All language subtitles for M.2003-S24E01-Deadly.Directive.Ethiopian.Airlines.Flight.302.WEBDL-1080pEAC3.5.1h264-NOGRP_track3_[eng]

- Rotate.

(narrator): Just seconds after
takeoff from Addis Ababa...

- Gear up.

- ...the pilots of Ethiopian
Airlines Flight 302

are faced with an emergency.

- Master caution, anti-ice.

- You're literally fighting
to maintain control of the jet.

- Stab trim cutout?
- Yes, yes, do it!

- But the procedure
they've been taught

for the Boeing 737 MAX 8...

...doesn't work.

- They knew what to do
and they tried to do it.

- Investigators are astonished.

If the pilots knew
the proper procedure,

why didn't it work?

- Boeing didn't say anything
about the trim wheel

being difficult to move.

(whirring)

- Could the pilots
have been misled

about how to save their plane?

- They still left
the Boeing MAX unairworthy,

and it cost the life
of my daughter and 157 people.

(intense music)

- Mayday, mayday!

(rapid beeping)

(indistinct radio chatter)

(electricity crackling)

(narrator): Boarding has
commenced for 149 passengers

on a short flight
from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia,

to Nairobi, Kenya.

- Perfect, thank you.

(man): This was really
a UN shuttle flight.

There was a UN
environmental conference

happening in Nairobi so,

there were about a couple dozen
people on the plane

who were headed
to that conference.

- All right,
ground equipment is removed

and engine area is clear.

- The captain on today's fight
is 29-year-old Yared Getachew.

- The captain was considered

one of the best pilots
in the airline.

He had 8,000 hours

which was unheard of
for someone that young.

- Before Start
checklist complete.

Request pushback clearance.

- Ground, Ethiopian 302
requesting pushback clearance.

- 25-year-old Ahmed Nur Mohammed
is the First Officer.

(man on radio): Ethiopian 302
you are cleared to push.

(Peter): Ethiopian Airlines
was considered

the model airline in Africa.

It had the best run
training school,

and it had a well-oiled system

for bringing new pilots
into the airline.

(narrator): They're on
a Boeing 737 MAX 8,

a brand-new passenger jet

that's already at the centre
of a major investigation

in Indonesia.

(tense music)

- Five months earlier,

a MAX 8 crashed
into the Java Sea

killing all 189 people on board.

That accident is still
under investigation.

Just before 8:30AM,

Flight 302 taxies
towards the runway

at Addis Ababa's Bole
International Airport.

- Ethiopian three-zero-two,

cross runway
zero-seven left at alpha

and hold short
of zero-seven right.

(First Officer):
Cross zero-seven left at alpha

and hold short,
Ethiopian three-zero-two.

- Pre-Takeoff checklist, please.

- Landing lights.

- On.

- Among the passengers
on today's flight

is 24-year-old Canadian,
Danielle Moore.

She is travelling
to the UN summit.

- She really astonished us
when she told us that

she would be going to
the United Nations

Environmental Assembly
in Nairobi.

And she was selected
out of a number of people.

We thought this was
so tremendous.

- Flight 302 reaches
Runway 07 Right,

the longest runway
at the airport.

(First Officer):
Ethiopian three-zero-two

ready for departure.

- Three-zero-two,
clear for takeoff,

runway seven right.

Have a good flight.

- Ready?
- Ready.

(uplifting music)

Takeoff thrust set.

Speed increasing.

(heartbeat pulsing)

(narrator): Flight 302
departs on time.

The 725-mile flight to Nairobi

should take just over two hours.

- The MAX 8 was designed
for routes like this.

It's a short hop,
quick turnaround plane.

It also had much more
fuel efficiency

compared to the previous version
of the MAX, about 20 percent.

(automated voice): V1.

- Rotate.

Positive rate.

- Gear up.

- Gear up.

(narrator): Less than
ten seconds after takeoff,

the pilots get
a stick shaker warning,

indicating that they're in
danger of losing lift

and could stall.

- If you experience a stall
right after departure,

it can be extremely serious.

- Captain Getachew reduces
his plane's pitch angle

in an effort to prevent a stall.

