All language subtitles for M.2003-S24E02-Terror.Over.the.Pacific.United.Airlines.Flight.811.WEBDL-1080pEAC3.5.1h264-NOGRP_track3_[eng]

(explosion)

(narrator): A massive explosion
tears a hole

in the side of a 7-47.

- What the hell was that?
- I don't know.

(Officer Slater): Center,
United 8-11 heavy.

We had a bomb
or something go off.

We are descending rapidly.

- Everybody stay in your seat!

- Everything that wasn't bolted
down just took off out.

- People are gone,
the seats are gone, there
was nothing there anymore.

(narrator): NTSB investigators
suspect a crime.

(Ron Schleede): We were
quite convinced

that it was probably terrorism.
(beeping)

(narrator): But the physical
evidence tells a different
story.

(investigator): Check this out.
- I see it.

(Ron Schleede): It was very
perplexing to us why this had
happened

and how it could have
happened.

(theme music)

(narrator): United Airlines
Flight 8-11

departs from Honolulu Airport
just before 2:00 a.m.

(soft music)

- Gear up.

- Gear up.

(narrator): Captain David Cronin
is at the controls of
tonight's flight.

It's his penultimate flight
before retiring.

(Dave Cronin): I flew almost
35 years with United.

L-NAV V-NAV.

I've got over 30 000 hours
of flight time

in just about everything,
military as well as civilian.

Autopilot on.

- Check.

(narrator): First Officer
Al Slader is also
an experienced pilot

who's flown with United
for 25 years.

- Climb thrust.

(narrator): There's a third
pilot in the cockpit.

- Is set.

(narrator): Second Officer
Randal Thomas, the flight
engineer.

- APU is off.

(Rick McCullough): When you get
to the point where you're
flying an aircraft like a 7-47,

you are probably among the most
experienced people on
the airline.

And that was certainly
true for this crew.

(narrator): There are
337 passengers on board.

Stuart McClure, his mother and
younger brother

are headed to Australia
for a family visit.

- My stepfather
was an executive
for United Airlines

so he was over there
on business.

My mom decided to join him but
didn't want to fly alone

so brought us
two boys with her.

(narrator): Flight 8-11's next
stop is Auckland, New Zealand

for a stopover, before flying
on to Sydney, Australia.

(♪♪)

(thunder)

The Boeing 7-47 is a large,
long-range,

wide-body airliner
powered by four turbofan
engines.

(Rick McCullough): It's just
one of the most amazing
airplanes ever built.

Upwards of a million pounds
of takeoff weight,

can travel
seventy-five hundred miles
with reserves.

The cruise speed of
the airplane is Mach
point-eight-five,

which is well over
six hundred miles an hour.

And it will outrun pretty much
any airliner available today.

(thunder)

- I don't think we're gonna top
that son of a gun.

(narrator): There are
thunderstorms ahead.

- Ah, let's see here.

(thunder)

(Dave Cronin): We did notice
that there were thunderstorms,

so I left the seat belt sign on.

(narrator): There are 16 flight
attendants onboard tonight's
flight.

One of them is Leonard Jenkins,
who is off duty.

(Leonard Jenkins):
So, we get underway.

Everything seemed pretty normal.

I really was just getting ready
to take my eight-hour nap.

- Okay, tell them we're gonna
detour over to the left.

- Center, United 8-11 heavy,

we're gonna be detourin',
There's some weather.

We're gonna be going
left of course.

- United 8-11, deviation
as necessary approved.

- Roger.

- Airliners do not fly through
thunderstorms

because it would
be insane to do so.

(thunder)

The lightning, the wind,
perhaps funnel clouds...

There are a lot of ways that
a thunderstorm can kill you
in an airplane.

- It looks like that's the end
of it right there to the right.

(narrator): Almost nine minutes
into the flight,

just as they get past
the storm...

(explosion)

(dramatic music)

- What the hell was that?

- I don't know.

- I'm taking us down
and back to Honolulu.

- Center, United 8-11 heavy,
we have a mayday.

