All language subtitles for M.2003-S24E06-Under.Fire.Saudia.Flight.163.WEBDL-1080pEAC3.5.1h264-NOGRP_track3_[eng]

(narrator): Soon after
departing Riyadh,

the pilots of Saudia Flight
1-6-3 get terrifying news.

- Fire! Fire in the cabin!

- A fire in the cabin can spread
very, very rapidly.

- Fire equipment is in standby
positions and ready.

- The passengers were
probably terrified.

(coughing)

(narrator): They're able
to return to the airport.

- Okay, we are shutting down the
engines now and evacuating.

(narrator): But only
minutes later...

- Saudia, 1-6-3, do you read?

(narrator): ...everyone
onboard is dead.

- None of it made any sense.

(narrator): Investigators
discovery critical evidence

on the cockpit voice recorder.

- It's just smoke in the aft.

- And continually downplaying
the situation.

- If he had gone back
to see for himself,

then perhaps things
would have been different.

- Mayday, Mayday!

(indistinct radio chatter)

(narrator): It's twenty
past nine on a hot evening

at Saudi Arabia's Riyadh
International Airport.

- Saudia 1-1-2 line up and hold.

Clear to leave Riyadh via DURMA.

Climb and maintain three five
zero, left turn from takeoff.

(narrator): In the tower,
controllers are handling
a full roster of flights.

Most are scheduled after sunset
when the heat dies down.

Everything
is running smoothly...

(radio): Riyadh, Saudia 1-6-3.

(narrator): ...until a recently
departed Saudia flight calls in.

- Go ahead.
- Uh, 1-6-3,

we're returning back to Riyadh.

(narrator): ...which
changes everything.

- Cleared to reverse course
back to Riyadh.

Request reason.

(radio): Saudia 1-6-3,
we've got a fire in the cabin

and please alert
the fire trucks.

- This is extremely dangerous.

It doesn't get any more
serious than this.

This is basically a pilot's
worst-case nightmare.

- Okay, cleared back.

You can descend to any
altitude you'd like.

- 1-6-3, we can descend
to any altitude.

- When an aircraft reports
to the air traffic control tower

that they have a fire onboard,

they clear other airplanes
out of the way

and that airplane is given
top priority to land

and an evacuation
should then ensue.

(narrator): The flight
originated in Karachi, Pakistan

before stopping over in Riyadh.

It was heading to Jeddah
but now must turn back.

- You are number one
for landing.

- 1-6-3.

(narrator): Saudia Flight 1-6-3
is a Tristar L-10-11.

- The L-10-11 is a three engine,

wide body, long-range
transport airplane.

It was designed to go very
long distances,

carry hundreds of people,
had excellent performance,

and mechanically reliable.

(narrator): There are 287
passengers on board

and some at the rear
of the cabin are having
difficulty breathing.

(coughing)
The smoke is the first

indication of a fire the pilots
reported to air traffic control.

- The passengers were
probably terrified,

and the aircraft needed to be on
the ground as soon as possible.

(narrator): 38-year-old
Captain Mohammed Ali Khowyter
is the pilot flying.

He's been with Saudia
for fifteen years

and is now responsible
for getting the plane
and passengers back safely.

26-year-old first officer,
Sami Abdullah Hasanain

is the pilot monitoring.

(radio): How many passengers
on board?

(pilot, on radio):
We've got a full load.

- I would declare an emergency.

- Yeah.

(narrator): American Bradley
Curtis is the flight engineer.

- You really could not fly
an airplane like the L-10-11

without a flight engineer
to manage

all of the aircraft systems
that modern day aircraft

are all done by automation.

(narrator): Flight 1-6-3
is now less than four minutes
from the airport...

(coughing)
- Ladies and gentlemen,

please stay in your seats.

(narrator): Emergency crews
are standing by.

(radio): Riyadh, Saudia 1-6-3,
ten miles final.

Runway in sight.
Are we cleared to land?

- 1-6-3, cleared to land,
wind three two zero at five.

- Cleared to land.
Can you confirm you alerted
the fire trucks?