(woman): If you are taking off
and you get a stick shaker,

crews are going to be
hesitant, you know,

to push their nose over

because they're close
to the ground.

(beeping)

(First Officer):
Master caution, anti-ice.

- Okay...

- When master cautions come on,

the first thing is
to diagnose what's occurred

and consider what implications
it has on the flight.

(sighs)
- What's going on?

- Captain Getachew
doesn't understand

what's behind
the multiple warnings.

- There's a lot going on here

and it's a very distracting,
loud environment

with the stick shaker going.

Where do you start

to deal with this complex
emergency that you have?

- Flight 302 is only a few
hundred feet off the ground

as the pilots struggle
to understand the problem.

As far as passengers
are concerned,

this is a routine takeoff.

(tense music)

(stick whirring)

- Okay, contact radar.

- Captain Getachew decides
to continue climbing.

- If you have a problem,

the thing you wanna do
is get it away from the ground

where you can sort through
your problems.

- Radar, Ethiopian
three-zero-two, good morning.

Crossing 8,400

and climbing to three-two-zero.

- First Officer Mohammed
reports his altitude,

8,400 feet above sea level,

which is only 750 feet
above the ground.

- Continue climb to flight level
three-four-zero.

(First Officer):
Climb to three-four-zero,

Ethiopian three-zero-two.

- Flaps up.

- Flaps up.

(narrator): Retracting the flaps

should help
the aircraft climb...

...but it has
the opposite effect.

1,500 feet from the ground,

the jetliner with 157 people
on board begins to fall.

- We are having
flight control problems.

(automated voice):
Don't sink. Don't sink.

- You've gone from
a series of cautions,

a series of system malfunctions,

now into a flight
control problem

where you're literally fighting
to maintain control of the jet.

- Passengers now sense
that there is something wrong.

- One woman whose brother
was on the airplane

and he called her
soon after takeoff.

He knew something was wrong.

The plane was not climbing
the way aircraft normally do.

- The 737's nose
continues to pitch down.

- Trim...

- Captain Getachew uses the trim
switch to level his plane.

The trim switch
controls the position

of the horizontal stabilizer,

keeping the plane
balanced during flight.

It can be used to adjust
the pitch of the airplane.

Captain Getachew manages
to raise the nose slightly,

but not for long.

The plane dips again,

bringing it closer
to the ground.

(automated voice):
Too low. Terrain.

(narrator): And the pilots
are struggling.

(automated voice):
Too low. Terrain.

- Now you start dealing with
how do we regain control,

and to keep the nose up
while we sort through this.

And that's where the time
can become critical.

(music intensifies)

(straining)
- Pull up. Pull up!

(narrator): Less than
three minutes after takeoff

and only 1,800 feet
above the ground,

the pilots of Ethiopian
Airlines Flight 302

are desperately trying
to get their plane to climb.

- Pull up!

- Okay, advise
we maintain 6,500.

We have a flight
control problem.

- They're trying to reach
the minimum safe altitude

surrounding the airport.

(First Officer):
Ethiopian three-zero-two,

we'd like to maintain 6,500.

We have a flight
control problem.

- Say again?

- We have a flight
control problem

and we'd like to maintain 6,500.

- Approved
and report intention.

- We'll call you.
Ethiopian three-zero-two.

(John): First and foremost
they said,

"Okay, we have
a flight control problem,"

and that says

get other airplanes
away from me.

And that was a very
appropriate thing to do.

- Set 6,500.

- 6,500 set.

(beeping)
- Speed!

(narrator): As they fight
to climb to 6,500 feet,

the plane's speed becomes
dangerously high.

They try to raise
the plane's nose further

to decrease speed.

- Pitch up with me.

- Even with both pilots pulling
back on their control columns,

the plane refuses to climb.

- The forces necessary to hold
that yoke are increasing

and they're increasing
quite rapidly.

- Less than minutes
into the flight,

Captain Getachew
decides to turn around.

- Request a return vector.

- Radar, Ethiopian
three-zero-two

requesting vector
back to airport.

(Peter): There was a lot
going on in that cockpit.

There were indicators going off

showing a disagreement
in altitude,

disagreement in airspeed.

The stick shaker was going off.

So the best thing for them to do
was to turn around.