We had a bomb
or something go off.

(Second Officer Thomas):
The engine!

- We've lost number three
engine...

(narrator): The right inboard
engine is inoperative.

(Officer Slater): ... and
we are descending rapidly.

Coming back.

- United 8-11 heavy roger,
keep center advised.

We have an emergency situation.

- You need to land at
the nearest suitable airport

and that would be Honolulu
right behind them.

- Call the flight attendant.

- Copy.

(narrator): To fly the plane
back to safety,

Captain Cronin
needs to assess the damage.

(passengers screaming)

But cannot.

(Stuart McClure): A huge
explosion seemed to rock
the whole plane.

Just a huge pop.

And everything that wasn't
bolted down

just took off out.

I saw this huge cloud of smoke
and thought to myself,

"This is not real.
This is something in my dream.
I've gotta wake up."

(narrator): The air is escaping
from the cabin, it's difficult
to breathe.

(Leonard Jenkins): Everything
just kind of went crazy.

It knocked the wind out of me,
and I kept thinking to myself,

this is like -- it feels like
I'm suffocating.

- Put your mask on, Dave.

- Okay.

I'm not getting any oxygen.

(narrator): The explosion
has damaged the plane's
oxygen supply

to the crew
and the passengers.

- We're not getting
oxygen either.

(narrator): The pilots must
get the plane down to 10,000
feet quickly,

before they run out
of breathable air.

(dramatic music)

(Rick McCullough): First
things first.

Get the airplane down where
everybody is safe

in terms of being able
to breathe normally,

then work the other problems.

- Everybody stay
in your seats!

- The next thing I remember,
I was not in my seat anymore.

And I was standing against
the bulkhead.

- Stay in your seats!

(Leonard Jenkins): The whole
right side of the airplane,

like the people are gone,
the seats are gone,

there was nothing
there anymore.

It was like a picture window.

I could see the whitecaps
of the ocean.

I could see the two engines.

(♪♪)

(narrator): Captain Cronin
is having trouble turning
the plane back to Honolulu.

- We've got a control
problem here.

(narrator): With a full load
of fuel onboard,

it's difficult to steer.

- Start dumping the fuel.
- I'm dumping.

(ATC): United 8-11 heavy,

when able forward the souls
on board and fuel at landing.

(Officer Slater): Ah, okay,
stand-by.

We'll give you the information
as quickly as possible.

(ATC): United 8-11 heavy,
roger.

(narrator): And their troubles
keep increasing.

- Ah, we got a problem
with number four engine.

(narrator): The right out board
engine is overheating.

- Can you maintain two-forty?

- Yes, just barely.

(Rick McCullough): You've got
all this fuel 'cause you're
going to Auckland,

and now you've lost two engines
and you've descended rapidly.

The crew is facing
a very serious situation.

- We're losing altitude.

- I know it.

(dramatic music)

- With that kind of weight,

two engines are not gonna
keep you in the air.

You're gonna come down.

(passengers screaming)

(Stuart McClure):
You're helpless. You have
no control

over what's
about to happen to you.

At that point, I realized,
"Okay. This is where we die."

(♪♪)

- Watch your heading.
Watch your heading.

You wanna go direct to...
we're going direct to Honolulu.

- Yeah.

(narrator): Eight minutes
after an explosion onboard
United Flight 8-11,

the pilots struggle
to keep their aircraft from
plunging into the Pacific Ocean.

- Okay, I'm going downstairs to
see what the hell is going on.

- We got a fire out there.

- There's a fire out there?

(♪♪)

(Leonard Jenkins): There was
an engine on fire.

With fuel, there was like
a stream of fire.

You'd just see flames just
streaming out the back
of the engines.

- It looks like
it's engine number four.

- Go through the procedure
to shut the engine down.

(wing blowing)

(narrator): Second officer,
Randal Thomas, reaches one
of the flight attendants.

- Please get us down.

- The right side is gone from
about the first row right back.

It's just open.

You're just looking outside.

- What do you mean?
- It looks like a bomb.

