Original subtitles

(airplane droning)

(airplane clattering)

NARRATOR: An emergency above the French Alps strikes Trans-Air Cargo Flight 671.

There was an enormous bang, and the aircraft almost inverted.

Mayday, mayday, mayday.

NARRATOR: The crew needs to land but are flying blind.

Kabo 671, we have no radar contact.

GRIMSTEAD: They stood a very real chance of hitting a mountain.

NARRATOR: Then they discover something even more horrifying.

EMERY: I saw nothing in the number four engine position. The wing was clean.

NARRATOR: Assuming the worst, the first officer leaves a clue for investigators.

(camera shutter)

EMERY: I took the photograph because I wasn't sure what would happen next.

If somebody might find the camera, they'd see the truth.

(lightning crashing)

PILOT: Mayday, mayday.

(aircraft engines)

(suspenseful music)

GPWS: Pull up.

(indistinct radio transmissions)

NARRATOR: Trans-Air Flight 671

is preparing for take-off at Luxembourg Airport.

Forecast says we'll get some weather in an hour.

As we cross over the Alps. Typical.

NARRATOR: Captain Ingemar Berglund is a highly experienced Swedish pilot,

who has been flying Boeing 707 aircraft for over a decade.

EMERY: The captain had been a military pilot,

and then he'd been on air transport flying for most of his working life.

His experience was pretty vast in Africa, and in Europe.

He knew the routes, and he was a very good pilot.

CONTROLLER (on radio): Kabo 671, you are cleared for takeoff, runway two-four.

671 cleared for takeoff, roger.

NARRATOR: First officer Martin Emery is an accomplished British pilot,

who has worked as an instructor and an air traffic controller.

Ready to go.

GRIMSTEAD: The first officer had about 10,000 hours,

about half of which was on the Boeing 707. So he was very experienced too.

V1. 170. Rotate.

NARRATOR: The Boeing 707 is a long-range aircraft

powered by four Pratt & Whitney engines.

It was a very basic airplane, very strong, very reliable,

and could carry 40 or 50 tons of freight.

NARRATOR: Assisting the pilots, is Flight Engineer Terry Boone.

GRIMSTEAD: The Boeing 707 didn't have much in the way of automated systems,

but this meant that there was a whole panel sideways in the flight deck

in which the flight engineer had to operate every system manually.

HIRST: He was probably one of the most experienced

Boeing 707 flight engineers in the world.

NARRATOR: Today's flight is a seven-hour journey from Luxembourg to Kano, Nigeria.

Feels a little heavy today.

Well, did you see what's loaded back there? It's all oil well equipment.

- Yeah, and not the light kind. - (laughs)

NARRATOR: Flight 671 is operated

by the newly formed Nigerian company, Trans-Air Limited.

Their client, Kabo Air Cargo.

HIRST: Trans-Air had only been formed a few weeks before this incident.

It was purely for the oil industry to transport a lot of equipment

down to Nigeria for the oil works.

This was an extra special flight in that it was carrying equipment

that would have helped Nigeria in their modernizing.

NARRATOR: Kabo 671 levels off at 29,000 feet.

EMERY: The flight plan indicated with the weight of the aircraft,

we should stay at a slightly lower than normal flight level

for the first part of the flight, until we burned off fuel,

and then we could gain a higher flight level.

- How are the guys in the back? - Good, they made us coffee.

NARRATOR: Also on board are a cargo supervisor and a maintenance engineer.

Like them more every day.

GRIMSTEAD: So the five of them were knowledgeable about the 707.

They were knowledgeable about this sort of ad hoc air cargo work.

Although they haven't met until a fortnight previously,

I think they worked well together as a team.

NARRATOR: Over the Alps, the weather deteriorates.

GRIMSTEAD: Pretty much ground level up to about 33,000 feet

was in cloud and the cloud was rough and turbulent.

(airplane thuds)

- Gonna buckle up until we're above it. - Good idea.

We'd engaged our five-point seat harness, rather than

just the four-point harnesses that we normally keep on till top of climb,

and then moved our seats forward

to be really guarding the controls in this turbulent air. It was getting quite rough.

