All language subtitles for M.2003-S22E06-Peril.Over.Portugal.Martinair.Flight.495.WEBDL-1080pEAC3.5.1h264-PiTBULL_track4_[eng]

NARRATOR: Martinair Flight 495
is minutes from landing at Faro, Portugal.

HOVE: The left engine was making
a rattling sound.

All of a sudden,
we heard an enormous bang.

(loud bangs)

(metal screeching)

It was total destruction.

NARRATOR: 56 people are dead.

Wow, look at this.

NARRATOR: Investigators quickly find some
intriguing evidence at the crash site.

DICKINSON: There was a two-inch deep cut
down the left side of the runway.

This is very strange.

NARRATOR: The landing gear is
completely severed.

COX: If the aircraft were overweight,
it could exceed the design limit

causing it to break and shear.

These guys were 71,000 pounds
underweight. It wasn't too heavy.

So what went wrong?

PILOT: Mayday! Mayday!

(theme music)

Pull up!

(indistinct radio transmissions)

NARRATOR: Martinair Flight 495 is
nearing Portugal's southern coast.

Approach Martinair 495.
Good morning.

NARRATOR: The captain is 56-year-old
H.W. Van Staveren.

75 DME and out of 2-4-0 for level 7-0.

NARRATOR: A highly experienced pilot
and flight instructor,

he's been with Martinair for 24 years.

Descending to level 7-0.

NARRATOR: The first officer is 31-year-old
R.J. Clemenkowff.

He's been flying with the Dutch
company for three years.

The youngest member of the team
is 29-year-old flight engineer Gary Glans.

It was our last flight before the
Christmas holidays.

Everyone was in a good mood.

My job as a flight engineer-- I'm
responsible for the aircraft, in general,

to make sure that everything is operating
properly and overall trying to be

a third set of eyes for the flying pilots.

NARRATOR: The crew is flying a DC-10,
a three-engine, wide-bodied jet.

FERNANDES: In the nineties, the DC-10
was one of the type of aircraft most used

for operators worldwide.

NARRATOR: They're now less than
half an hour from landing.

There are 13 crew members and
327 passengers on board.

WOMAN: Thank you.

NARRATOR: Most are residents
of the Netherlands.

We were heading for vacation for a week in
the south of Portugal in the Algarve,

going to warmer weather
than the Netherlands was

and fleeing the busy year we had.

NARRATOR: Flight 495 is near the end
of a two and a half hour trip

from Amsterdam to Portugal's Faro Airport.

MALE PASSENGER:
"Eight-letter word for apple sources."

- Mmm... orchards.
- Ah...

HOVE: I was traveling with Yvonne,
then my girlfriend, now my wife.

I was lucky.
We could sit at the front row,

so I had a lot of leg space to
move around.

Oh... Raining cats and dogs over there.

NARRATOR: As they descend
towards Faro Airport,

the pilots expect to encounter
some bad weather.

GLANS: We knew that we were going to
encounter rain showers, thunderstorms,

or something that you have to be
incredibly aware of and ensure that they

don't affect your flight path.

We do everything to avoid 'em, because
they can produce unexpected wind changes,

microbursts, wind shears.

NARRATOR: When a thunderstorm
moves over an active runway,

the potential for wind shear can make it
too dangerous for an aircraft to land.

GLANS: It wasn't something that we felt
was going to be a major issue.

It was just something to monitor.

NARRATOR: If the weather worsens,
they can divert north to Lisbon,

but right now, it isn't necessary.

PILOT (over radio):
Martinair 461, runway visual.

NARRATOR: Just minutes ahead, another
Martinair flight is landing at Faro.

Cleared to land runway 1-1.

NARRATOR: The weather report indicates
the closest thunderstorm

is approximately seven miles
to the west of the runway.

Knowing other airplanes were
flying that same approach,

and nobody had reported
any significant issues,

made us feel that we were
safe to continue onwards.

