All language subtitles for M.2003-S24E10-Eleven.Deadly.Seconds.China.Airlines.Flight.676.WEBDL-1080pEAC3.5.1h264-NOGRP_track3_[eng]

(alarm sounding)
(narrator): China Airlines
Flight 676 falls out of the sky,

crashing into a residential
neighbourhood in Taipei.

- It was a horrific crash.

Pieces of the wreckage fell
onto houses.

(narrator):
More than 200 people are dead,

making this the worst aviation
disaster in Taiwan's history.

- Okay, let's get to work.
I want photos of everything.

(narrator):
Amid the devastation,

recovery teams locate
the crucial flight recorders.

- Hopefully the NTSB can extract
some useful data from them.

(narrator): Crash experts
from around the world
assist in the investigation.

- I've got something for you.
- We're on it.

(narrator): But 11 seconds
of the flight

are almost impossible
to explain.

- What the heck happened here?

- And 11 seconds
is like an eternity.

That verges on unbelievable.

- Mayday, Mayday!

- It's going up!

(indistinct radio chatter)

- At least
the weather's improved.

- For now.

(narrator): China Airlines
Flight 676 is cruising
over the South China Sea

as it nears Taipei City, Taiwan.

- The flight is scheduled
to land at Taipei's
Chiang Kai-shek Airport,

the primary gateway to Taiwan,

and it's the busiest airport
on the island.

(narrator): This evening,
Captain Long-Lin Kang
is at the controls.

An Air Force veteran,
he's clocked over 2,000 hours
on the Airbus A-300.

This flight is special.

- I hope you're enjoying
the flight tonight.
Can I give you some water?

(narrator): His wife
and children are on board,

returning from a holiday
in Bali.

- It's a special moment
for the family.

There is no one that you would
have rather fly them
than yourself,

ensuring of their safety.

(narrator): Tonight's flight
left Bali at 3:27 p.m.

and is scheduled to touch down
in Taipei just after 8:00.

- I'll talk to the cabin?
We're seven minutes
from descent.

(narrator): Tonight,
Kang is paired with a rookie.

- Okay, thanks.

(narrator):
He has far more experience
on the A-300

than his first officer,
Der-Sheng Jiang.

- The first officer's job
is help pilot flying to handle
all the non-essential job,

or non-essential duty,

so the pilot flying
can concentrate
on flying the aircraft.

- Yes, hello?
- Hi. We're about seven minutes
until we start descent.

(narrator): The descent
is the busiest,

most critical phase
of any flight.

- Weather is 16° and cloudy.

We won't need any wheelchairs
tonight, right?

- No, not tonight.

- Look at the ECAM,
the trim tank.

(narrator): The captain notices
an error message
concerning the trim tank.

The trim-tank system moves fuel
between tanks in the wings
and tail,

keeping the plane balanced
and fuel-efficient.

- Let's see what we can do.

- The... auto trim, um...

It seems like we don't need
to do anything.

- Yeah, we do.
See the Trim Tank System Fault?

(narrator): The captain
guides the first officer
through the issue.

- Trim Tank System Fault?

- Trim-tank system in flight
if no forward transfer.

Not our case.

(narrator):
It's not a critical problem.

- Okay, clear.

So you see, that's it.
That's the Trim Tank System
Fault procedure.

- It's just a minor hiccup,

and it's easy
to clear the message.

(narrator): The plane is now
25 minutes from the airport.

- Descent.

(narrator): The captain prompts
the first officer to check in
with controllers.

- Okay.

Control, Dynasty 676...

requesting descent.

- Dynasty 676,

descend and maintain
flight level 250.

(narrator): The tower issues
a new altitude of 25,000 feet.

- Descending
to flight level 250,

heading 360.

On our way.

- Check the gate.

(narrator):
The crew also needs to confirm

their gate information
with airline operations
on the ground.

- Operations, Dynasty 676.

- Disregard. Dynasty 676.

(narrator): The first officer
makes a careless mistake.

- This side.

- Unfortunately, the FO made
the request on the ATC channel,

so not the correct frequency
of the company radios.

It's quite embarrassing,

because basically,
you call the operation
with your call sign,

so every pilot in that areas
know he made a mistake.

(narrator): The plane is now
45 miles from the airport.

And the weather
is getting worse.

- Did you see that?
The lightning's pretty strong.

The power of that lightning.

- Lightning does not pose
a direct physical threat
to the aircraft,

but it usually comes
with severe thunderstorms,
strong winds.

That's not the kind
of conditions that you want
to land at the airport.

(narrator): The captain wants
to get his plane on the ground
before the storm worsens.