Ask if we can go to three-three.

Kabo 671, request flight level three-three-zero.

671, roger. Climb to flight level three-three-zero.

Climb three-three-zero, 671.

(airplane engine whirring)

The requested climb was to go up another 4,000.

(airplane rattling)

NARRATOR: One hour into the flight, just as the plane reaches 33,000 feet.

(airplane clattering)

(ominous music)

(equipment beeping)

EMERY: There was an enormous bang,

followed almost immediately by another one,

and the aircraft absolutely rolled to the right.

(airplane roaring)

(suspenseful music)

NARRATOR: The captain uses all his strength to level the plane.

EMERY: Had the captain not reacted as quickly as he did,

the aircraft could have rolled over, in fact inverted.

- (alarm ringing) - Engine fire!

(alarm ringing)

NARRATOR: Engines three and four show signs of fire.

While the flight engineer deals with the engine alarms,

the first officer checks on the engines.

EMERY: I saw nothing in the number four engine position.

Number four engine has left the wing.

(equipment beeping) (ominous music)

Mayday, mayday, mayday, Kabo 671.

NARRATOR: With reduced engine power and an unbalanced configuration,

the flight drops out of the sky in an uncontrolled descent.

The descent rate was horrific. I think I saw eight or 9,000 feet per minute.

NARRATOR: It's diving quickly towards the French Alps through heavy cloud.

GRIMSTEAD: They need to get out of the mountains,

and they can't see outside because of the thick cloud.

They need the air traffic controller to give them a direction in which to head

for a safe haven, for a safe airport.

Mayday, mayday, mayday, request to set for radar landing.

EMERY: The ground service can follow your track over the ground,

your heading, your height, and speed from a transponder

and they can point you to the nearest available runway.

NARRATOR: But air traffic control has bad news.

(suspenseful music)

Kabo 671, we have no radar contact. Say your position please, sir.

NARRATOR: They can no longer see Flight 671 on the radar.

With nobody able to give them a direction to steer,

they stood a very real chance of hitting a mountain.

NARRATOR: The planes radar transponder has failed.

EMERY: I was considering which direction we could go to avoid the mountains.

It was very scary.

NARRATOR: The situation is dire enough

that the first officer records the damage to the wing.

(ominous music)

EMERY: I wasn't sure what would happen next.

I believe that if anything ended, like the flight, before we were ready,

somebody might find the camera, and then they'd see the truth.

NARRATOR: Flight 671 is in an uncontrolled descent over the French Alps.

With thick cloud and no transponder for the controller to guide them,

the crew is flying blind.

Mayday, mayday, mayday.

(on radio) Request descent for radar landing.

NARRATOR: The flight engineer attempts to get the transponder working again.

He suspects there is a power issue.

HIRST: The reason the air traffic control lost the radar initially was probably

because the electrics powering the radar failed when engine number four fell off.

NARRATOR: The flight engineer redirects the power to engine one.

GRIMSTEAD: He selected the essential power selector for engine number one,

which had an operative electrical generator.

NARRATOR: It works.

EMERY (on radio): Request descent, radar landing.

Roger, turn left heading south to Marseille.

NARRATOR: The controller directs Flight 671 to Marseille Airport, 75 miles away.

- You turn left one-eight-zero. - Okay.

GRIMSTEAD: There was immense relief as they descended out of the cloud

and finally could see the mountains around them.

NARRATOR: But relief is short-lived after the first officer

gives the right wing a further inspection.

We've lost both engines on the right wing.

BERGLUND: What?

EMERY: With a five-point harness, you are slightly restricted,

but I did manage to look right over my right shoulder,

and both the engines were off the wing.

The wing was clean, which was a really big shock.

- We've lost both engines. - Both engines?

GRIMSTEAD: Just about the worst thing that can happen in an airliner

is to have an engine depart from the aircraft.

The only thing worse than that would be

to have two engines depart from your aircraft.

NARRATOR: With only the two left engines functioning,

control of the plane is compromised.

GRIMSTEAD: When you've lost both engines from the right wing,

and still have a lot of thrust from the engines on the left wing,

it upsets that balance and causes the airplane to turn

and to roll very powerfully to the right.