495 is turning inbound.

NARRATOR: Eight miles out, Martinair 495
starts its final approach to runway 1-1.

GLANS: The captain chose to be
the pilot monitoring,

so he could oversee the whole approach

and let the first officer
focus on just flying the aircraft.

NARRATOR: They descend into
the rain clouds,

confident the nearest thunderstorm
is still miles away.

(beep)

OK.

CONTROLLER: 495, report at minimums or
runway in sight.

- Runway surface conditions are flooded.
- Roger, 495.

NARRATOR: With wet runway conditions,
the crew configures the plane

to make what's called a positive landing.

A positive touchdown is when the main
wheels penetrate the water layer

on the runway and improve
the stopping ability of the aircraft.

- Gear down.
- Gear down.

GLANS: With a wet runway, you do want to
touch down at a positive firm rate,

rather than trying to float down
for a softer touchdown.

- Altimeters?
- Set three times.

NARRATOR: Four miles from touchdown,
the pilots make their final checks.

Spoilers?

Armed.

Flaps/slats?

5-0, land.

HOVE: The left engine
was making quite a noise

and a rattling sound
every time it gave full power.

The plane was pitching up and
pitching down.

So that was not reassuring.

Martinair 495, cleared to land runway 1-1.

The wind, 1-5-0, 1-5 knots, maximum 2-0.

Cleared to land.

NARRATOR: Flight 495 is less than a minute
from touching down...

when the weather gets much worse.

Windshield anti-ice!
I can't see anything.

- I'm on it.
- Wipers are on fast.

It's OK. It's OK.

I was squeezing hands
firmer and firmer with Yvonne.

It was dead quiet in the plane.

NARRATOR: The plane is now just a
few seconds from landing.

HOVE: All of a sudden,
we heard an enormous bang.

I fell out of the chair. And then I saw
the kitchen splinter into pieces.

I was pretty sure we were
gonna be crushed.

NARRATOR: Flight 495 slides more than
350 feet off the runway at Faro Airport.

Firefighter and rescue crews
race to the site.

Incredibly, many of the passengers and
the flight crew survive.

There were people screaming
and crying and running.

HOVE: I didn't see my girlfriend.

My first thought was,
"Oh, I won't ever see Yvonne again."

NARRATOR: Those lucky enough
to escape search for loved ones.

HOVE: All of a sudden, I hear my name.

Then I saw, in the distance,
I saw Yvonne standing there.

We found each other.

NARRATOR:
The injured are taken to nearby hospitals.

(cries)

Of the 340 people on board, 54 passengers
and two cabin crew-members are dead...

making this one of Portugal's worst
aviation disasters in more than a decade.

REPORTER: A detailed investigation
is now underway into why this plane

hit the tarmac and burst into flames.

- See if we can find the flight recorders.
- You got it.

NARRATOR: Investigators from Portugal's
General Directorate of Civil Aviation and

from the American NTSB arrive to inspect
the wreckage of Martinair Flight 495.

A DC-10 is a big aircraft, and there were
pieces of it all around.

The right wing had dislodged
from the rest of the aircraft.

The wing structure is the strongest
structure on the whole aircraft,

so it had to have a major amount of
stress to make that wing depart.

It's amazing so many survived.

MATOS: The wreckage showed that the
aircraft was mostly destroyed by fire.

80% to 90% of the people who died,
died from the post-impact fire.

DICKINSON: We were very concerned because
if you have something that's suspect on

an aircraft that's being flown all over
the world, you wanna find it.

That's great. Nice work.

Let's hope we get the data back quickly.

NARRATOR: Investigators recover the black
boxes containing the Flight Data Recorder

and Cockpit Voice Recorder.

MATOS: We needed to try to understand
what happened in the final moments

of the flight in terms of speeds,
in terms of decisions,

and also what happened just
before touchdown.

INVESTIGATOR: Wow. Look at this.