- Affirmative.
- Thank you.

Riyadh, Saudia 1-6-3.

(narrator): As the smoke
in the cabin increases,

the purser does her best to
prepare passengers for landing.

(coughing)

- Place your hands
behind your head,

head between your knees.

(narrator): Saudia 1-6-3
has been on fire

for at least 17 minutes.

- A fire in the cabin can spread
very, very rapidly.

It can be very difficult
to contain.

So it becomes
a race against time.

- Saudia, 1-6-3,
fire equipment is in standby
positions and ready.

- Please advise the fire trucks
to be at the tail

of the airplane
after touchdown please.

- Yes, will do.

(computer): Thirty...

Twenty... Ten.

(narrator): The L-10-11
touches down

sixteen minutes after the crew
first called in the fire.

(sirens blaring)

- Tower, could you advise
if there is any fire

in the tail of the aircraft?
- Stand by.

Guys, do you see
a fire in the tail?

(narrator): The controller
checks with the fire team
on the ground.

- Negative. We don't see flames.

- No, no fire.

They say no,
nothing they can see.

- 1-6-3.

(narrator): Saudia 1-6-3
now turns onto a taxiway...

...and comes to a stop.

- Once the aircraft
comes to a full stop,

it, theoretically,
should be able to be evacuated

in under ninety seconds.

- Saudia 1-6-3, do you want
to continue to the ramp,

or do you want to shut down?

(pilot): Stand by...

Okay, we are shutting down
the engines now and evacuating.

- Okay, Saudia 1-6-3,

understand you are holding
and shutting down.

- Affirmative and evacuating.

- When you have a fire
in the cabin,

the available oxygen is being
eaten up very quickly.

Passengers cannot breathe.

They are being overcome
by smoke and fumes...

And you have to get the doors
open and get people out.

(narrator): The plane's
doors remain closed.

The fire is spreading.

- There's fire in the tail!

Tell him to turn
the engines off.

(narrator): Firefighters are
unable to approach the plane.

- With an aircraft of this size,

even with those engines
at idle speed,

they can actually still suck
individuals into the engines.

- The Captain said
he's switching off the engines

and evacuating now.
Put the fire out please.

- We can't because the engines
are still running.

The engines are still running,
I can hear them.

- So as these toxic substances
continue to build,

such as carbon monoxide,
eventually,

you lose consciousness
and you die.

- Saudia, 1-6-3, do you read?

Saudia 1-6-3, do you read?

Saudia 1-6-3, if you read,
shut down the engines.

(narrator): There's no response
from the cockpit

and no signs of an evacuation.

- So, none of it made any sense.

(narrator): Three minutes
and fifteen seconds

after stopping on the taxiway,
flames consume the aircraft.

Not a single person escapes.

- My heart breaks for them.

(narrator): The next morning,

the scale of the devastation
is clear.

The fire has obliterated
the upper fuselage

from tail fin to cockpit.

All 301 people
on board are dead.

It's the second deadliest

single aircraft
disaster to date.

- It was a very
tragic situation,

it was just inconceivable
to everyone.

(narrator): It's now up
to investigators

to sift through
the smoldering wreckage

to find out what happened.

- Flight 1-6-3 had two
main questions

to present to the investigators.

One was why the aircraft
came to a stop

and didn't evacuate
the passengers?

And the other was,
why was there a fire

on this aircraft
in the first place?

Transportation Safety Board,rl

or NTSB,

and the aircraft
manufacturer Lockheed

send investigators to Riyadh
to help the Saudis

determine the cause of the
catastrophic fire on Flight 163.

- The Saudis were in charge,

according to
international rules.

But they didn't have a lot
of major aircraft

accident experience,
so the U.S. NTSB

supported them and helped them
with the investigation.

- Just some soot.
The black box should be fine.

- The crew were found
in their seats.

But look at where
the passengers

and some of the flight
attendants were found.

(narrator): Investigators
discover that passengers

had moved forward
and gathered near the doors.

- After the airplane
came to a stop,

there must have been
mass confusion.

- Did they try to open
the doors?