The fuselage is just open.

- You mean, the whole right side
is gone?

- From about row one right back
to ah...

- Is anybody...?

- Some people are probably gone.

I don't know.

(Dave Cronin): You know it's...
it's a terrible thing

when you're a captain
of an airplane and
you lose passengers.

We got a real problem here.

(narrator): Not only have
the pilots lost thrust in
the two right engines,

now their instruments
aren't providing direction
to the airport.

They will need the controller
to guide them in.

- Center Unit 8-11 heavy.

We need a vector now.

We're losing VOR.
We're down to sixty-five
hundred.

We evidently had
a bomb or something.

A big section of the right side
of the airplane is missing.

- United 8-11 heavy, do you
have the airport in sight

and clear for
a visual approach?

(narrator): The controller gives
the pilots permission

to conduct
a visual approach instead.

But they're still too far
out to see the airport.

- Uh, we're still 45 DME
so you watch us.

- United 8-11,
I have you on radar.

- We gotta get down
in weight here.

- I say we land overweight.

We're at 652-thousand pounds
right now.

(narrator): Even though Flight
8-11 has been dumping fuel,

it's still 90,000 pounds over
the safe landing weight.

- We've got 45 miles to go.

- United 8-11, uh, you're
missing the right side

of the cabin
or the right wing, sir?

(Officer Slater): That's
affirmative, we're missing
a section

of the right side
of the airplane.

Part of the fuselage is missing.

We need all medical equipment
we can get

and all equipment
standing by.

- United 8-11 heavy, roger.

- Okay, put your harnesses on

and plan for evacuation.

Tell 'em.

- Oh, you bet.

Honolulu, United 8-11 heavy.

We do plan to evacuate
on the runway.

(controller): United 8-11
heavy, roger.

- Okay, let me try to talk
to the flight attendant.

(ring tone)

(phone ringing)

(narrator): In the cabin,
the crew is preparing

the passengers
for ditching.

(Leonard Jenkins): It was loud.

We ran around getting
life vests on people.

It's a feeling of like,
I'm not sure this is really
gonna matter

at this point
when we hit the water.

(ring tone)

- I can't reach them down there.

(dramatic music)

- I say we land with 10 degrees.

(narrator): 10 miles
from the airport,

the pilots make the final
preparations for landing.

- We're higher than hell.

(narrator): But the airport
still isn't anywhere in sight.

- United 8-11 turn right
heading zero seven zero.

- It's right there
down to your right.

- Okay.

(narrator): The pilots
must now make a right turn

with no right side
engines.

- You've got all of the thrust
coming out

of these two turbofan engines
on the left hand side.

And you've got two of 'em that
aren't developing any thrust.

(narrator): It's a dangerous
maneuver.

If done incorrectly, the thrust
from the left engines

could put the plane
into a steep roll.

(Dave Cronin): We're either
going to land on the airport,
in the water,

or drastically change
the topography

of downtown Honolulu.

(narrator): With a massive hole
in the fuselage,

more than 45,000 pounds
overweight,

two dead engines,
and unknown damage
to the control surfaces,

the pilots of United 8-11

manage to line up
with the runway in Honolulu.

- United 8-11 is cleared
to land eight left.

Equipment is standing by.

Wind zero five zero one two.

- Cleared to land eight left,
United 8-11 heavy.

- Okay, well...

...let's try the gear.

(passengers screaming)

(dramatic music)

- Heads down.

- I see lights.

- Brace.

Brace.

(passengers screaming)

(Stuart McClure): That's where
it really became

very,
very real for us.

We knew that whatever
was gonna happen to us,

we were gonna do it
together.

- I'm coming off on the power.

(narrator): Moments from
touchdown,

the pilots slow the plane

to make it easier to stop
the overweight aircraft.

(engine revving)

- Fifty feet.

- Watch your trim.
- Thirty...

- Center the trim,
center the trim.

- ...ten.

(engine revving)

- It was unbelievable
how fast we were going.

- I'm gonna reverse.