- Confirm, do you want to hold
or make an approach?

- Wish to commence approach.
(beeping)

- Turn right to two-six-zero.

- Two-six-zero.

- The pilots have managed
to get their plane

to 6,000 feet
above the ground.

- Pitch up with me.
Not enough pitch.

Not enough pitch!

- ...but now
it starts to plummet.

(automated voice): Sink Rate.

(passengers screaming)

(air whooshing)

(Captain): Pitch up! Pitch!

(automated voice):
Terrain, terrain. Pull up.

(Captain):
Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!

(automated voice):
Terrain, terrain. Pull up.

(pilots screaming)

(intense music)

(metal clattering)

- Flight 302
slams into the ground

just 30 miles from the airport.

It's the second MAX 8

to have crashed
in less than five months.

- In today's world,

even a single accident
is an extreme rarity.

To have two within five months,
it is inconsistent

with the level of safety
of modern airliners.

(melancholic music)

- Everyone wants an answer
to the same question:

Is there something wrong
with Boeing's latest jet?

- We begin tonight
with the mystery

swirling around a deadly
plane crash overseas.

The new Boeing 737 crashing

just minutes after takeoff
in Ethiopia.

157 people were
on board the flight

and there were no survivors.

- News of the Ethiopian
Airlines crash

quickly makes headlines
around the world.

- The phone rang
and my wife answered it,

and I recall hearing her scream

and saying, "Danielle is dead."

My hearing her shriek

and saying those words,
it was...

it was the death of me, too.
I died.

This is the last thing that
any father wants to experience.

- A team from Ethiopia's
Accident Investigation Bureau

is tasked with finding out
why Flight 302 crashed

just five minutes after takeoff.

- To make a crater like this,

the speed must have
been tremendous.

- Much of the wreckage
is buried in a crater

more than 30 feet deep.

(Lorenda): You can tell that
it was in a high energy state,

that just due to it
creating a crater,

that it had to have
some kind of angle to it.

- The plane's two black boxes
are quickly found.

The Ethiopian government
decides to send them

to France's investigative agency
to have the data downloaded.

In Indonesia, the investigation
into the previous MAX 8 accident

is still underway
as investigators get the news

about the Ethiopian
Airlines accident.

- First time I heard about
Ethiopian Flight 302 crash,

I was shocked, knowing that
another 737 MAX has gone down.

- The Indonesian accident
involves Lion Air Flight 610,

a MAX 8 that took off
from Jakarta

with 189 people on board
five months earlier.

- I was afraid that the accident
was caused by similar issue

with the Lion 601
that we were investigating.

(beeping)

- The Indonesian pilots also
began experiencing warnings

shortly after takeoff,

and also reported having
flight control problems.

Following a series of
altitude fluctuations,

the pilots attempted
to return to the airport.

The 737 plunged into
the Java Sea

11 minutes after takeoff.

The investigation
into that accident

has zeroed in on an electronic
system known as MCAS,

the Maneuvering Characteristics
Augmentation System.

- It's a piece of software
in the flight control computer

that directs the stabilizer
to push the nose down.

- Investigators in Indonesia
have learned that MCAS

was added to the MAX 8 to
compensate for a design problem.

- In order to achieve
the fuel efficiency

Boeing wanted to,

it needed to put bigger engines
on the airplane

and in certain
flight conditions,

the nose had a tendency
to pitch up,

and that's why MCAS
was introduced.

- If the system sensed
the plane's nose

was pitched too high,

it would automatically adjust
the plane's stabilizer

to lower the nose.

Indonesian investigators have
determined that a faulty sensor

on the Lion Air flight
led MCAS to conclude

the plane was climbing
more steeply than it was,

causing it to activate
repeatedly,

until the plane hit the water.

(automated voice):
Terrain. Pull up.

- We found that
there was some issue

with the design of the system.

(narrator): There are 387
MAX 8's flying worldwide

with another 5,000 on order.

It's rapidly becoming
one of Boeing's

most successful airliners.

(Peter): The MAX 8 was
the fastest selling aircraft

in Boeing's history.

Airlines were really drawn
to the fuel efficiency.