- Flaps: 20.
(narrator): Three miles
from the airport,

the pilots extend the flaps
as they reduce speed.

- Flaps: 20.

(narrator): Below them,

the busy streets
of Taipei's sprawling suburbs
are shrouded in fog and mist.

- Visibility is always a concern
for pilots,
especially when landing.

If you can't see the runway,
you pose a danger to the safety
of the aircraft.

You could either miss
the runway altogether,

or, even worse,
a controlled flight
into terrain.

- God, that tailwind's
really strong.

(narrator): The captain
pitches the nose down
for the descent.

- Landing lights.

- On.

(narrator): They're just moments
from landing...

- Landing Checklist complete.

- ...but the captain
doesn't like the approach.

- GO lever. Go-around.

(narrator): Just 1,300 feet
from the ground,

the captain aborts
the landing attempt.

- Pilots can go around
for any reasons, like a...

non-stable approach,

or runway is blocked,

or by ATCs,

or pilot not satisfied
for the approach.

And we have go-arounds
in the airports,

maybe one go-around per days.

It's quite common operations.

(narrator): But this go-around
is going tragically wrong.

(passengers crying out)

- Dynasty 676,
confirm go-around?

(alarm sounding)

(narrator):
An alarm warns the crew
that the plane is losing lift.

- With no lift...

...airplane nose will drop,

and then airplane will dive.

And then
you get in trouble fast.
- No!

(whooping)
(TAWS): Sinking, sinking.

Don't sink.

(passengers screaming)
- The aircraft
is out of control,

it's veering left of the runway,

and falling towards a densely
populated residential area.

- Dynasty 676, Taipei.
What is your status?

(passengers screaming)
- Brace, brace, brace!

(pilots groaning)
(alarm sounding)
(TAWS): Terrain. Pull up.

- All vehicles, an A-300
has just crashed on the roadway
north of 05 Left.

(sirens wailing)

(narrator): The burning remains
of China Airlines Flight 676

are scattered along a busy road
near Chiang Kai-shek Airport.

- It was a horrific crash.

There was a severe fire
from the jet fuel,

and it took
more than 60 firefighters

from across the city
to put out the fire.

(narrator):
How could a modern jetliner
performing a go-around

fall out of the sky

and crash into a residential
neighbourhood?

- Any survivors?

(narrator): All 182 passengers
and 14 crew

on board China Airlines
Flight 676 are dead,

including the captain's family.

Six more people have been killed
on the ground.

- It fell into a residential
neighbourhood.

Pieces of the wreckage fell
onto houses, into cars.

(narrator): It's Taiwan's
worst air disaster.

- It was a very devastating
incident; you know,

with many innocent lives lost
in an instant.

(narrator): It's also
China Airlines' second crash
in less than five years.

In 1994, Flight 140 crashed
in Nagoya, Japan,

killing 264 of the 271 on board.

That aircraft was also an A-300.

- The Taiwanese people
are very concerned
and frightened,

because they want to make sure
that the government would ensure

that the airline
is safe to travel.

(narrator): Desperate to allay
the public's fears,

the government grounds
the airline's entire fleet
of A-300s

until the planes can be checked
for faults.

The decision throws Taiwan's
air travel into chaos.

- Taiwan is an island,
so air transport
is incredibly important.

And with the aircraft grounded,
a lot of flights were cancelled,

and many people's travel plans
were out the window.

(narrator): The Taiwanese
Civil Aeronautics Administration

will lead
the high-profile investigation.

The pressure to find answers
is intense.

- Okay, let's get to work.

I want photos of everything.

- We all want to know
what happened quickly
and get this solved.

By the same token,

you don't want to leave
something unfound
because you rushed through it.

And so even though there may be
pressure from the government,

you have to push back,
say, "We'll do this as fast
as we can."

(narrator):
Amid the devastation,

investigators focus first
on recovering as much
of the plane as they can.

- Some pieces
may not be important,
but the first thing is to...

do you have all the parts
of the airplane?

Do you have the wing tips,
the tail tips, the nose?

But when you have buildings
and cars and everything else,

it becomes a lot more difficult.

(narrator):
They also plot the position
of every piece of debris.

Soon, a pattern emerges
that paints a vivid picture
of the way the plane came down.

- Whatever went wrong,
it caused them to come in steep
and flat.

They pancaked.

- Looking just at the impact,
it gives the initial indication
that this airplane,

although it was coming down
vertically very quickly,

it didn't have a lot
of forward velocity to it.

And also the pitch attitude
of the airplane wasn't severely
pitched down or pitched up.