- On number two only because
they're still at 170.

(narrator): The pilots hope
reverse engine power

will stop the plane
before the runway ends.

(engine slowing down)

- Prepare to evacuate.

- Probably the best landing
I've ever made.

(sirens in the distance)

- Shut 'em down.

- Shut down the engines.

(sirens)

(soft music)

(narrator): Twenty-five minutes
after the explosion,

Flight 8-11 has returned
to Honolulu Airport.

Nine of the 337 passengers

were blown out of the airplane
over the Pacific.

The search for them and
the wreckage begins immediately.

- It was a huge area

and very difficult for us
to pinpoint

where over the water
it actually occurred.

(narrator): Ron Schleede
from the National Transportation
Safety Board,

or NTSB,
leads the investigation.

(Ron Schleede): We flew
out of Washington

and went into Honolulu.

An FBI agent went with us,
the bomb expert.

They have jurisdiction
to investigate for
criminal activity.

- That hole's gotta be
at least 10 feet wide
by 15 feet high.

The forward cargo door
is missing too.

(narrator): The Boeing 7-47
has two cargo doors
on the right side:

the aft and the forward
cargo doors.

(Ron Schleede): We could see
from the ground cargo
and baggage,

and we could see the remains
of seats in the cabin area.

(Greg Phillips): Looking
at the airframe itself
becomes important...

...the direction of failures,
whether you have damage

from inside the aircraft
to outside,

or if they had damages
from outside in.

(intriguing music)

- The floor is buckled.

Some of the seats are missing.

The decompression likely
broke the cabin floor beams.

- We were quite convinced
that it was probably terrorism.

There's damage on the leading
edge, and on the engines.

The damage to the wing and
engines is likely caused by
debris that came off the plane.

There is no sign of pitting.

(narrator): Upon closer
examination,

investigators find
no obvious signs of a bomb.

(Ron Schleede): The NTSB guys
generally have an idea

of what they are looking for...

...a petaling of the metal.

They saw no evidence of that.

No signs of fatigue
or corrosion either.

Once the FBI took the swabs
for chemical residue and
tested them,

they reported they were
all negative

and that was pretty conclusive
evidence that there
was not a bomb.

(narrator): The team now
considers whether there was

some kind of structural
failure to the aircraft.

- All of the fractures appeared
to be

fresh overstress damage,

not any pre-existing damage.

This made us consider
that there was a problem

with the door itself.

We have some wiring
from the door here.

(narrator): NTSB investigators
turn their attention

to what remains
of the cargo door system.

- Okay.
What else have we got?

(narrator): Instead of using
a plug door,

which is stowed inside
the cargo hold and
gets jammed

into the frame
as the plane pressurizes,

Boeing designed the 7-47
with an outward opening door

to create more space
for cargo in the hold.

(Ron Schleede): It looks like
we at least have the pins.

(narrator): Investigators find
a key component of the locking
mechanism...

...the latch pins
for the cargo door.

(narrator): The new 7-47 cargo
door design

uses a three-staged
locking system.

An exterior switch electrically
powers the door

to a near-closed position.

C-shaped latches, or cams,
then rotate around pins.

A handle on the exterior
of the door

lowers metal sectors which
secure the latches in place.

- There's some wear on the pins.

But hard to tell
for sure what it means.

There was transfer of metal
and discoloration.

We couldn't tell for sure what
the damage was

so we had to remove the pins
and take them

to a laboratory
for further analysis.

- There's some wear for sure.

But it's likely from
the latches rotating

around the pins
as the door closes.

- It makes sense.

(intriguing music)

- Hang on.

Have a look.

(narrator): Investigators
find evidence of heat tinting

on the surface
of the pin.

- I see it.

(narrator): Heat tinting
occurs when the surface
oxide layer

of stainless steel changes color
due to heating.

- There's also some metal
transfer from the latches
on the pins.

- You're right.

(narrator): The presence
of latch material on the pins

suggests the separation
of the cargo door

was extremely fast
and violent.