- The pressure is on
investigators to determine

if a flaw with MCAS also
caused the Ethiopian accident.

(Lorenda): There was worldwide
attention to this investigation.

The whole team was under
a lot of pressure to get answers

and to find out what happened.

)

- Ethiopian investigators
start with

the last people who spoke
to the crew of Flight 302,

air traffic controllers.

- Thanks for your time.

Can you take me
through the flight?

- Normal taxi and takeoff.

Nothing unusual until
two-and-a-half minutes later

when they reported
a flight control problem.

(First Officer):
Ethiopian three-zero-two,

we'd like to maintain 6,500,

we have a flight
control problem.

- They asked to maintain
the current heading

and requested permission
to hold at 6,500 feet.

- And you approved the request?

- I did, yes sir.

(narrator): All investigators
know is that the pilots

had a flight control problem
that developed early

and prevented the crew
from continuing the flight.

- They're aware that
they were dealing with

a flight control issue.

It would have been helpful
if they could have identified

which control surface they were
having the problem with.

- The team turns to
Flight 302's radar track

to understand
the sequence of events.

- Slow, shallow climb out.

Now, look here.

Instead of climbing,
they lose altitude,

regain it, then lose more.

- Instead of continuing to climb
or to maintain an altitude,

there was actually
dips in the altitude.

- The radar data
paints a picture

of a crew struggling to keep
its plane in a climb.

(automated voice):
Don't sink. Don't sink.

- They're trying
to get to 6,500 feet

but never get higher than 6,200.

And they're starting to
make a turn back to the airport.

Now they're in a dive,

descending at 33,000 feet
per minute.

- The speeds were at
the maximum for this aircraft.

The intensity inside the plane
must have been terrifying.

- Let me see
the Lion Air track please.

A slow climb,

a series of
altitude fluctuations...

...a turn back to the airport,
and a rapid descent.

They're pretty close.

- The fact that
this plane crashed

almost immediately after takeoff
in very similar circumstances

raised a lot of questions
in everyone's minds.

- Investigators turn to
a key piece of the wreckage

for confirmation that MCAS
played a role in the accident.

- It's in pretty good shape.
We got lucky.

- A jackscrew, the device
that controls the position

of the plane's horizontal
stabilizer, is recovered.

(digital blipping)

A ball nut moves along
the jackscrew

to help adjust
the plane's pitch.

- Five inches.

Full nose down trim.

- The evidence shows
that the plane

went into its final dive
because the stabilizer

had moved to an extreme
nose down position.

- Full nose down trim
is not something

that you ever see in
the normal flight of a 737.

In the 15 years that I flew it,

I don't know that we ever got
even close to full nose down.

- The Lion Air flight
is identical.

A pitch trim of 1.5 degrees
resulting in a rapid descent.

The pilots wouldn't do that.

- The jackscrew all but confirms

that Ethiopian Airlines
Flight 302

and Lion Air Flight 610

had the same cause,

a malfunction of the plane's
electronic MCAS system.

- That was literally
the smoking gun

that definitively told them

what had happened
to the airplane.

- There's now enough evidence

to convince aviation authorities
around the world

that the MAX 8 presents
a risk to passengers.

- We're gonna be issuing an
emergency order of prohibition

to ground all flights
of the 737 MAX 8.

- The question now facing
Ethiopian investigators is

how could this
have happened again?

- These documents
came out four months ago.

- Following the accident
in Indonesia,

both Boeing and the FAA
issued bulletins

advising pilots
of the steps to take

if MCAS began forcing
the nose down.

The documents advise pilots
to follow the existing procedure

for a malfunctioning trim system
and disengage the autopilot,

set the stabilizer trim
switches to cutout,

and to use their manual
trim wheel

to counteract the automatic
downward stabilizer movement.

- Boeing and the FAA felt that
the airworthiness directive

was all pilots needed
to be able to recover from

what they thought would be
an extremely rare event.

- Did the pilots
know about this procedure?

- You'd hope so.

(John): The airline
has an obligation

to train the pilots

to ensure that there is
a sufficient understanding

of what the information
is trying to tell them

so that they act appropriately.

- We incorporated
the Boeing bulletin

into our flight manual.

- Were your pilots advised
of the revision?