Getting the airplane to turn left is a huge ask under these circumstances.

(grunts)

- Can you turn one-eight-zero? - Yeah. I'm trying!

(Berglund grunting)

NARRATOR: Flying the disabled plane is testing the captain's strength.

The Boeing 707 has all manual flying controls.

It's very heavy to fly when everything's working well.

When you've lost two engines on one side,

it's virtually at the limit of physical capability for the captain.

- Do we wanna dump fuel? - Yes, dump fuel.

NARRATOR: To keep Flight 671 in the air, the crew decides to reduce its load.

EMERY: This aircraft was carrying a very heavy fuel load,

and it was imperative to reduce that fuel load.

NARRATOR: But it requires a precise calculation.

They need to leave themselves enough fuel to reach Marseille and land safely.

GRIMSTEAD: 112 tons is the maximum safe weight at which they can land.

If they're any heavier than that and hit the ground hard,

they would be sliding along the runway on their belly, shedding fuel and burning.

This is not a position you want to be in.

NARRATOR: The process is time-consuming.

(tense music)

As Flight 671 completes its left turn towards Marseille,

Captain Berglund reduces power in the two left engines.

GRIMSTEAD: They had to reduce the power on the left engines

to give themselves a chance of staying upright

and going in the direction they wanted to go in.

NARRATOR: Reducing air speed means an increase in the angle of descent.

GRIMSTEAD: Unfortunately, this of course meant they then descended more rapidly.

They have to land soon, and they have to land somewhere very nearby.

NARRATOR: Air speed isn't the crew's only concern.

- Request the weather. - Give me the weather for Marseille, 671.

EMERY: I really needed the weather at Marseille

to make a plan for an approach to land

either direct or a circuit or whatever we could do.

NARRATOR: But air traffic control isn't responding.

Request weather.

Mayday, mayday, mayday, 671, request weather.

(tense music)

EMERY: It was quite a tough call to actually get the instant weather

at that moment at Marseille Airport that we needed right now.

NARRATOR: Making matters worse, the fuel dump is not going as expected.

Fuel tank number one isn't discharging.

GRIMSTEAD: It became evident to the flight engineer

that the number one fuel tank wasn't emptying.

This would cause a lateral imbalance across the airplane,

which is not a good thing.

I've got limited maneuvering.

- You're dumping? - Yeah.

NARRATOR: The flight engineer discovers that a circuit breaker has popped.

GRIMSTEAD: By pushing the circuit breaker back in,

he was able to reactivate the number one fuel pump

and get the fuel jettisoning from all four tanks simultaneously.

NARRATOR: Flight 671 is 30 miles from the runway in Marseille.

Mayday, mayday, mayday.

- 671, request weather. - (speaking in French)

(in English) It's raining on the airfield. (sighs) Two octas stratocumulus 500 feet,

(on radio) three octas cumulonimbus 1,600 feet, three octas cumulus 2,000 feet.

No, no, no.

NARRATOR: Thunder clouds and the risk of turbulence

will make a difficult landing harder.

EMERY: We were pushed to even get there with the height available,

and with thunderstorm activity it was really a no go.

Kabo 671, what is our distance to the runway?

CONTROLLER (on radio): 22 miles for landing, sir.

EMERY: We had no Plan B at that point. That was a nasty moment.

What we wanted was a runway, and we wanted it quickly.

(tense music)

- Hey, do you see the airfield? - I don't see it.

NARRATOR: Flight 671 is in a rapid descent with limited maneuverability,

less than 9,000 feet above Southern France when the crew finally gets a break.

EMERY: I looked through just cloud underneath us and

I glimpsed some ribboned black tarmac. It was a runway.

Kabo 671, we have an airfield ahead. What is that airfield?

CONTROLLER: It's a military airfield at your 12 o'clock for 6 miles.

- Can we land there? - No, it's too short, too short.

How long is the runway on this military airfield?

- CONTROLLER (on radio): 13,000 feet. - Oh, yeah. Okay.

GRIMSTEAD: The runway at Istres is long. It is France's flight test center,

and it was also a space shuttle alternate learning ground.