(explosion)

- The amount of force
to cause the transfer of metal

from the latches
to the pins had to be enormous.

There's metal from the latch

in the same place on every pin.

(narrator): The location
of the latch metal on the pins

gives investigators
their first big break.

- The latches were open
when the door came off.

(Ron Schleede): The locking
mechanism of the cargo door

was designed
to be failsafe.

So it was very perplexing
to us

why this had happened and how
it could have happened.

I'm checking the FAA records.

- I'll go through
the Boeing ones.

(narrator): Has the locking
system on the 7-47 cargo door
failed before?

- I've got something.

Two years ago,

there was an incident
on another 7-47.

Look at that in March 1987,

Pan American Flight 1-2-5
was en route from London
to New York,

when there was
a pressurization problem.

The door was open
an inch and a half.

The Pan Am agent used a wrench
to close the door manually.

And once he got it closed,

he inadvertently backed
the wrench up

and opened the door slightly.

(narrator): The Pan Am
latches were manually turned

to the open position
and the lock sectors
were broken.

- How can the force of a socket
wrench break the sectors?

- Well...
Look, get this,

the lock sectors...

...they were made
of a weak material.

The locking sectors
were made of aluminum,

so they would bend and break.

- What action was taken after
the Pan Am incident?

- The FAA issued...

...an Airworthiness Directive

...requiring that each
lock sector

be reinforced
with a steel doubler.

See, United Airlines, they had
18 to 24 months to do it.

Maybe they hadn't got
the work done yet.

- I'll check United's
maintenance records.

(narrator): Did Flight 8-11
have weak lock sectors?

- It looks like the lock sectors
hadn't been replaced yet.

- At the time of the accident,
the accident airplane

still had the aluminum sectors

because it wasn't scheduled
to be replaced for two months.

Did you have any issues
closing the door?

- Not at all, it closed fine.

(narrator): Investigators
consider how the door
was closed

and if the latches
were over-rotated,
like the ones on Pan Am 1-25.

- Did you close the door
electrically or manually?

- I closed it electrically.

I wouldn't have closed it
manually.

It takes too much effort.

(Ron Schleede): What
do you mean?

- You have to crank the wrench
95 times.

(Ron Schleede): The ramp agent
on 8-11 did not use

a power tool
as was used on the Pan Am.

This left us without any
explanation for what happened.

- What'd you find out?

- Well, the ramp agent closed
the door electrically,

properly using the switch.

And the dispatch mechanic said

he did a circle check of
the plane prior to departure.

He checked the forward cargo
door with a flashlight,

and it was flush
to the aircraft.

What about the cargo door
indicator light in the cockpit?

- Well...

The Second Officer said
that the light went out.

(narrator): Investigators
confirm that the Second Officer

saw the cargo door light in
the cockpit go off,

indicating that
the door was closed.

While NTSB investigators
consider other reasons

why the cargo door opened;

they get an update
on recovery efforts.

- They mapped the currents
and narrowed the debris field
to 12 square miles.

(narrator): Finding the lost
cargo door might be

the key to the investigation.

(Ron Schleede): But take a look
at the depth...

...14,000 feet.

(narrator): Recovery teams
aren't able to search

for wreckage at a depth
of 14,000 feet.

- At that point, the deepest
we had ever searched

and recovered wreckage was
6000 feet under the water.

If the door was properly closed,

then maybe it
subsequently opened

due to an electrical problem.

(narrator): Did the electrical
system accidentally open
the door in flight?

- According to the manual,
when the plane lifts off
the ground,

all power to the door
is disconnected.

- Electrical operation
of the door to open it
in-flight was impossible.

If not in the air, then...

...maybe on the ground.

We considered that
there possibly could have been
a short

in the electrical system
that caused the door
to unlatch on the ground.

This everything?

- Almost.

We have all the electrical
switches except one.

(narrator): Investigators
perform continuity testing
on the cargo door switches

and relays recovered
from the aircraft.

(beeping)
- This one's good.

(beeping)
As is this one.