- All our pilots were
fully briefed, of course.

- The pilots of Flight 302

knew the procedure
for disabling MCAS.

The question is,
did they follow it?

- Here it is, let's load it up.

- The cockpit voice recording

from Ethiopian Airlines
Flight 302

has been successfully downloaded
by technicians in France.

- Okay, let's hear it.

(automated voice): V1.

(First Officer): Rotate.
Positive rate.

(Captain): Gear up.

- Takeoff roll is normal.

(narrator): Investigators listen
for clues that can explain

how MCAS brought down
the plane.

(First Officer):
Climb to three-four-zero.

Ethiopian three-zero-two.

(Captain): Flaps up.

- Flaps up.

(narrator): The MCAS system
is designed to activate

only when it senses that
three conditions are met:

nose up, flaps fully retracted,

and autopilot off.

(alarm)

- That's the autopilot
disconnecting.

- Okay, so now they've met
the three conditions

for MCAS activation.

- Investigators continue
listening for evidence that

MCAS activated,
pitching the plane downwards.

(Captain): We're having
flight control problems.

- Right on cue.

(stick whirring)

(automated voice):
Don't sink. Don't sink.

- He's losing altitude.

- Don't sink. Don't sink.

- MCAS is pushing the nose down.

(Captain): Trim...

Come on, trim with me.
Trim up. Trim up, trim up!

Come on, trim up!
(grunting with effort)

(narrator): Investigators hear
the pilots struggling

to trim their plane nose up.

- So you begin to
get this tug of war

between the pilot
trimming nose up

and MCAS trimming nose down.

But MCAS is relentless.
It doesn't stop.

- Trim! Trim up.

- The team then hears
an exchange

that transforms
the investigation.

- Stab trim cutout?
Stab trim cutout?

- Yes, yes, do it!

- Stab trim cutout.

- Can you pause for a second?

- They did it.

They set the trim
switches to cutout,

exactly as Boeing
advised them to do.

(Lorenda): I think
that's the surprise.

The crew attempted
to do that procedure

and it wasn't successful.

- The autopilot disengaged.
We heard the alarm.

They set their stabilizer
trim switches to cutout.

Now they need to manually trim
to get their nose back up.

Let's hear.

(Captain): Pitch up,
pitch up, pitch up.

Do it with me.

(straining)
Is the trim engaged?

(First Officer): No.
Shall I try manually?

(Captain): Try it!

- The 737 has a manual backup

about how to move trim
using cables.

And the wheel has actually
got a handle in it

where you can manually trim it.

(straining)
- It's not working.

- Not enough pitch.
Not enough pitch.

(narrator): But the pilots
are not able

to adjust the pitch manually.

- They don't physically
have enough strength

to move the horizontal
stabilizer

via the manual trim wheel.

- They're trying to do this.

- But it doesn't sound like
it's working.

- And then they come up
with a solution

that seals their fate.

(Captain): Put them up.

- No. Oh, no. No.

(narrator): Unable to pitch
the plane up manually,

the pilots make one final
desperate move.

They re-engage
the automatic trim

to help move the stabilizer.

(Lorenda): Unfortunately,
that wakes the beast.

And then it's gonna sit there

and it's gonna trim it down
one more time again

so it works against them.

(automated voice):
Caution. Terrain.

(Captain): Pitch up!
Pitch up! Pitch up!

- There was no way
to control the airplane.

The pitch was going to
continue to go nose down.

(alarm beeping)

(automated voice):
Caution. Terrain.

Terrain, terrain.
Pull up, pull up.

(Captain): Mayday!
Mayday! Mayday!

(pilots screaming)

(radio static)

- They knew what to do.
They tried to do it.

- But for whatever reason,
it didn't work.

(narrator): The Ethiopians
have made a stunning discovery;

one they quickly share
with the world.

- The crew performed
all the procedures repeatedly,

provided by the manufacturer,

but was not able
to control the aircraft.

- Stab trim cutout?
Stab trim cutout?

- Yes, yes, do it!

- Investigators are left
with a burning question.

- Stab trim cutout.

- If the pilots did
what Boeing advised,

why weren't they able to
pull out of the dive

that MCAS put them into?