- It doesn't look like it.

None of the emergency
handles were pulled.

- The fact that no one attempted
to open the doors

from the inside of the aircraft

leads me to believe that
they were already incapacitated

and could not open their doors.

(narrator): They examine
the devastated cabin

to figure out
how the fire started.

- It looks like someone tried
to put out the fire.

- The roof was totally gone.

The sides were gone.
Everything was burned away.

The seat frames with the fabrics
were all burned away.

Total destruction
in the cabin area.

- There's something at the back
you're gonna wanna see.

- Wow.

What do we have here?

(Ron): When we got to the back
part of the airplane,

on the left side, in the aisle,
was a hole in the floor.

- It looks like the fire
came up through the floor.

- Mm-hmm.

(narrator): The hole
is the investigators' first clue

about the origin of the fire.

(coughing)

- Yeah.
We need to get down there.

(Ron): Appeared to me,
that's where the fire started,

under that hole.

Because a fire burns up,
not down,

so that made us want to know
what was beneath that hole?

- Be careful there.

(narrator): Investigators
examine the cargo compartment

below the rear cabin.

- It looks like the fire
burned a hole

through the compartment
ceiling right here.

- The fuel lines are scorched.

- The throttle and flight
control cables are damaged too.

(narrator): On a Tristar,
the control cables,

throttle cables and fuel lines
run through an 8-inch space

above the rear cargo
compartment.

Did a burst fuel line
cause the fire?

(Bob): When investigating
any fire, you're looking

for the causes that may be very
obvious engineering things,

mechanical things
that you look at,

to try and see if you can
eliminate those sources
of fire and ignition.

(narrator): Investigators
also discover a burned-out hole

on the left side
of the compartment.

- It looks like
a burst hydraulic pipe,
some melted wires.

- Maybe an electrical short or a
hydraulic leak caused the fire?

(Ron): When we looked inside
that cargo compartment,

there were all kinds
of possibilities

of what could have
caused the fire.

(narrator): They remove
the charred mechanical

components for further testing.

- As part of the investigation,
there were several things

we wanted to eliminate
at the start, including:

was it electrical failure?

Was it a hydraulic
systems failure,

or some other
mechanical failure?

(narrator): If there is a fault
in one of the systems

on this plane,
then the Tristar fleet,

nearly 200 planes
flying worldwide,

could be at risk as well.

- We got the results.

(narrator): Lab tests have been
performed on the fuel,

electrical and hydraulic systems
from Saudia Flight 1-6-3.

- No detectable evidence that
the fuel system leaked.

- What about
the electrical system?

- No. There were no shorts.

And the hydraulic systems
were also fine.

(Ron): The tests we conducted
indicated that all the failures

that occurred with the systems
were caused by the fire.

They did not cause the fire.

- So the fire must have started
inside the cargo bay.

We need to rule out a bomb.

(Ron): A bomb expert from
the U.K. was brought in

and his expertise
is to determine

if there was explosives
or incendiary devices.

(narrator): Nine months earlier,
the Great Mosque in Mecca

was seized by insurgents
who called for the overthrow
of Saudi Arabia's rulers.

Hundreds of worshipers
were killed.

Did extremists plant a bomb
in the luggage compartment

of this flight headed to Mecca?

- No evidence
of a timing device.

No structural damage
suggesting an explosion.

No small fragments
in the structure.

- So no bomb.

- The bomb experts did
an exhaustive search

and examination of the wreckage.
Including was it electrical.

His investigation revealed
no explosives,

no incendiary devices.

- Let's check previous
cargo fires for patterns.

- Good idea.

(narrator): Are there any clues

from cases similar to that
of Saudia Flight 1-6-3?

(Ron): We looked at previous
in-flight fires

and fires on airplanes
in cargo compartments,

to see what caused those,

to see if it would point us
in a direction.

- Matches.
- Matches?

- Take a look.

Last year,
British officials identified

three different incidents
in which matches had started

a fire in luggage
being loaded onto a plane.

- Hard to believe
this is even possible.

(Ron): We had one incident
where the luggage

was thrown into the cargo pit.