NARRATOR: A quarter of a mile
from the runway threshold,

investigators discover
the aircraft's initial point of impact.

There was a two-inch-deep cut
down the left side of the runway.

It hit here, then veered off to the right.

It's deep.
They must have come down hard.

MATOS: The scratches we saw
on the runway revealed to us

that the plane had landed very hard.
So that's why the marks were deep.

Maybe one of the engines failed.

MATOS: Why did the plane land so hard?
Was it a problem with the landing gear?

Was it a problem with speeds,
or was it a problem with the engines?

So we need to investigate that.

Is that all of them?
Let's see what we've got.

DICKINSON: You always look at the
engines, and there was substantial damage.

We had to determine, was there
some kind of malfunction in the engine?

NARRATOR: Investigators examine a key
component from the engine's oil block

called a Magnetic Chip Detector.

A Magnetic Chip Detector is a small
cylinder-shaped device located inside

the engine's oil filter.

When an engine part wears, pieces or
chips of broken metal adhere to a magnet

as they pass through the oil filter.

It's known as making metal.

Why is there more metal
on this detector than expected?

What part of the engine is wearing?
The alloys are slightly different.

They wear at different rates. So they can
tell by laboratory analysis what part

of the engine is wearing and how rapidly.

These look clean. No chips.

NARRATOR: There's no evidence of
metallic debris inside the oil system.

The engines look fine.

From the tests conducted on the engines,
it was concluded that the engines

did not contribute to the accident.

DICKINSON: At this point in the
investigation, we really didn't have

a good idea of what to look for next.
We just had to keep going.

Now, this is very strange.

NARRATOR: They soon realize that part
of the right landing gear is broken.

DICKINSON: The fact that part of the
right landing gear fractured

is very unusual.
It's almost impossible to make it fail.

The forces necessary to shear
the landing gear like that is massive.

NARRATOR: Landing gear is designed and
tested to be able to withstand the shock

of a 200-ton landing.
It should never fracture.

We had to confirm whether there was
something wrong with that gear,

in the metal used or maybe the
maintenance on it,

anything that could cause the
gear to fail in any way.

And if it was a design problem,
that's a big deal.

NARRATOR: The landing gear failing on
impact would explain this tragic accident.

Did we get this piece of
landing gear in yet?

Not yet. I'll put a rush in.

MATOS:
The landing gear collapsed.

That was perhaps the most important
question that we had to deal with.

NARRATOR: While investigators wait for
the right landing gear

of Flight 495, they consider what could
have caused it to fracture.

Maybe the plane was too heavy.

COX: If the aircraft were overweight and
made a very firm touchdown, then the loads

imparted could exceed the design limit,
causing it to break and shear.

Let's check the load manifest.

The plane and the cargo
were roughly 280,000 pounds.

There was 340 people on board.
Let's call it 53,000 pounds.

- And fuel?
- Fuel was 20,000 pounds.

So total weight on landing was
353,000 pounds, give or take.

- Max weight is 424,000 pounds.
- 424...

So... these guys were 71,000 pounds
underweight. It wasn't too heavy.

NARRATOR: The weight of the plane is not
what caused the landing gear

- to fail on touchdown.
- What about weight distribution?

DICKINSON: You have to have the baggage
and the weight distributed properly

so the aircraft will fly the
way the pilots want it to.

By the book.

It was properly loaded,
properly stored, properly locked down,

so it wasn't really an issue.

NARRATOR:
With weight and balance ruled out,

investigators are finally able to test the
right landing gear itself.

Service records are up-to-date. Let's see
if the steel wasn't strong enough.

FERNANDES: Another thing they were
looking for is any pre-existent

weaknesses on the steel. If this
occurred in the manufacturing process,

it could affect the aircraft
in operations all around the world.

NARRATOR: They perform something
called a Vickers Hardness Test.

COX: The Vickers Hardness Test
is an industry-standard test

to evaluate the strength of a particular
component or piece of metal.

