It's gonna be a rough landing.

Brace!

Rolling left.

Not now!

NARRATOR: They're just five seconds from being able to touc down.

At this point the crew would be fighting for it every breath they have.

NARRATOR: Propair 420 is almost on the ground at Montreal's Mirabel airport

when disaster strikes.

Within a split second, the aircraft started to go 90 degrees.

And that must have been hell.

Captain Provencher probably thought that he was going to die.

BRISSON: I saw the aircraft flip over 180 degrees.

That was it.

I'll never forget the sound that it made when it touched the ground.

(makes whooshing sound)

Let's go!

NARRATOR: The plane crashes into a watery ditch, next to the runway.

My first concern was to go to the fuselage to try to save some lives.

NARRATOR: Sylvain Carriere was the Fire Chief at Mirabel Airport

at the time of the incident.

CARRIERE: As soon as the aircraft crashed

the firefighters were on the move.

They put out the fire with the foam,

and then they got close to the aircraft,

trying to get inside to rescue the victims.

It was very tough on the firefighters.

They had to deal with trying to manage water up to their waist.

They had to break the windows to get vital signs.

The aircraft being upside down

and all the seats were dislodge from their footing,

so it was total chaos.

NARRATOR: Despite the best efforts of rescue crews,

no one makes it out of the plane alive.

BRISSON: We took three people out,

took their pulse and there was nothing.

Everybody was gone.

We're never prepared for that, you know?

I was seven years old when my dad died.

We were really close.

I remember my mom

crying.

She said, "Something terrible happened to your dad and he's not coming back."

I thought I was in a dream.

This is why we do these investigations. It's to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Could you please tell me

what you saw as the plane was coming in?

NARRATOR: Within hours of the accident,

investigators from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada

get to work.

When it broke through the clouds, there was smoke coming off the plane.

Where was the smoke?

It was on the left side.

BRISSON: There was fire coming out of the left wing

near the motor.

And then what?

- It exploded? - Yeah.

And then it flipped upside down.

Not even 25 feet above the ground,

the wing folded, and the airplane went through a roll.

He was just maybe five seconds from landing.

But it was just because of the breakup

they could not do anything to really save the situation.

Have a seat.

NARRATOR: Investigators need to determine what caused the left wing to fail

just 25 feet from the ground.

They start by interviewing the Dorval flight controller.

What was the first sign of trouble?

Twelve minutes into the flight and they reported hydraulic failure.

Dorval approach, this is Propair 420.

We've had dual hydraulic failure. Request clearance to return to Dorval.

Anything else?

Thirty seconds later, they called in a flight control problem.

We're having control issues.

So,

they're headed back to Dorval,

they're having hydraulic and control problems.

Did they report a fire?

Yes. Engine fire.

NARRATOR: Investigators realize that

the crew was battling multiple system failures.

The mystery is how they're all connected.

Dorval Approach, Propair 420.

Left engine is on fire. We've shut it down.

Thank you very much.

NARRATOR: The Metroliner doesn't have a flight data recorder on board.

Investigators must rely on old-fashioned methods.

We laid down the full aircraft with all the related components

to their relative position.

The landing gear, the hydraulic systems the brake systems,

the brake components, flaps components.

I say we start here.

NARRATOR: Since the left wing failed in the middle near the engine,

investigators decide to tear it down for a full inspection.

We looked at the engine

before sending it to the manufacturer for a deeper investigation.

Go a little further in for me, please.

NARRATOR: They're looking for any evidenc of fire.

The exterior has plenty of soot

But inside...

It's clean. I don't see any fire damage.

...it's not what they expected.

TURENNE: We could see the engine had no evidence

of any fire or fuel lines in the area of the engine.

The engine was running properly as far as we could tell.

NARRATOR: Why would the crew report an engine fire

when there wasn't one?

(signal beeping)

PROVENCHER: What?

STRICKER: What is it?

PROVENCHER: It looks like we lost hydraulics.

NARRATOR: Investigators now turn

to the cockpit voice recorder of Propair 420

to determine why firefighters and the pilots

both reported an engine fire.

Stop for a sec...

Do they even mention "fire?"

No, not at all.

NARRATOR: By now, they're 12 minutes into the flight.

(signal beeping)

All right.

STRICKER: I've got the column halfway to the right.

I can't believe it's taking thi much trim to hold it straight.

Okay. Hang on.

Control problems just 30 seconds after a hydraulic failure.

Okay. Dorval is here.

Now they're barely out of the gate

when the hydraulics fail here.

They haven't even begun their turn and the controls start acting up here.

Okay, let's see what happens next.