It's probably the biggest airport in Europe.

Military airfield, mayday, traffic 671.

NARRATOR: The first officer makes contact

with air traffic control at Istres Airport.

671, this is Istres.

You are cleared for arrival, runway three-three.

We're just overhead. What's the wind?

Uh, wind is 330, 10 knots gusting one to four knots.

We'll make a left hand pattern from the west.

Yeah.

EMERY: The French military air traffic controller was one of my gang.

I thought he was great.

- We turn left to land. - Yes.

NARRATOR: As they start their turn,

the crew lowers the planes flaps in preparation for landing.

(buzzer)

The wheels were down and locked and the flaps were coming down

so Captain Berglund could have more roll control.

NARRATOR: But when the flaps are extended disaster strikes.

(airplane clatters)

(Emery grunts)

EMERY: There was another big explosion, which tried to roll us right again.

(Berglund grunts)

Turn left. Turn left to land.

- Turn left. - I'm trying!

- Turn left to land, left turn. - Yeah.

(tense music)

We missed the runway.

NARRATOR: They're unable to line up for landing.

CONTROLLER: 671, we have fire onboard. I confirm, fire onboard.

I could hear the fire, but I didn't say anything.

We need another runway.

CONTROLLER: Take runway one-five. Wind is 320, 10 knots, cleared direct.

NARRATOR: After failing to make a hard left for a landing on runway three-three,

the crew attempt to circle back and land on the runway's opposite end,

known as one-five.

The captain doesn't have the strength to make the turn on his own,

but the first officer has an idea.

EMERY: I said, "I'll take the power,"

and Captain Berglund said to me, "Be careful." I said, "I will, I promise."

NARRATOR: The first officer adjusts the throttles

to help steer the plane to the runway.

And bringing back number one and advancing number two,

actually turned the airplane left, so he could fly it going towards the runway,

which was a miracle. It truly was.

NARRATOR: It's a race against time to get the plane on the ground

before the wing is incinerated.

(airplane whirring)

Good descent. You are on axis.

NARRATOR: Flight 671 is flying 50 knots faster than normal landing speed.

(suspenseful music)

(tires screeching)

EMERY: The captain did a perfect landing, kept it just left of the center line

and we were safely on the ground at a great speed,

but we were on the ground.

NARRATOR: If they don't break soon, they will overshoot the runway.

Without hydraulics, they have only the plane's emergency brake to reduce speed.

GRIMSTEAD: There was no anti-skid protection.

That would have meant that the tires would start scuffing and bursting,

which would then reduce their ability to slow down.

Stopping was the only thing that mattered.

Do you want both thrust reversers?

The flight engineer wanted to use reverse thrust on the two left engines,

because that was the only way he could see of slowing down.

No, cut the engines.

The first officer didn't want him to do that

because that would pull the airplane off to the left of the runway.

I'll just reverse engine two.

As a compromise, they use reverse thrust

on the inboard left engine, the number two engine,

which did help reduce their galloping speed,

but pulled the airplane off the runway to the left.

(airplane roaring)

The aircraft did come to a halt in the mud.

(sirens wailing)

We're on fire. Evacuate. Evacuate.

EMERY: I realized that we're on fire.

And it was burning and belching smoke and flame.

We needed to get down, get out and get away.

(sirens and water rushing)

NARRATOR: With two missing engines, a wing on fire and no brakes,

Flight 671 has landed in Istres, France, with its cargo and crew safe.

To actually have two of the four engines fall off the wing,

virtually unheard of in the history of aviation.

NARRATOR: The heroic escape from death makes headlines around the world.

As French investigators arrive, they're faced with an important question.

What caused two engines to fall off a plane?

GRIMSTEAD: Losing two engines is a huge thing.

So the investigators had quite a big task to establish what had happened

and more importantly, why - and how to prevent it happening again.

NARRATOR: The damaged 707 is moved to a hangar to be examined by the BEA,

France's air investigation authority.

The level of damage on this aircraft

was very close to looking like a total structural failure.

(camera clicking)

I've got something.

NARRATOR: Investigators make an early discovery

about the fire on board the plane.