NARRATOR: A pyramid-shaped diamond is
pressed into the steel,

leaving an indent or dimple.

You can measure the depth
and the diameter of the dimple

and derive the metallurgical strength
of what you're testing.

INVESTIGATOR: Hardness value is 658.
So the steel was strong enough.

NARRATOR: Investigators find no
weakness in the metal used

to make the plane's landing gear.

FERNANDES: It was determined there was
nothing wrong with the landing gear.

Whatever went wrong, it happened before
the aircraft touched the runway.

NARRATOR: There are still no clues
that can help explain

why the landing gear fractured.

The next step in the investigation was to
look at how the crew was operating

during the last phase of the landing.

Huh. This is interesting.

NARRATOR: Official statements made
by the pilots may shed

some light on the final moments
of Martinair Flight 495.

After the accident, the investigators
came to all three of us.

We had closed sessions.

INVESTIGATOR: The captain said the
flight was normal.

The approach was normal.
"At 200 feet, we were on the centerline."

So they should have been OK.

But a few seconds later,
the captain sees lightning.

"I suddenly felt a high sink rate.
It all happened so fast.

"The aircraft actually fell
out of the sky."

NARRATOR: According to the captain,
he saw lightning just seconds before

the aircraft began to lose
altitude, rapidly.

- (alarm)
- AUTOMATION: Sink Rate.

GLANS: The airplane felt like God took
his hands, rammed it into the ground.

Well, get this. The first officer
stated the weather was bad,

and it was raining heavily.
It was gusty and very turbulent.

NARRATOR: Investigators wonder
if sudden wind changes

could have contributed to the
crash of Flight 495.

The flight crew indicated to the
investigators that they

that they were in an area of a lot of wind
shear, a very dynamic weather condition.

They were in turbulence.
Things were changing very rapidly.

NARRATOR: Did the pilot encounter
wind shear on final approach?

The team interviews the
air traffic controller to better

understand the conditions
the pilots were experiencing.

Can you tell me what happened
with Flight 495?

Everything seemed perfectly normal.

They were on their final approach and
confirmed they had the runway in sight.

Then I cleared them to land.

CONTROLLER: Martinair 495.
Cleared to land runway 1-1,

the wind 1-5-0, 1-5 knots, maximum 2-0.

MATOS: The controllers were
quite confident that they

performed well the tasks,
so they didn't find that they

did anything wrong,
and they gave the correct information.

Did they report any issues with the plane?

- No, not at all.
- What about the weather?

There was rain,
but other planes were taking off

and landing without difficulty.

PILOT: Martinair 461, runway visual.

NARRATOR: Just minutes before the crash,
the controller was in contact

with an aircraft that took off and another
that landed on the same runway.

Cleared to land runway 1-1.

NARRATOR: Neither flight reported
extreme weather over the runway.

What about wind shear?
Did the runway sensors pick up anything?

NARRATOR: Faro Airport is equipped
with two anemometers that measure

both wind speed and direction,
located on runway 2-9 and runway 1-1.

If the anemometers detect a
sudden change in wind speed

of 15 knots or greater, a wind shear
warning is automatically triggered.

Yes, there were wind shear warnings,
but they happened

after the aircraft had already crashed.

NARRATOR: If Flight 495 was hit by an
extreme gust of wind before it crashed

to the runway, the system would
have detected it. It didn't.

MATOS: There was a conflicting
information between what the

crew said and what the
air traffic controller reports.

NARRATOR: The crews' statements
don't match the controller's

account of the weather.

Thank you.

DICKINSON: The best thing
to substantiate what went on

was to take a really deep look
at what the pilots were saying

to each other in the cockpit.

INVESTIGATOR:
Let's start with their approach brief.

NARRATOR:
A week after the crash of Flight 495,

data from the cockpit voice recorder
is ready to be reviewed.

CLEMENKOWFF:
Fly the approach with 50 flaps.