It started smoking
and then caught fire.

And matches, in those days,
were not safety matches.

Today, it will not ignite
unless it's on a special fabric.

(matches rattling)
- You ready?

(narrator): Investigators test
how easily matches could ignite.

(slamming)

(slamming)

(sizzling)
(Ron): If you hit it

with something hard and "poof",
it would catch fire.

That was the non-safety matches.

It surprised us that the matches
could catch fire so easily.

So it was a serious hazard.

(narrator): The theory
that matches were the source
of the fire seemed possible.

Passengers on this
particular flight

were likely to pack them
in their luggage.

(coughing)

- Many of the passengers
on the airplane were pilgrims

heading to Mecca and they would
have had stoves with them

to cook when they were
camping out.

They would have had matches
to start the stoves.

- Matches seem like
the most likely cause.

- Mm-hmm.

(Ron): We didn't find
any evidence of matches
causing the fire,

but obviously that evidence
would have been destroyed.

But it was a pretty good
hunch on our part.

(narrator): But if some luggage
actually caught fire,

would it be enough to bring down
a sophisticated jetliner?

- Fire in a cargo compartment

isn't supposed
to be able to spread.

- The compartment
should have sealed off

and starved the fire
of any oxygen.

- Maybe the compartment's fire
suppression system failed.

(narrator): Unlike the air-tight
cargo holds

at the front of the airplane,

which were designed
to hold cargo containers,

the aft hold was designed
for passengers' baggage

and any pets
they were traveling with.

- The aft cargo compartment
was different

than all of the other cargo
compartments on this aircraft

because it was designed
to be able to hold live animals,

so it was pressurized, and it
had a source of fresh air.

(narrator): An inlet fan and
three valves allow for airflow.

But if smoke sets off
one or both detectors,

the fan stops
and the valves close,

sealing the compartment

and cutting off
the supply of oxygen.

- In the case of Flight 1-6-3,

obviously, something in
that self-extinguishing system

did not take place
and the fire continued.

- Okay. Let's see if they work.

(narrator): Investigators test
both of the cargo compartments'

smoke detectors to determine if
they are functioning properly.

(sizzling)

- Okay. That one's working.
What about the other one?

- The smoke detectors
were working.

- There must be another reason

why oxygen continued
to fuel the fire.

- Maybe there was
something wrong with
the compartment itself?

- Good point.

Let's find out.

- Smoke detectors
were working correctly,

but the fire spread,
even though it was supposed

to have been self-extinguished.

And we needed to find out why.

- Let mecs

(narrator): Investigators
Andexamine the specificationy.

of the rear cargo compartment
on board Saudia Flight 1-6-3

to better understand how
it's designed to contain a fire.

- According to this,
it's considered a Class D
cargo compartment.

- The designation states
that a Class D compartment
is 500 cubic feet.

What's the size of the
L-10-11 compartment?

- The L-10-11's
cargo compartment is...
700 cubic feet.

(narrator): The cargo
compartment on the L-10-11

is 200 cubic feet bigger
than its original design.

- We determined that
the original certification

of a Class D cargo compartment
was based on smaller airplanes.

(narrator): Over the three
decades since 1950,

the aircraft design changed.

It grew in size, including
the Class D cargo compartments.

- If the compartment was larger,
that means there's more oxygen.

- Maybe that fueled the fire
instead of extinguishing it.

(Bob): It appears that
the bigger the aircraft got,

the bigger compartments got.

There was no modification
of the self-extinguishment
of the compartments.

(narrator): Investigators
recreate a cargo compartment

that matches the specifications
of Saudia 1-6-3's aft cargo bay

to test its ability to
self-extinguish.

Matches and an igniter are
placed inside the compartment

to start the fire
from a safe distance.

(sighing)

- Okay, let's see what happens.

- Let's see if the fire
extinguishes.

- It's progressing quickly.

(narrator):
As investigators expected,

the fire does not burn out.

- A small fire that
in a normal Class D compartment

would extinguish and burn
all its oxygen up,

in a large compartment,
it wouldn't do that.