(bell dinging)

PROVENCHER: Left Wing Overheat Light on.

Overheat?

NARRATOR: A wing overheat warning sounds

when high temperatures are detected by a sensor in the wheel well.

The wing overheat light is indicating to you

that there's smoke, heat and potentially a fire.

What the...

NARRATOR: But the warning mysteriously shuts off 30 seconds later.

STRICKER: Overheat Warning Light off.

Good.

We don't need the checklist.

Before they have a chance to do anything about it,

the light goes out. So, they say,

"Ah, the problem doesn't exist anymore.

We don't have to worry about that."

NARRATOR: Several more minutes pass before anyone mentions fire.

FEMALE PASSENGER: Fire. The left engine's on fire

Is that a passenger?

STRICKER: Fire in the left engine? Confirm.

FEMALE PASSENGER: Yes, I see smoke.

It sounds like it's coming from the cabin.

Now they're here.

They finished their turn back to Dorval.

NARRATOR: The passenger report of an engine fire confuses the crew.

The Engine Overheat Warning is off.

Left engine shut down procedure

NARRATOR: The captain follows the checklist,

but it doesn't solve the problem.

FEMALE PASSENGER: I see flames now,

flames from the engine nozzle.

PROVENCHER: I don't have the fire light!

LAVIGNE: Everything in the airplane is telling you the engine isn't on fire,

but you have a passenger in bac telling you the engine is on fire.

Which road you go down?

It's hard to fault a pilot for going down either road at this point.

NARRATOR: The cockpit voice recording provides investigator

with their biggest lead yet.

The initial "wing overheat warning"

could indicate that something in the wheel-well was overheating.

Maybe the fire started in the wheel well.

Well, it's so close to the engine, the crew could've made that mistake.

LEVASSEUR: We start zeroing on the fact that this is probably where

we should concentrate our efforts.

NARRATOR: Is there something within the wheel well

that has the potential to catch fire?

LEAD INVESTIGATOR: Check out the left landing gear.

NARRATOR: The team discovers that pieces of the left landing gear are burned,

almost beyond recognition.

It's an important clue.

We know there has been an in-flight fire at this point

because we have pieces of metal that tell us that.

We just don't know how it started, what caused it,

and this is going to be the big part of this investigation.

What caused this fire?

NARRATOR: They start by examining the brakes on the lef landing gear.

LEVASSEUR: At this point in the investigation,

we knew that we had to look at the brakes

because we thought that the problem probably began in there,

but we weren't sure. We had to find out.

Is this everything?

A complete examination of the brake system was performed.

Each of the components, calipers, disks,

we looked at every details of the brakes.

Some severe damage here.

NARRATOR: The team finds that several components of the left side brakes

show significant heat damage,

piston housings are melted, cylinders are blackened.

The damage of heat

that were done to the components along the brake calipers and the tires

and then the wheel well was really the smoking gun.

NARRATOR: Investigators can finally confirm

that an in-flight fire aboard Propair 420 began in the left wheel well.

But they still don't know what started it.

This is the left brake disc, correct?

NARRATOR: One component is key.

The thing got pretty hot somehow.

NARRATOR: The greyish-blue color stands out.

These brake discs would have to get to a temperature

of 1,100 degrees Fahrenheit or 600 degrees Celsius

for five or six minutes in order to get to that color.

NARRATOR: Could overheated brakes have started the fire

that brought down Propair 420?

The landing gear would need a fuel source to ignite,

but the wheel well is nowhere near the heavily re-enforced tanks.

Something in here must have caused the brakes to catch fire.

NARRATOR: Investigators focus on the tubing inside the left wheel well

called the nacelle.

The hydraulic line's there.

TURENNE: In the design of the left wheel well nacelle,

you have the hydraulic lines that run through there

to operate the landing gear, also for the flaps.

Dorval Approach, this is Propair 420.

We've had dual hydraulic failure.

Request clearance to return to Dorval.

NARRATOR: The melted lines would cause the hydraulics to fail,

the first problem reported by the crew.

So the heat from the brakes melts the line.

Hydraulic fluid pours out everywhere.

There's your fire right there.

NARRATOR: It's a good theory, but they need evidence to back it up.

Investigators design a test

to determine if hydraulic fluid could ignite

when exposed to overheated brakes.

Is this the same make of brake disc that was used on the Metroliner?

NARRATOR: They heat the disc to 1,100 degrees Fahrenheit,

the temperature that would have been needed

to give the left brake discs their greyish-blue color.

TURENNE: We sprayed a small quantity of hydraulic fluid,

at a rate of two tablespoons per minute.

Whoa.