You call approaching
minimums and field in sight.

You look outside. Wet runway.

- And here are the wipers.
- Roger.

NARRATOR: As the crew prepares
for the approach, they become

aware of weather conditions
at Faro Airport.

- You have to make a positive landing.
- Yes.

OK. So obviously they're worried
about the runway conditions.

NARRATOR: In a positive landing,
the aircraft touches down firmly enough

to penetrate the water, allowing the
wheels to grip the tarmac and

slow the airplane.

INVESTIGATOR: They want
to put it down hard to avoid

- hydroplaning and running out of runway.
- So what went wrong?

NARRATOR: Did the pilots somehow botch
their plan as they approached the runway?

- CLEMENKOWFF: 500
- VAN STAVEREN: Cleared. Speed a bit low.

Speed is low. Low!

OK. Now speed is an issue.

COX: Going onto a wet runway,
the airspeed control is very,

very important so that
you don't have too much

and the airplane floats,
but that you don't have too little,

and you end up impacting
the runway quite hard.

All right. Let's hear more.

VAN STAVEREN: Speed is OK.

Windshield anti-ice!
I can't see anything.

- I'm on it.
- Wipers are on fast.

NARRATOR: As the plane gets
closer to the ground,

the crew contends with stormy conditions.

- VAN STAVEREN: A bit low. Low!
- CLEMENKOWFF: Yes!

VAN STAVEREN: Throttles!

- (alarm beeping)
- (loud crash)

Why does the captain yell, "Throttles!"?

FERNANDES: For the captain to say this at
this moment, it raises the question:

"Did they have an issue in the
final phase of landing?"

All right.
Let's look at the descent profile.

NARRATOR: If Flight 495 flew in on the
right trajectory, the FDR will confirm it.

Here you go.

COX: The flight data recorder
gives objective,

clear data on what the
airplane was actually doing.

Was the airplane being
flown at the proper speed?

The changes in the airspeed,
were they indicative

of a severe weather condition,
and how were the pilots

responding to those changes?

- Autopilot is on.
- OK, so they're descending at the

standard angle.
And they dip here and recover.

Looks fine.

DICKINSON: At 200 feet, which is about
20 seconds from landing,

they were on a normal glide-path.

Something happened
between that and touchdown.

Let's look at the airspeed data.

INVESTIGATOR: So, looks like they're
flying steady at 145 knots until here.

Then airspeed jumps and
then drops all the way to 139 knots.

NARRATOR: Investigators spot
evidence of airspeed

fluctuations during the
last minute of the flight.

DICKINSON: These fluctuations in
airspeed can be caused by

wind gusts as they got closer to landing.

Speed is a bit low. Speed is low.

Speed is OK.

NARRATOR: Was the captain
concerned their speed wasn't

fast enough to compensate
for the strong headwind?

Yeah, these fluctuations seem too extreme
to be caused by the 20-knot winds

reported by the controller.

We need a full analysis of the weather
conditions on final approach.

NARRATOR: Investigators ask the
Netherlands Aerospace Laboratory

to perform an in-depth weather study to
determine if the winds were stronger

then what was reported to Flight 495.

- What about auto-throttle data?
- Let's take a look.

Hmmm. Yeah, the fluctuations in
auto-throttles correspond

to the airspeed fluctuation.

COX:
If there is an increase in airspeed,

the auto-throttle system will decrease
the power that is being commanded,

the amount of thrust that
the engines are producing.

If the airspeed falls low,
the auto throttle system will

command increased thrust to bring the
airplane up to the commanded airspeed.

NARRATOR: The auto throttles
were indeed adjusting

- for the dramatic changes in airspeed.
- Wow. Look at that. 102% power.

NARRATOR: Investigators discover
a very high surge in engine power,

three quarters of a mile from the
runway threshold.

The 102% command by the auto-throttle
system is a massive amount of power.

It would be similar to the
amount of power that you would

use for takeoff,
too much power to try to land with.