It had too much oxygen.

- It's burning through
the fire-resistant liner.

- The L-10-11 construction
of the cargo compartment

included the use
of a Nomex liner

that's used for fire suits.

And it was thought that that
would protect the compartment

and allow for this
self-extinguishment.

(sighing)

- Instead of burning out,

it burned through
the liner in...

...2 minutes and 59 seconds.

(sighing)

That explains why
the fire wasn't contained.

(Ron): Well, we were
quite surprised

by the findings
of our tests of the Nomex.

It failed, miserably
and permitted the fire

to spread much quicker
than we had suspected.

(narrator): The extra oxygen
in the larger compartment

fuels the fire intensely
and long enough

to penetrate the Nomex liner,
progressing into the sidewall,

ceiling and damaging
the plane's components.

At the same time, smoke
escapes the cargo compartment

and seeps through the air vents
into the cabin.

Eventually, flames penetrate
the cabin floor.

(coughing)

Why the pilots didn't stop and
shut the engines down sooner,

which would have prevented
the fire from spreading

throughout the plane,

now remains Saudia 1-6-3's
biggest mystery.

- Why there was not
an immediate stop,

and an attempt to evacuate
the passengers?

All these things make no sense.

- What was your first indication
that there was a problem?

(narrator): Investigators turn
to the air traffic controller

for further details.

- Twelve minutes
into the flight,

the crew reported a fire in the
cabin and asked to turn back.

(pilot, on radio):
Riyadh, Saudia 1-6-3.

- Go ahead.

- Uh, 1-6-3, we're returning
back to Riyadh.

- Cleared to reverse course
back to Riyadh.

Request reason.

- Saudia 1-6-3, we've got
fire in the cabin.

And please alert
the fire trucks.

(on phone): And then?
- The approach back was normal.

So was the landing.

- How did they sound?

- The communications
seemed normal.

Even after they stopped
on the taxiway.

Saudia 1-6-3, do you want
to continue to the ramp?

Or do you want to shut down?

(pilot): Standby...

Okay, we are shutting down
the engines now and evacuating.

- And you couldn't see the fire?

- Not until after
they had stopped.

The plane just sat there
with the engines running

for another three minutes.

When they finally shut them
down, I guess it was too late.

(narrator): It's still not clear

why the engines were not
shut down sooner.

Or why the plane wasn't stopped

on the runway
right after touchdown.

- The captain's decision
not to stop the aircraft

immediately after landing
and evacuate was reckless

and irresponsible, in my mind.

It is imperative
that you get the passengers out

as quickly as possible.

(narrator): While investigators
will never know

why the engines weren't
shut down in time,

could something have prevented
the pilots from stopping

the plane earlier on the runway?

- Nothing unusual here.

(narrator): They scrutinize
the recorded flight data.

- It looks like a normal flight.

- Do we have the data on
the braking system?

Maybe the brakes failed.

- Here it is.

(narrator):
Did the brake hydraulics fail,

preventing the pilots
from stopping the plane?

- See for yourself.

(Ron): Our examination
of the airplane revealed

that the braking system
was working fine

and the pilot could have
easily stopped the airplane
on the runway.

- It's as if the crew
was flying a plane that
wasn't even on fire.

- Why did they allow
the aircraft to roll
to the end of the runway,

and then to taxi onto a taxiway,

and then take over three minutes
to shut the engines down?

All of these behaviors are not
consistent with how most crews,

if not all crews, would handle
an emergency like that.

- We need to find out what
went on in that cockpit.

- I'll check on the progress
of the CVR download.

(narrator): The investigation
now hinges on the cockpit
voice recorder or CVR.

Can it explain why the pilots
treated the landing

like a normal flight
instead of an emergency?

(sirens blaring)

- You reviewed the recordings?
- Oh yeah.

You need to hear
this for yourself.

(narrator): Investigators listen
to how the crew

of Saudia Flight 1-6-3
dealt with the onboard fire.

- Let's start from
when the smoke alarms go off

7 minutes into takeoff.

(alarm buzzing)
- B aft cargo?