(Captain): Pitch up!

(intense music)

- Investigators turn to
the flight data recorder

from Ethiopian Airlines
Flight 302

to better understand
why MCAS was activated,

causing the plane to crash.

- Right here, ten seconds
after takeoff.

Readings for angle of attack,
airspeed, and altitude

begin to diverge.

- MCAS is only
supposed to activate

when the MAX 8 reaches
an extreme angle of attack,

or high-pitch angle.

(digital blipping)

A sensor on each side
of the airplane

calculates the angle of attack

by measuring the plane's angle
into the oncoming air.

- Sure looks like
a sensor issue.

The captain's side
can't be right.

- Absolutely.

- The data shows a steep spike

in the captain's angle
of attack reading.

- That explains the stickshaker.
- Yup, false alarm.

- The plane was never
in danger of stalling.

The warning was triggered
by faulty pitch data

from a malfunction in an angle
of attack sensor.

- The captain's side
shows a pitch up

of as much as 74 degrees.

The first officer's
side is correct,

a steady 15-degree pitch.

- Investigators discover

the malfunction was only
on the captain's side.

- So, up until this point,
the flight is actually fine.

- On the Ethiopian airplane,

something happened
to that sensor

just shortly after takeoff.

- So one faulty sensor
brings down the plane?

(Lorenda): A single failure
should not be catastrophic.

There should be backup,
there should be redundancies

so if there is something that
occurs within the system

that the crew should be able
to counter it.

- The FDR data can show us
when the MCAS activated.

- The team studies how MCAS
behaved for Flight 302.

- Here, here, and here.

The plane pitches down
even though the pilots

are pulling up
on their control columns.

- The faulty sensor led to
four separate activations

of the MCAS system,

driving the plane's nose down

as the pilots
were trying to pitch up.

The fourth MCAS activation
pitched the nose down

when the plane was only
6,000 feet above the ground.

It put the plane into
a steep and rapid descent...

- Pitch up! Pitch up!

- ...from which the pilots
could not recover.

(automated voice): Pull up.

(metal clattering)

(narrator): So why couldn't
the pilots disable the MCAS

even though they followed
the recommended procedure?

Investigators examine
Flight 302's speed

leading up to the crew's
attempt to override the MCAS.

- They lift off at 140 knots.
Absolutely perfect.

But as they climb,
their speed increases.

It reaches 340 knots

by the time they try to use
manual trim.

The overspeed warning
sounds here

and stays on
for the rest of the flight.

(John): Normally, you would be
in the 220-250 knot range.

This was a hundred knots
plus faster than that.

- No wonder they couldn't
move their trim wheel.

- The speed increased the air
load on the stabilizer,

making it impossible
for the pilots

to move it manually
with their trim wheel.

(straining)
- It's not working.

- Once you get to high speed,

you're no longer strong enough
as a human to move it.

- Why such high speed?

- Have a look at their
auto-throttle setting.

They lift off

with the auto-throttle
in takeoff mode.

Right about here,

the auto-throttle should be
pulling back from takeoff thrust

to climb thrust.

But that never happens.
It stays at max takeoff thrust.

- Same sensor, I guess.
- Uh-huh.

- The auto-throttle
is also connected

to the left-side
angle of attack sensor.

- Once the sensor failed,

that disabled
the auto throttle system,

so the power stayed
where it was.

- We're having flight
control problems.

- As they dealt with
the escalating crisis,

the pilots didn't notice
that their thrust levers

remained at maximum
takeoff power.

- 737s are very powerful jets.

And they will continue
to accelerate very rapidly

if you don't reduce the power.

- Boeing didn't say anything
about the trim wheel

being difficult to move.

- Or about airspeed.

- The Ethiopian investigators
now turn their attention

to the advice Boeing gave pilots
after the Lion Air accident.

- The Lion Air flight

had necessitated
this airworthiness directive.

So the question becomes,
was that enough?

- No mention of MCAS.

No mention of how much force
may be needed to trim manually.

No mention of airspeed.

- That's a lot to leave out.

- The investigation
has uncovered shortcomings

in the guidance Boeing provided
following the Lion Air accident.