NARRATOR: Investigators are able to prove

that the left brake disc onboard Propair 420

did get hot enough to ignite the hydraulic fluid.

And it started the ignition of a flame eight inches high.

NARRATOR: But they still don't know why the brake discs overheated.

Could there have been a malfunction with the brakes?

Let's have a look.

NARRATOR: Investigators look through old Metroliner incident reports.

I've got something for you.

LEVASSEUR: In the United States about ten years before,

a Metroliner exactly had the same problem.

1988, Peninsula Airways.

Loss of hydraulic pressure, left wing overheat,

left wheel well fire damage.

And that one in Winnipeg, 1990,

Perimeter Airlines. The exact same thing.

NARRATOR: In both those cases,

the crews were able to land the plane safely.

The history of the Metroliner revealed to us, you know,

that the brake system had issues.

We combined something like 68 events, you know,

that were involving the brake systems.

Why does this keep happening?

NARRATOR: The incident reports reveal

a similar culprit in many of these incidents,

brake dragging.

For the brake to have gotten that hot,

it had to have been dragging.

NARRATOR: "Brake drag" is what happens

when the calipers don't fully retract from the disc

as the brakes are released.

The brake disc overheated

because there was probably still some pressure on them

and so, the wheels were not turning freely.

This dragging of the brakes got the temperature higher and higher.

NARRATOR: Investigators conclude the dragging must have occurred

while taxiing at Dorval Airport

- Nosewheel steering? - Armed.

Naturally, there will be a lot of heat developed on that brake system

if it's dragging as the airplane accelerates.

But for that kind of heat to develop,

the left brake had to be dragging for some period of taxi time.

NARRATOR: To find out how long the left brake might have been dragging,

the team talks to the controlle

overseeing the flight's departure from Dorval Airport.

They taxied from the hangar there

to the runway here.

Did the crew report anything unusual on the taxi?

Uh-uh.

NARRATOR: This isn't surprising

if the brakes were only draggin on one side.

LEVASSEUR: The way you taxi in a Metroliner,

you have a nosewheel steering.

With just one dragging brake, you can turn the nosewheel steering gear

and you won't be able to notice that the brake is dragging.

So this is possibly what happened.

Propair 420. We're holding in position Runway 2-4-Left

ready for take-off.

What about the takeoff?

It took them a long time to get airborne.

Really?

Where did they lift off?

That's more than halfway down the runway.

NARRATOR: The plane lifted off between the A1 and A2 taxiways,

which are between 4,100 and 5,500 feet from the runway threshold.

So takeoff distance to rotation should be...?

1,800 feet.

And this plane took more than 4,000.

The problem with the brakes began probably as the airplane departed the hangar.

It must have been the brake drag.

(sighs)

They used 1,400 feet to go to the threshold of 24 Left.

So for about 5,200 feet,

the brakes were dragging and creating a lot of overheating

on the disc of the brakes.

NARRATOR: The findings back up their suspicions.

The brakes must have been dragging,

which explains why it took the plane so long to reach take-off speed.

(engine whirring)

V1.

Rotate.

(engine revving)

And they went up in the wheel well very, very hot.

NARRATOR: Twelve minutes in the air is plenty of time

for the overheated brakes to raise the temperature in the wheel well.

LEVASSEUR: When the landing gear comes up, the doors close,

and then if you have any heat in there,

that heat has nowhere to dissipate.

So the temperature inside goes up very, very quickly.

NARRATOR: But what could have caused the brake drag in the first place?

What about the parking brake?

Just like in your car,

if you drove away with the parking brake on

and you keep driving, it's still gonna create friction,

which there entailed creates heat.

Parking brake off.

Roger.

NARRATOR: Investigators wonder if there was an issue

when the captain released the parking brake.

(engine whirring)

If the parking brake had been on, you would have had both rotors overheat.

Only one wheel overheated.

So somehow whenever the parking brake was released,

one of them let go, the right side. The other one didn't.

Otherwise, you would have had two fires.

NARRATOR: They search the manufacturer's documentatio

for evidence of faulty parking brakes.

Now here's something.

- NARRATOR: A five - year-old newsletter

advises pilots to verify the parking brake is fully released.

Some residual pressure can remain even with the knob in the off position.

I'm sad as a pilot to see

that this information was through newsletters

and not into the aircraft flight manual.

It was very deceiving to see this.

NARRATOR: Were the pilots unaware of a faulty parking brake?

Without a flight data recorder, and with the pilots deceased,

they'll never know for sure.

But it's a solid theory.

All right,

so the brake drag caused

the wheel well fire, right?