These wires from the cable loom short-circuited.

That, plus a fuel leak from near the engine three area caused the fire.

Good work.

PARKINSON: When the engines came away from the wing,

they tore with them electrical wiring.

Some of that wiring still had power available.

NARRATOR: When the flaps were extended,

leaking fuel made contact with live wires and ignited.

Let's get this cleaned up.

Get a better look at what tore the engine loose from the wing.

NARRATOR: Investigators are counting on the plane's flight data recorder

to provide more information.

Okay, let's see what it can tell us.

It looks like engines three and four were producing thrust right up until here,

9:10:50 am, one hour into the flight.

NARRATOR: The FDR data reveals that both engines

stopped working almost concurrently.

EPPERSON: The flight data recorder basically showed the engines

operating as normal when they left the aircraft.

(airplane clattering)

(alarm blaring)

NARRATOR: To understand why two perfectly functioning engines

detached from the 707's wings,

investigators need to find the missing engines.

Here's the flight path.

INVESTIGATOR 1: This is where they probably fell off.

I'll send a search and recovery team out there.

NARRATOR: 24 hours into the investigation,

the engines of Flight 671 are located on a mountain side, near Sederon, France,

55 miles northeast of where the plane landed.

Investigators found the engines about 800 meters apart.

That's very close.

NARRATOR: Their locations also suggest the engines

detached at almost the same time.

While the team waits for the engines to be recovered,

they turn to the crew for further insight.

We were climbing to 33,000 feet to avoid some pretty bad turbulence.

Suddenly there were loud sounds.

(airplane clattering)

(alarm blaring)

I saw engine four was missing.

You reported the engines missing at two different times.

Is it possible you were mistaken?

It's possible. The harness I was wearing kept me

from getting a good look out the window at first.

You said you were climbing to avoid turbulence. How bad was it?

It was severe. I wouldn't want to go through that again.

They'd flown through extremely heavy turbulence

of a level not normally encountered.

(suspenseful music)

So there were two cumulonimbus clouds here and here,

and they went up past 33,000 feet.

NARRATOR: Investigators examine the weather conditions

at the time of the incident.

Looks like there was also a 90-knot jet stream over here.

(suspenseful music continues)

NARRATOR: They discover that Flight 671

flew through two weather conditions when they reached 33,000 feet.

Those two conditions would have generated severe turbulence.

INVESTIGATOR 2: But you'd think it could withstand the turbulence.

NARRATOR: Did two colliding weather conditions tear the engines off the 707?

INVESTIGATOR 1: Well, let's see what the engines can tell us.

Hey, boss.

NARRATOR: Close examination of the engines gives investigators an important new clue.

You see this dent on engine four?

Its shape and diameter match a dent on engine three.

So does this white paint.

EPPERSON: You could tell from the shape of the damage

and from transfer of white paint from one engine to the other engine,

that the number three had struck the number four engine and separated it.

NARRATOR: Investigators now need to find out what caused engine three to detach.

(alarm blaring)

It looks like a clean break of all four fittings.

NARRATOR: Each engine is attached to a pylon.

The pylon is then bolted to the wing using four large fittings.

During Flight 671, all four fittings broke on engine three.

INVESTIGATOR 3: Now, three of the four fittings broke like this one.

You can see from the surface they broke from stress.

This midspar fitting is different. There's some distortion here.

It likely broke from a fatigue fracture.

EPPERSON: You could see some characteristics, surface-wise,

coloration-wise, that were consistent with a fatigue cracking.

NARRATOR: Over time, the inboard midspar fitting on engine three was weakened

because of a crack caused by metal fatigue.

When it snapped off in severe turbulence, the other fittings broke too.

As a metallurgist, I wanted to take a closer look at these things.

(suspenseful music)

Okay, let's see what we got.

NARRATOR: To establish a detailed history of Flight 671's broken midspar fitting,

investigators use an electron microscope to examine it.

I can see multiple arrest lines.

With each takeoff and landing, the crack grows a little bit.

It leaves a mark, and each little stress cycle makes the crack a little bigger.