(beeping)

- Check this out.

- That's a burn mark.

(narrator): They also notice
that some of the wiring
insulation has stripped off.

- That switch
is a closed circuit.

It has nothing to do
with opening the door.

(narrator): The exposed wire
on the switch

could not have caused
the cargo door to open.

(beeping)

- We had ruled out
most electrical system failures

as the cause of the accident,

so that had us
look at other options.

(intriguing music)

- Here you go.

(narrator): The team
now considers whether
a mechanical failure

caused the cargo door
to open.

- Maybe there's something here.

(narrator): Investigators
review the operations
of the cargo door

on four United 7-47s
at Honolulu Airport.

- This is strange.

It says here that one
of the ramp agents

kicked on a cargo door
to get it open.

(narrator): They discover
an instance of a cargo door

opening only
with the use of force.

- When we heard that the ramp
agents had to kick the door,

we figured that there was
some type of mis-alignment,

mis-rigging of the cargo door
and its locking mechanisms.

- Maybe the door kicking
was just an isolated case.

(narrator): Investigators
turn to the maintenance report
of the Flight 8-11 aircraft

to determine if there was ever
a fit issue with the forward
cargo door.

- No fit or alignment issues
were ever reported.

- Right but check out
when the plane was inspected.

- When it was empty.

(narrator): A 7-47
fully loaded with people,
fuel and cargo

can add upwards
of 300,000 thousand pounds
to the aircraft

causing the fuselage
to bend and distort.

- Get this.

In December 1988,

there were eight write-ups
about door misalignment.

(narrator): Two months before
the accident,

the forward cargo door
failed to close fully,

under electrical operation.

- An ill-fitting door
could cause the latching motors

to not drive the latches
fully closed.

- Did United fix the problem?

(narrator): Investigatororh
on United Flight 8-11

couldn't properly close
the misaligned cargo door.

But was it ever repaired?

- The maintenance was deferred

because they would close
the door manually.

- If there was a fit issue and
they would close it manually,

that would explain the wear
marks we found on the pins.

- The wear on the door
indicated a long history

of manual operation
and mis-rigging of the door.

(narrator): Even worse,
with repeated manual opening

and closing of
a misaligned door,

the lock sectors
could easily have been damaged

if the latches
were being over-rotated.

With the latches and lock
sectors still at the bottom
of the sea,

the NTSB is forced to conclude
that the cargo door

was sufficiently misaligned
to prevent it from closing
properly.

- When we write the final report
of an accident,

we present the evidence
that we have

and make our best conclusions
based on that evidence.

We knew there was mechanical
damage to the door.

We suspected that was the cause,

and that's the way
we wrote the report.

(narrator): In April of 1990,
the NTSB published
its findings.

The report recommends the FAA
issue a directive

requiring the installation
of a device to prevent

the latches
from over-rotating.

- But we wanted to get the door.

We really wanted to find
the door to prove our theory.

Yeah.
(indistinct chatter)

(phone ringing)

Just one second.

Hello.

(narrator): Three months after
the NTSB

publishes its report
on United Flight 8-11,

the US Navy offers to assist
the recovery efforts.

- Side scan sonar?

Uh-huh.

The Navy came to me
and said,

"We've got a system
that we're testing."

It was experimental,

a new sonar system.

And it was at the time
classified.

(narrator): A side scan sonar
device towed from a ship

emits high-frequency
sound pulses that bounce off

the seafloor to create an image
of the seabed

and any debris
that might be lying on it.

- 14,000 feet, really?

(narrator): With the ability
to scan deeper than
previously possible,

the Navy offers to test
the device in the Pacific Ocean.

- Alright.
Let's do it.

They said, "We would like
to try and test it
on that door."

And they would do it
for no cost to us.

And we said, "Sure."

(grand music)

- Nothing in this sector.

(narrator): NTSB Investigator
Frank Hilldrup

is onboard the vessel
searching for the cargo door.

- I felt a lot of pressure.

This accident represented
one of the deepest recoveries

that was gonna be attempted.