It was a kind of more
of a flat impact,
which is a little bit unusual.

(narrator):
The high-velocity impact
destroyed most of the plane,

but both engines survived.

- I see
a distinct damage pattern.

- If the engines are running
at impact,

basically you'll bend
or shear off the fan blades

opposite to the direction
of rotation.

Also,
you'll see where they ingest
a fair amount of debris,

usually vegetation,
at the same time.

- Engines were running
when they hit.

Hard to know for sure
if they were working properly.

- So there are numerous
mechanical hints
that investigators can get

to determine if there's power
on the engine.

How much power?
Well, that's a bit different.

Then you need to turn
to flight recorders or some sort
of recorded data to get at that.

(narrator):
Investigators also recover
the jackscrew mechanism

used to operate the flaps.

- If a pilot chooses
the wrong flap settings,
there can be two dangers.

One is you select flaps
at too high of a speed,

and that can
structurally damage the flaps.

The other danger is that
you could be at a low speed,
retract flaps;

now you don't have enough lift,

and the airplane is gonna start
coming out of the air.

- The nut's almost at the stop.

So the flaps
were partially extended at 20.

- Flaps: 20.

(narrator): There's no sign
of structural failure,

and the flaps
were in the correct position.

- Early on in the investigation,
the process is fairly simple.

It's a shotgun approach.
We're looking at everything.

(narrator): There's one theory
in particular that investigators
want to explore.

- Maybe the weather
had something to do with this.

- We know from the weather
forecast that the weather
was gonna get worse.

There was fog moving in,
there was lightning.

And so you start looking
at all those factors.
(thunder)

- The power of that lightning.

(narrator): Investigators turn
coller

for more insight
into the weather

around Chiang Kai-shek Airport
at the time
China Airlines 676 crashed.

- So what kind of winds
are we looking at?

(narrator):
Did a dangerous condition
called "windshear"

bring the plane down?

- God, that tailwind's
really strong.

(narrator): Windshear is caused
by powerful winds

that can form
close to the runway
during thunderstorms,

creating forces so powerful,

they can slam a plane
into the ground.

- Visibility was above minimum,
no windshear.

The weather was fine.

(narrator): The weather theory
is quickly ruled out.

- We knew there was lightning
approaching the airport.

Uh, the winds, however,
were fairly light.

No severe turbulence
and no severe downdraft.

We didn't see any weather
out there that, by itself,

should cause this airplane
to be pushed out of the sky.

- Take a look at this.

(narrator): But controllers
did notice something

which is troubling
about the flight.

- Interesting.

(narrator):
Airliners usually descend
to the runway

at a gradual three-degree angle.

But Flight 676 had
a much faster, steeper descent.

- You're right.
They were way too high
on approach all the way in.

- At a point
that's about five miles
from the runway,

the airplane is 1,000 feet
higher than it should be
for that position.

And so they've got a problem.

- GO lever. Go-around.

(narrator): The finding explains
why the captain called
for a go-around.

But it still doesn't explain
what caused the crash.

- A go-around, in and of itself,
is not a cause for concern.

(narrator): At the crash site,
the painstaking search
of the debris pays off.

Investigators find both of
the black-box flight recorders.

- Great job.

- The flight-data recorders
are essential

for finding those little bits
of information
that you can't see

in the wreckage itself.

It gives us a lot more data

to now put into our little
basket of information.

(narrator): Investigators
get more critical information

with the discovery
of the plane's FADECs,

or Full Authority
Digital Engine Controllers.

- The FADEC is just like
a flight-data recorder,

except it's specific
only to the engine operation,

or if there were any engine
anomalies that were occurring
during the flight.

- Hopefully,
the NTSB can extract
some useful data from them.

(narrator): Recovering the data
from the U.S.-made controllers
requires special expertise,

so investigators ask
the National Transportation
Safety Board

to oversee the download.

- They were slightly damaged,
but they weren't burned.

And that gave investigators
hope.

(narrator): While the FADECs
are transported to Connecticut
in the United States...

- Welcome to Canberra.

- ...the flight recorders
are sent to the Bureau
of Air Safety Investigation,

or BASI,
in Canberra, Australia.

- Well, we've had expertise
and facilities for the replay
and analysis of flight recorders

going back to the 1970s.

Let's find you some answers.

We've had close links
in the Asia-Pacific region
for many decades.

So it's natural
that our expertise would be made
available to the Taiwanese.

- In these international
accident investigations,

each country brings
a different area of expertise.

And the purpose behind this
is global aviation safety,
because...

if an accident happened
in one place,

it could've happened easily
in your own country.