These are likely from the flights the plane flew

since Trans-Air put it back in service a few weeks ago.

What about before that?

NARRATOR: As the team continues examining the cracked midspar fitting,

they make an unusual finding.

PARKINSON: It looks like corrosion.

The plane had to have been exposed to moisture over a long period of time.

All right.

Well, it looks like the previous owner had the plane in storage

for 13 months prior to the incident.

Where was it stored?

In a field in England.

PARKINSON: Steel will corrode if it's in a salty atmosphere,

or a very moist atmosphere.

This particular aircraft was stored at airfields which weren't far from the sea.

That explains the corrosion.

(musing music)

What about those, those little marks?

NARRATOR: Near the bottom of the fitting, they discover several tell-tale marks.

Those are corrosion pit marks.

GRIMSTEAD: Corrosion pits are tiny holes that appear in metal

after water has gained access to that metal and caused corrosion to take place.

And the pit can be the start of a long crack.

EPPERSON: And in this case, there were corrosion pits that grew into one crack

and eventually fractured the midspar fitting.

So when did these pit marks start to develop?

Well, it's hard to pinpoint exactly.

Given their distance from the arrest lines,

it suggests that the pitting started even before the plane went into storage.

EPPERSON: The crack doesn't occur in storage, the oxidation does.

So that tells us the cracking occurred before storage,

probably years before storage.

These fittings were a time bomb waiting to blow.

So how did the maintenance team miss it?

This just arrived from Trans-Air. Maintenance records.

Oh, let's have a look.

NARRATOR: Investigators want to know

if poor maintenance on Flight 671 contributed to the crash.

PARKINSON: You start to look at the age of the parts that failed

and what was the maintenance requirements for those parts,

and did they play a role in the accident?

NARRATOR: In the 1990s, Nigerian airlines, like Trans-Air,

gained a reputation for poor maintenance.

HIRST: For a while, Nigerian Airways were, in fact,

banned from United Kingdom airspace.

According to this, Trans-Air didn't do a midspar maintenance check.

Trans-Air had only owned that airplane for a very small amount of time,

so it's unlikely that they've performed any maintenance on it.

So maybe Trans-Air inherited the problem before it was owned by them.

It looks like the previous owner did two maintenance checks.

One on October 10th, 1991 when the plane was in storage,

and the other in May 1990, before it went into storage.

NARRATOR: The team learns that the plane passed two maintenance checks

in a two-year period prior to the incident.

If the metal fatigue started before the storage,

maintenance checks should have caught the problem.

HIRST: There were certain cracks that should have been picked up, which weren't.

NARRATOR: Then, one month into the investigation,

another 707 loses an engine.

The incident is similar to what happened to Flight 671.

During takeoff from Miami International Airport,

the number three engine is torn off the wing and then hits engine four.

PARKINSON: With the Miami accident, the pilots managed to land the aircraft safely

with no one being hurt.

NARRATOR: The NTSB investigates and discovers that a broken midspar fitting

also caused the engine to fall off the wing.

This was, perhaps, history repeating itself.

(fax machine clicking)

- Is that from the NTSB? - INVESTIGATOR 2: Yep.

NARRATOR: French investigators review the NTSB's preliminary report,

curious about the Miami plane's maintenance history.

The maintenance on the 707 in Miami was performed 328 flights before the accident.

Which is well within the 600 flight recommendation by the FAA.

NARRATOR: They discover that the plane had also passed maintenance checks

and reported no fatigue, cracking, or corrosion.

In both the Miami accident and the French accident,

the midspar fitting had failed with a very similar way

and had also been maintained as specified by the FAA and Boeing Aircraft Company.

Perhaps they weren't maintaining properly.

EPPERSON: At the time, the midspar fittings were required to be inspected

in a close visual examination.

Basically, you gain access to the fitting,

you wipe it off the best you can, and what you can see is what you examine.

NARRATOR: Was there a problem with the inspection process?

Investigators interview a maintenance supervisor

about how engine fittings are approved for flight.

INVESTIGATOR 1: So how do you inspect the fitting?

SUPERVISOR: You're supposed to carry out a close visual inspection

for cracks on the exposed surfaces of the fitting.