In Indonesia, investigators
have discovered

that a maintenance error
led to the failure

of the crucial angle of attack,
or A-O-A sensor,

in the Lion Air Accident.

What caused its failure
on the Ethiopian flight?

Investigators examine
maintenance records

for any evidence of trouble.

(Lorenda): So the Ethiopian
investigation did look into

the maintenance to the sensor.
There was none.

It's the original
install to the airplane.

- They do uncover several
other maintenance issues

on the four-month-old plane.

- That's a lot of electrical
faults for a brand-new airplane.

- The Ethiopian team suspects
the A-O-A sensor on Flight 302

failed due to an underlying
electrical fault.

The sensor failure is also being
scrutinized by the NTSB.

- We also looked at how
the A-O-A could fail

and what that failure
would look like.

- That analysis is coming to
a very different conclusion

about the origins
of the failure.

(vehicle honking)

- 44 seconds after
they start to roll,

this happens.

The captain's
angle of attack, airspeed,

and altitude values deviate.

- The NTSB travels
to Collins Aerospace,

the manufacturer of
the angle of attack sensor,

and asks their engineers
to look at the fault data

for Flight 302.

- Six seconds later,

the heater on the sensor
goes offline.

(beeping)
- Master caution, anti-ice.

- Okay...

- These simultaneous failures
all point to one thing.

- The sensor broke off,
it's the only explanation.

- To determine what
could have caused

the sensor to break off...

- Have a look at this.

- ...they compare the FDR data
to data from a bird strike.

- They're almost identical.

(Lorenda): The U.S.
investigation side

felt that the data supported
more of a in-flight impact

with the angle of attack sensor.

- The hazard posed by eagles
and other large birds

is well-known at
Addis Ababa's airport.

- The airport in Addis Ababa had
had problems with bird strikes.

The airport had several
mitigation strategies in place

because of that.

(automated voice): V1.

- Rotate.

- Collins Aerospace
concludes that,

as Flight 302
lifted off the ground,

a bird struck the sensor,
tearing the vane from the hub.

- Gear up.

(stick whirring)

- We are having flight
control problems.

- Whether the sensor failed

due to electrical failure
or a bird strike,

investigators now know why
Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302

crashed shortly after takeoff.

- Here's the chain of events.

The failed sensor triggers
a series of warnings and alarms.

- Gear up.
(stick whirring)

(alarm beeping)

- The erroneous
angle of attack data

causes MCAS to activate,
pitching the nose down.

(automated voice): Don't sink.
Don't sink. Don't sink.

- They do what Boeing recommends

and move the trim
switches to cutout.

- Stab trim cutout?
Stab trim cutout?

- Yes, yes do it!

- Stab trim cutout.

- But they're unable
to manually trim.

The wheel is almost
impossible to move.

They never recover.

(grunting with effort)

- Not enough pitch.
Not enough pitch!

- It was very obvious to them

that they no longer
had control of the airplane

and that they couldn't
stop this.

Recovery was impossible.

- Pitch up! Pitch!

Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!

(emotional music)

(metal clattering)

(narrator): For the NTSB,

the MAX 8 accidents
provided a valuable lesson

about assumptions
made by aircraft manufacturers

regarding how pilots
respond to emergencies.

- I think these two accidents

are gonna be
the watershed events

on how we look at
the human factors

for design and certification.

- As a result
of the two accidents,

Boeing overhauls
the MAX 8's MCAS system.

The MCAS system now relies
on information from two sensors.

It will only activate once,

and it will not override
pilots' ability

to control the airplane
with the control column.

Boeing also offers pilots
enhanced training

on the MCAS system.

Many feel the changes Boeing
made to the MAX 8 came too late.

- Ethiopian 302
should have been prevented.

Boeing should have got to
the root causes of the problems

on the Lion Air flight.

Boeing didn't.

- For the devastated family
of Danielle Moore,

Boeing's greater failure

was not advising pilots
about the danger of MCAS.

- The bulletin from Boeing

was not good enough
to prevent an accident.

The plane was still unsafe.

And it cost the life
of my daughter and 157 people.

- In November 2020,
after a 20-month grounding,

the MAX 8 is cleared to fly.

(soft piano music)

Subtitling: difuze