(narrator): They search
an area of 12 square miles

divided into 57 sectors.

(beeping)

- Hang on.

I think we got something.

(narrator): The team finds
evidence of a debris field.

- There was pretty high
confidence

that they were
in the right area.

And the experts can tell roughly
what they're looking at.

Is it metallic in nature?
Is it a good return?

(narrator): A three-person
submersible vehicle

called the Sea Cliff
is deployed.

The expedition confirms
the debris is from Flight 8-11,

but finding the cargo door
proves difficult.

- We had some problems
with weather,
with a hurricane,

with equipment failure,
so there was a lot
of stops and starts.

(radio transmission):
Sea Cliff to Laney Chouest...

(narrator): After two months
of searching...

(radio transmission): We have
the door.

(narrator):
...the missing piece is found.

(Ron Schleede): The door was
in two pieces on the bottom
of the ocean

and we had to recover
both pieces,

get them on the ship
and take them to Honolulu.

(narrator): With the complete
locking system recovered,

investigators try to confirm
their theory

that a misaligned cargo door
caused the lock sectors
to break.

- Just like we thought.

The latches were
in the open position.

- Check this out.

(narrator): But then,
they discover

something unexpected
and critical.

- These sectors aren't broken.

They're just bent.

(Frank Hilldrup): The lock
sectors were largely intact.

They weren't damaged like
we expected them to be.

So that led us in a little bit
more of another direction.

- No visible evidence
of any burning or arcing.

(narrator): Investigators
now reconsider

a theory
they previously rejected.

That there was an electrical
issue with the door.

- No signs
of heat distress either.

- One of the things you can do
is look inside the switches

and see their condition.

We always examine the wiring.

We look for nicks or cuts when
the wires are bundled together.

- Check this out.

(narrator): Investigators find
a crucial piece of evidence.

- There's chaffing on some
of the wires in this bundle.

(narrator): It's proof
that the conditions for
a short circuit existed.

(Greg Phillips): All it takes
for a short-circuit to happen

is for that conductor
that's inside that insulation

to touch another wire
or touch a piece of metal.

So we're always concerned
about wiring in airplanes.

- All set?

(narrator): Can a short circuit
open a locked door

on a 7-47?

- It looks good.
Give it a try.

(spark, mechanical sound)

(sighing)
- Well, there you have it.

- We determined that probably
the short circuit could have
caused the,

uh, the motor start
to engage the latch cams
and, uh, open the door.

- So we know there's no power
to the door once the wheels lift
off the ground.

And the door was closed
and locked here.

- So, the short happened
somewhere here,

during taxi.

(narrator): The short circuit
causes the latch

to partially open
when the plane is still
on the ground.

Then, when the plane
approaches 23,000 feet ...

(explosion)

(narrator): ... the significant
pressure differential
between the inside

and the outside forces
the door open

and causes a massive
decompression onboard.

(passengers screaming)

Nine people are lost.

(phone ringing)

- Hello.

(narrator): Nine months after
recovering the cargo door,

investigators
get disturbing news.

- Thank you.

It happened again.

(narrator): Another United 7-47
cargo door

opened while on the tarmac
in New York.

Despite these incidents,
the fleet is never grounded.

- I felt uh, anger, you know.

Rage.

My heart just goes out
to the...to the victims.

(narrator): Two years after
the accident,

the NTSB publishes
a second report,

updating the cause.

(Ron Schleede): The opening of
a cargo door on a large aircraft

is a catastrophic event.

It's an unacceptable event.

It's like a wing falling off.

The FAA and Boeing took more
than two years to require
changes.

(Leonard Jenkins): I remember
it like it was yesterday.

It just doesn't hurt
so much and...

...you don't think
about it 24/7.

(Stuart McClure): The experience
and the event that night,

it told me I needed to make
my life matter,

whether it be with the people
that I share it with
every single day,

or with what I put my energy
towards every single day.

The nine that didn't make it

would expect that of us,
and of me.

(soft music)

Subtitling: difuze