Smoke detection B aft cargo.

Now it's A.
That's both of them.

- Hold on...

The alarms go off long before
they report a fire.

- They got two smoke warnings.

And then there was
a five minute and thirty second

delay before they turned around.

- Why the wait?

- We have smoke in there?

(narrator): The Captain
sounds skeptical.

- I would say so, yeah.

- What's the procedure
for it in the checklist?

There isn't anything about it
in the abnormal procedures, huh?

- Nothing about it.

- Pause the recording.

They waste time going through
the smoke alarm procedures

before deciding
to turn around?

- And on top of that, they're
looking in the wrong place.

They should be looking
in the emergency section.

- There was obvious confusion
between checklists.

The emergency checklists
need to be immediate action.

And the abnormal checklists
are actions that you take

to avoid getting into some sort
of an emergency condition.

- There's a lack
of urgency here.

- Shall I go back there and see
if I can smell something?

- Okay, sure.

- Okay. If I can, uh,
see or smell anything,
I think we better go back.

- Okay. Sure.

(narrator): 40 seconds later...

- Yeah. We got a fire
back there.

- We do?
- Yeah, we do.

- It's okay. Tell control
we're heading back.

(narrator): The Captain
is surprised to learn
there's a fire.

Only then does he turn
the plane back to Riyadh.

It's been five-and-a-half
minutes since the first alarm.

- I would declare an emergency.

- Yeah.

(radio): Cleared to reverse
course back to Riyadh.

Request reason.

- Uh, declare emergency?

- Fire!

Fire in the cabin.

(door closing)

- The engineer
has already told him

there's a fire and his purser
has corroborated that.

(coughing)

- The captain doesn't
declare an emergency.

And it happens again.

Cue it up to 22:50,
15 minutes into the flight.

- Did we declare an emergency?

- Negative.
- Okay.

The fire trucks will be
waiting for us though?

- Yes.

- The captain
is ignoring his crew.

- In the 1980s, the captain was
"God" on the airplane.

There was never any discussion
about including

any other crew members in his
decision-making process.

And arrogance and hubris
may very well have played
a large role in this.

- It gets even more disturbing

when the captain is asked
about evacuating.

Play those selections.

(radio): Shall we evacuate?

- That's the purser
in the cockpit again.

- Can we evacuate
all the passengers?

- Flaps ten, please.

(narrator): The captain ignores
the purser's question.

- When we're on the ground, yes.

- Flaps ten.

- The captain was asked
a total of seven times

if an evacuation
was going to happen.

And each time,
he ignored the request.

- There were two other people
in the cockpit.

What were they doing?
- The first officer, not much.

- I would declare an emergency.

- Yeah.

(radio): Cleared to reverse
course back to Riyadh.

Request reason.

- Uh, declare emergency?

- He never once challenged
the captain's stubbornness.

- The first officer
was silent and passive.

The captain just left
the first officer

completely out of the picture
and continued to fly.

- What about
the flight engineer?

(narrator): Reviewing
the transcripts,

investigators discover
a troubling pattern.

- If anything,
he made the situation worse.

- How so?

- By repeatedly downplaying
the situation,

continually saying things like,
"no problem".

(narrator): Less than a minute
after the flight engineer

reports fire in the cabin,

the captain asks him
to do another check.

This time, he returns with
a different assessment.

- It's just smoke in the aft.

- Okay, we're going
back to Riyadh.

- Okay, no problem.

Everybody's panicking
in the back though.

No problem. No problem.

No problem at all.

- Downplaying the severity
of the situation

can most certainly
affect the captain's perception

of what exactly is going on.

- What happens on the ground?

- Well, it's hard to know.

Play it from the
five-hundred-foot alert.

(computer): 500.
- And 500.

- Hydraulic?

- You got low pressure
on number two.

Looking good.
(beep)

- Tell them to not evacuate.

(purser): Place your hands
behind your head,

head between your knees.

- Uh, no need for that.
We're okay.

No problem. No problem.

(computer): Minimums. Minimums.

One hundred.
- One hundred.