And then here, power drops to 40%.

NARRATOR: The team discovers
that the power drops to a minium,

or engine idle, shortly thereafter.

That's way too fast for the auto-throttle
system to perform on its own.

For the engines to decelerate as quickly
as they did means that the levers were

moved faster than the auto throttle
clutches can physically move them.

The only way the throttles
would move that quick would be

if the pilot was manually
adjusting them down to 40%.

GLANS: The auto throttle system
could make large corrections,

and you have to make manual adjustments
if the throttles aren't keeping up.

COX: The first officer,
who's the flying pilot,

made the decision to override
the auto throttle system

and to pull the power way back.

And, in fact, he pulled it all
the way back to flight idle.

With so little power, they would
have dropped like a rock.

According to the data, they were
dropping a 1,000 feet per minute.

DICKINSON: 1,000 feet is well beyond
the operational limit of

600 feet per minute for the DC-10.

NARRATOR: As a consequence
of the reduced power, the plane

hit the runway with enough force
to crack the landing gear.

I've never experienced
a landing as hard as that.

I crushed my teeth in my mouth.
It was hard beyond compare.

NARRATOR: Investigators
are left with a key question.

Why would the crew reduce power by so
much, so far from the runway threshold?

This is the Dutch weather report.

NARRATOR: Investigators turn
to a weather analysis prepared

by the Netherlands Aerospace Laboratory
to determine if the weather affected

the crew's actions
during their final approach.

Looks like the weather was
worse than we thought.

- Really?
- They hit no less than three separate

- microbursts in the last minute of flight.
- Wow. OK.

NARRATOR: A microburst is a
column of air that descends

from rain clouds, hits the ground,
and fans out horizontally.

It leads to significant fluctuations
in a plane's airspeed.

- When exactly?
- The first one one was at 700 feet.

The second was between 600 and 300 feet.

And the last one was
between 200 and 110 feet.

Now, this last one was the worst.
The wind speed jumped

- from the reported 20 knots to 40 knots.
- Wow. That would have triggered

a wind shear alert
if one was installed on the plane.

Then the wind shifts
from a headwind to a tailwind.

GLANS: A sudden shift from
headwind to tailwind

is the worst type of wind shear,
because a headwind improves

your angle of attack to ensure
that the aircraft has good lift.

When the wind switches
around to a tailwind,

you lose that aerodynamic performance.

If you don't have the thrust to
compensate for it right away,

the aircraft will drop.

Let's compare this
to the auto-throttle data.

- They line up.
- Mm-hmm.

NARRATOR: For every microburst, there's
a corresponding increase in engine power

as the auto-throttles try
to maintain the plane's speed.

The auto-throttle was going up and down.

It was struggling very hard
to fight against those heavy downbursts.

COX: The downburst causes
a decrease in stability,

which means turbulence-induced
roll and pitch oscillations.

- Would have been a bumpy ride.
- Yeah.

NARRATOR: As they pass
through each microburst,

the auto throttles were adjusting
to the shifts in wind gusts.

MATOS: In the final moments,
the approach was under extreme

weather conditions. There were
a lot of oscillations in speed.

And that created a lot of stress
for the pilot flying at that time.

The first officer likely
would have been overwhelmed

by the unexpected change in the weather.

And knowing that he needed to make a
positive landing at the runway threshold,

he sees the power spike to 102%
and takes corrective action.

NARRATOR: In order to get the
plane on the ground, the first officer

overrides the auto-throttle
and reduces the power to idle.

Investigators now see just how
unfortunate his timing was.

He cut the power at the exact same time
that last downburst hit them.

Throttles!

NARRATOR: The captain tries to stop
the plane's uncontrolled descent...

but he's too late.

The captain should have stepped in sooner.

DICKINSON: He should have recognized
something was not right.

The captain really should have
taken over and landed himself.