NARRATOR: The team has finally determined how the fire started

But there's one question remaining.

Could the crew have done anything to prevent

any of this from happening?

(signal beeping)

PROVENCHER: When you take the controls,

make sure to make smooth inputs on the nosewheel steering.

Passengers can feel it. We want to give them a nice ride.

NARRATOR: Investigators return to earlier in the cockpit voice recording

to see if the crew of Propair 420 realized their brakes were dragging.

That's the captain's voice,

- so he's steering. - Right.

The First Officer takes over on the take-off roll.

I have control.

Your controls.

NARRATOR: The first hint of trouble starts soon after.

PROVENCHER: More right rudder, more right rudder.

So the captain's correcting the first officer.

The plane must be drifting left of center on the runway.

Probably because the left brake is dragging.

(engine revving)

PROVENCHER: It's going left. More right rudder.

The captain starts telling the co-pilot "more rudder, more rudder."

That's when the problem of a brake dragging

should have been evident.

- But because he's checking the c - pilot, he's not on the control himself.

Had he been on the controls himself, with his experience, he would have known.

NARRATOR: The captain makes no mention of the plane taking longer than usual

to lift off.

LAVIGNE: He's doing a line check, he's busy,

he's gotta make sure that the first officer

is doing the job that he's supposed to do.

It's an honest mistake.

NARRATOR: Investigators finally understand what caused the crash

of Propair Flight 420.

A dragging left brake gets hot enough to melt the hydraulic lines

when the wheel is retracted after take-off.

(engine whirring)

Dorval Approach, this is Propair 420.

We've had dual hydraulic failure.

Request clearance to return to Dorval.

LAVIGNE: They're thinking that it's just a hydraulic failure.

We'll request back to the airport and we'll land there safely.

NARRATOR: Dripping hydraulic fluid ignites.

Left Wing Overheat Light on.

They have no idea that they've got a brake fire

that is starting to rage in the left nacelle.

(signal beeping)

STRICKER: Overheat warning light off.

Good.

We don't need the checklist.

What likely happened at that point is that the circuit probably was burnt

through by the fire that is developing in that nacelle.

NARRATOR: The intense heat begins to weaken the structure of the left wing,

causing it to lose lift.

What's going on? It wants to roll left.

Like any kind of metal, as it super heats, it's gonna distort and change its shape.

So they're dealing with an aerodynamics of the wing.

You're never gonna know if it moves two degrees,

but you're gonna feel it on your control column.

FEMALE PASSENGER: Fire. The left engine's on fire

The Engine Overheat Warning is off.

I don't have the fire light!

There's definitely fire.

PROVENCHER: Pulling left engine stop lever.

Well, they did the right thing. They had to shut it down.

Yeah.

They were really up against it.

And

all that happened in just five minutes.

When we train on board simulators,

we rarely give more than two problems to a pilot

because it's very unusual that you will have compounding problems

like Propair 420 had.

Despite the high level of experience of Captain Provencher,

he probably never trained for all these emergencies at one time.

NARRATOR: Despite everything...

Gear down now!

...they almost made it.

(signal beeps)

The left gear hasn't dropped.

...as the situation continued to deteriorate.

From an investigator's standpoint, he did a perfect job.

(engine revving)

He was coming right at the center

and he was coming at a good rate of descent.

NARRATOR: One final problem is insurmountable.

The captain doesn't know it, but...

Not now!

...the fire has weakened the wing's structure.

(passengers screaming)

If that wing hadn't failed upwards,

they were within a few seconds of everybody

being on the ground safe and going home.

(man screams)

At this point, if you're a pilot,

you're along for the ride in that airplane.

(crashes)

They did everything right.

They didn't have a chance.

I met with the widow of the captain.

I did mention to her the reason why that airplane crashed

was beyond the crew's control,

is that they did not have enough information

to be able to determine what the real problem was.

And I told her that.

You meet people like that,

and you never forget.

NARRATOR: In its final report, the Transportation Safety Board noted

that, unlike many other planes,

the Metroliner did not have a brake overheat warning in the cockpit,

and the Aircraft Flight Manual did not clearly warn pilots

that brake dragging could lead to wheel well fires.

The first recommendation that the Board issued

was to make sure that the crew was aware

that if an overheat light came on on that nacelle,

you probably had a good chance of having a fire starting

or developing in that nacelle.

Checklists were changed,

and we were able to make it a lot safer for people going forward.

GINGER: Even though my dad has been gone for 22 years,

he's still helping a lot of people.

It makes me really proud of my father.

I'm gonna be able to tell my children

he did everything he could for the passengers.

Captioned by National Captioning Institute