And?

SUPERVISOR (scoffs): Well, cracks can start on the inside of the fitting.

So why is that a problem?

Well, it's a problem 'cause you can't see the inside

unless you removed the engine and the pylon from the wing.

NARRATOR: It's a troubling discovery.

The midspar fitting is normally inspected by removing a panel on the pylon,

but the entire fitting cannot be seen from the access panel.

The engine and pylon need to be removed

to check for cracks on the inside of the fitting.

EPPERSON: Boeing did not require disassembly of the midspar fitting.

Their risk assessment basically said it's not worth it on this old airframe.

So there could be 707s out there

with cracks in this fitting that no one could see.

Yeah.

EPPERSON: As an investigator, you always have to wonder

how many more engines are going to fall off of 707s.

Listen to this.

NARRATOR: Investigators of Flight 671 do a deep dive into the history

of the Boeing 707s midspar fitting.

There've been reports of more than 35 cracked midspar fittings on the 707.

These planes are at the end of their life cycle.

707 in Miami had flown over 50,000 hours.

The Trans-Air 707 had flown more than 60,000 hours.

GRIMSTEAD: This was an old fitting on an old airplane

that had been designed a very long time ago

when they didn't know how these materials would age.

The consequence of this, and perhaps, not the best maintenance or inspection,

meant that eventually this fitting just gave up.

NARRATOR: By 1992, most 707s were considered too old to fly passengers

and were converted to freight transport.

We need to make sure this doesn't happen again.

NARRATOR: Investigators conclude

that a hidden fracture in the midspar fitting

almost took the lives of the five men on Trans-Air Flight 671.

(tense music)

The fate of the plane is sealed when a maintenance inspection

fails to catch the fatigue crack.

Ask if we can go to three-three.

NARRATOR: The 707 is pushed to its breaking point

when two weather events collide.

EPPERSON: The in-flight turbulence was the last little bit

that was necessary to cause fracture.

Basically it was the last straw that held this pylon together.

NARRATOR: The weakened midspar fitting finally breaks and both engines are lost.

(equipment beeping)

If not for the heroics of the crew, the plane would have crashed.

The 707 is not an easy airplane to fly when everything's going well.

It's a very difficult airplane to fly when things are going wrong.

I've got limited maneuvering.

- You're dumping? - Yeah.

NARRATOR: Captain Berglund's skill and stamina prove remarkable,

as he physically keeps the plane stable until landing.

From the beginning of the incident

to when they finally landed on the runway - 24 minutes.

A 24 minutes that most pilots wouldn't have had all those things happen

to them in an entire career. He was just one fantastic pilot.

(tense music)

Kabo 671, we have no radar contact. Say your position please, sir.

NARRATOR: Throughout the harrowing flight,

Flight Engineer Boone troubleshoots and fixes key systems.

HIRST: The flight engineer looked at his panel

and came up with the solution as to why the radar wasn't working.

- You turn left one-eight-zero. - Okay.

(airplane engine whirring)

Hey, do you see the airfield?

NARRATOR: And First Officer Emery's quick thinking and intuition proved vital.

Kabo 671, we have an airfield ahead. What is that airfield?

It was an absolute genius decision to land at a military base with a long runway.

(suspenseful music)

It shows an awful lot about the spirit of pilots

and survival that they somehow coalesced together.

They all use their own individual skills.

(tense music)

(keyboard keys clicking)

NARRATOR: The BEA recommends

that inspections of the current midspar fittings

be modified to enable the detection of hidden cracks,

or be replaced by reinforced fittings.

EPPERSON: The FAA decided to mandate replacement

of the midspar fittings with a new and improved midspar fitting,

which did not require inspections that were ineffective in the first place.

NARRATOR: In 1992, the crew of Trans-Air Cargo 671

received the Hugh Gordon-Burge Award for outstanding airmanship.

GRIMSTEAD: This flight was a heroic achievement, where the crew have recovered

from a virtually impossible situation and they deserve the awards they got.

EMERY: So a lot of luck, and a bit of teamwork,

and a bit of shouting, and a bit of action, but a happy landing.