- One hundred.

(computer): Fifty.
- Fifty.

(computer): Forty.
(pilot): Forty.

(computer): Thirty.
(pilot): Thirty.

(recording crackling)

- The fire is so severe
at this point

that it burns through
the CVR's electrical.

(narrator): Just before
touchdown, the fire destroys

the wiring that powers
the cockpit voice recorder.

It's a setback
for the investigation.

- We have no idea
of the chaotic nature

of what was going on
in the cockpit at that time.

- He wasted five minutes
deciding to turn around.

He wouldn't declare
an emergency even though

he's been told there's a fire
in the cabin.

He failed to evacuate
everybody on that plane.

- And the other pilots did
nothing to change his thinking.

- What kind of emergency
training did this crew have?

- Let's pull their files and
see.

(narrator): Investigators
examine the pilot records

of Saudia 1-6-3's crew members

to determine if they were
properly trained

to deal with a fire.
- Hmm...

This does not look good.

The first officer was dropped
from pilot training,

but reinstated two years later

"as a result
of committee action".

Committee action?

(Ron): I have a different term
for "committee action",

it's friends or family.

He wanted to be a pilot.

He was gonna be a pilot

and someone helped him
become a pilot.

- That's nothing compared
to the flight engineer.

Listen to this:
"Failed to qualify

as a captain and first officer."

He was only hired by the airline
as a flight engineer

after paying
for his own training.

(Ron): The flight engineer was
also another incompetent person.

He flunked previous training,

and he paid for it
out of his pocket

to become certified
as a flight engineer.

- Well, the captain's training
history is no better.

(narrator): The records show
that the captain's

qualifications
were also questionable.

- "Slow to learn."

"Needed more training
than normally required."

"Difficulty varying
from a set pattern".

(Ron): The captain's training
record indicated

that he was indecisive and slow

and that was all reflected in
the events of this accident.

All three of these guys
were extremely weak.

None of 'em should have been
in a cockpit

and certainly not
three of 'em together.

- It was literally
a crew pairing

of an accident
waiting to happen.

If anything unusual
was going to occur,

these people were going to, uh,

descend into some
state of confusion,

which is exactly what happened.

(typewriter clacking)

(narrator): Because the cockpit
voice recorder failed

just before the Tristar landed,

the investigation
was unable to determine

why the captain
didn't order an evacuation.

But they did point to his
actions as contributing factors.

- It is possible that
the captain was in denial

about the severity of the fire,
and the situation in the cabin.

But if he had gone back
to see for himself,

then perhaps things would have
been different.

- The other thing to consider
is that air crews realize

that if they shut
an airplane down on a runway

that that effectively
closes the airport.

These are things that could
put your job in jeopardy.

So who really knows
what his logic was.

But what is certainly clear
was this captain was definitely

not in command
of this emergency.

(narrator): Even though
investigators are unable

to confirm that matches were
the source of the fire,

they do recommend improvements
for all cargo compartments.

- To make the cargo
compartments safe,

you had to put
a fire extinguisher in there,

detectors and extinguishers.

And that's what
we recommended they do.

(narrator): They also recommend
removing the Nomex liner.

(Bob): The investigation went
back to the manufacturer.

They identified a way
to improve the resistance

of the compartment
to replace the Nomex

and return the compartment

to a full idea
of self-extinguishment.

(narrator): The Federal Aviation
Administration, or FAA,

considers the recommendations.

But, it's not until 1998,

almost two decades later,

that the FAA changes
the regulation.

Now all cargo compartments
on commercial airliners

must contain both fire detection
and fire suppression systems.

In the aftermath of the tragedy,

Saudia asks Bob Macintosh

to revamp its safety
training and procedures.

- I was hired to form
a corporate safety department.

And it was my pleasure to do
that for my six years there.

- There were numerous lessons
that we learned

from how cargo compartments
are designed.

And much better designed
flame-retardant materials

are now used
throughout the cabin.

Our aviation system is safer
because of this accident.

- All those things
are wonderful takeaways

from a very, very
tragic situation.

Subtitling: difuze