NARRATOR: Investigators suspect
the sudden change in weather,

combined with the pilot's decision to cut
power too early caused the aircraft

to land with more force than
it was built to withstand.

But one question remains unanswered.

If the winds were gusting at 40 knots
a half-mile from the runway,

wouldn't the winds at the runway
be gusting stronger than the 20 knots

reported by the controller?

NARRATOR: The team returns with their
findings to the air traffic controller

who oversaw Martinair Flight 495.

You reported that the winds
on runway 1-1 were gusting up to 20 knots.

- That's correct.
- But that doesn't seem right.

The Dutch weather study
confirmed that there were

three microbursts in the last minute of
flight with gusts much higher than that.

Can you show me
the actual data for runway 1-1?

According to the raw data, the winds were
actually gusting at 35 knots.

Now that sounds more like it.

But how could you have
under-reported the wind conditions?

We receive wind data every
30 seconds from this device.

It must have been switched
to runway 2-9...

instead of runway 1-1.

NARRATOR: Investigators discover
that air traffic controllers

at Faro Airport had mistakenly
selected the wind reading on

on runway 2-9 instead of runway 1-1.

COX: Airports are large places,
so when you have anemometers

on opposite ends of the airport,
you would expect that

frequently, there would be a difference in
direction and velocity of a reported wind.

CONTROLLER: Martinair 495,
cleared to land runway 1-1,

the wind 1-5-0, 1-5 knots, maximum 2-0.

Cleared to land.

The controller's information
that they provided to the crew

was not representative of what was
actually occurring on the runway.

MATOS: Wet runway, crosswinds.
That's a completely different picture.

If the pilots were aware,
they would have gone around.

NARRATOR: Investigators have figured out
what brought down Flight 495.

- (windshield wipers thumping)
- 495 is turning inbound.

CONTROLLER: 495 copy,
report at minimums or runway in sight.

- Runway surface conditions are flooded.
- Roger, 495.

- Gear down.
- Gear down.

NARRATOR:
With the runway at Faro underwater,

the crew plans a positive touchdown
at the runway threshold.

CONTROLLER: Cleared to land runway 1-1.
The wind 1-5-0, 1-5 knots, maximum 2-0.

NARRATOR: But they're unaware of the
severity of the weather conditions.

- I can't see anything.
- I'm on it.

NARRATOR: They're hit
by a series of unexpected microbursts,

causing the engine power
to shoot up automatically.

Concerned that the excess power is too
great for a positive landing,

the first officer reduces the power to
idle just as the last microburst occurs.

That makes them vulnerable to strong winds
and the aircraft dropped from 150 feet.

- (alarm)
- AUTOMATION: Sink Rate.

NARRATOR: Flight 495 slams to the ground
at a 1,000 feet per minute.

The danger of being slow and encountering
a downdraft is you may not be able to

recover in time,
and that can be disastrous.

FERNANDES: They could have come
with a higher speed.

They could have performed
a missed approach.

But the truth is the flight crew
tried their best.

This wasn't an accident where we
can see negligence or gross error.

NARRATOR: In the aftermath
of their report into the crash

of Martinair Flight 495, investigators
make a series of recommendations.

COX: This accident was going
to be yet another example

of inappropriate wind shear recovery
being applied in a timely fashion.

So this says, "additional pilot training".

This says, "wind shear
detection systems on airplanes".

This says, "a more aggressive approach
to go-arounds in unstable conditions".

NARRATOR: Shortly after the crash,
Faro Airport modernized their wind sensors

and displays to comply with
international regulations.

COX: The critical information
that controllers provide to

pilots needs to be accurate.

So these are some of the
lessons that the industry

learned and implemented following
this accident.

GLANS: You know, one of the
things I was told when I was

becoming a pilot is,
"Never let your guard down."

You can be having a beautiful,
wonderful flight,

and in the blink of an eye,
things can change.

It's just ingrained in my mind:
always be ready for the unexpected.

(theme music)