(narrator): In Connecticut...

- Hold it there.
- ...NTSB Systems Analyst
Jeff Guzzetti begins recovering

the data from the FADECs
of Flight 676,

with help
from the manufacturer.

- The manufacturer
is very much needed.
It's their laboratory.

However,
the procedure is dictated
by the investigators.

That box was not opened
until investigators,

like myself, showed up and,
in front of everybody,

we unlocked, unsealed the boxes,

and began to extract
the components that we needed.

(sighing)
Well, here goes nothing.

(narrator): There's no guarantee
that the data survived.

- These chips were not designed
to be crash-worthy.

They were designed
so that an airline can download
information from the FADEC

and conduct maintenance
on the engines as needed.

(narrator): Today...
they get lucky.

- So I was very relieved to see
that the memory did survive
on the chips of the FADEC.

So now we had something
to work with.

Okay, let's see what we've got.

(narrator): Were the engines
functioning properly?

- The FADEC memory
will not only point out
the anomaly of an engine,

but exactly when it happened
and at what altitude.

And that data is crucial
for investigators.

(narrator): The data confirms
the investigators' observation

that the engines were working
when the plane hit the ground.

But something inexplicable
happened 20 seconds before that.

- What the heck happened here?

Engines were operating normally
during the entire
accident flight,

except during a certain portion
of the go-around,

in which both engines surged
at the same time,

which is anomalous,
shouldn't happen.

(narrator): Aircraft engines
ingest huge quantities of air

and use it to spin a turbine
to create thrust.

If that air is disrupted,

the engine can't produce
enough thrust and will backfire
or surge.

- It's kind of like, uh,
walking into a room
that suddenly has no air...

(panting)
...and you're gasping
and you're surging.

(phone ringing)

- Campbell.
- I've got something for you.

(narrator): The NTSB updates
the Australians
about their findings.

- Engine surge?

Okay, we're on it.

(narrator):
But what caused the surge?

- It could be ingesting birds
into the engine.

It could be a...
a mechanical malfunction

that's allowing too much fuel
or too little air
into the engine.

We just didn't know.

- Let's take a look.

(narrator):
At the Australian Bureau
of Air Safety Investigation,

Neil Campbell reviews
a simulation

of the final seconds
of Flight 676

based on
the information captured
by the flight-data recorder.

- In this case,
the flight-data recorder

recorded 115 separate
parameters.

It tells us things
about the aircraft performance,
its configuration,

whether the flaps
are up or down,
the landing gear's up or down.

It tells us
what the crew inputs were, uh...

the aircraft responses
to those inputs,

and also the status
of various aircraft systems.

- Nearly at the airport.

(narrator): Campbell scrutinizes
the data carefully,

looking for anything
that might explain

why the engines
of a modern A-300 surged
and lost thrust.

- Here comes the go-around.

- GO lever. Go-around.

- Hold on. What have we here?

(narrator): Fifteen seconds
after the go-around begins,

investigators notice
something surprising.

- Stop.

We saw the aircraft pitched up
to a pitch attitude
of over 40 degrees.

This is a very large value,
very unusual.

Normally during a go-around,
we'd expect to see
15 degrees pitch attitude.

No wonder the engines surged.

(narrator): With the nose
of the plane pitched up
so steeply,

air can't flow through
the engine to create thrust.
(rattling)

- The airplane
was at a very high attitude.

This prevented the engine
from taking in smooth,
continuous airflow.

Oh, no.

(narrator): The steep angle has
another disastrous consequence.

If an aircraft pitches up
too steeply,

it disrupts airflow
over the wings,

preventing them
from providing lift.

- Pitched up so high,
they stalled the plane.

- And when an airliner
turns straight up
at such a high angle,

the airspeed bleeds off
significantly,

and gets you closer
to an aerodynamic stall.
(alarm sounding)

(narrator): With the loss
of airflow into the engines
and lift from the wings,

Flight 676 begins to drop
from the sky.

- You're not flying,
you're almost becoming
a falling object at that point.

- Let's see that again?

He's trying
to get the nose down.

(narrator): The data shows
the captain did what he could
to regain control.

- The pilots were trying
to get the nose down
and get the speed back up,

get airflow
over the wings again.

This'll take time in a situation
where seconds are a big deal.

(narrator): But it's too late.

- They ran out of time.

Unfortunately,
the altitude was too low,

and they were not able
to recover the aircraft in time.

If they'd had
another few thousand feet,

there's a good possibility

that the crew would've been able
to recover the aircraft
successfully.

(narrator):
It's a tragic discovery.

But why did Flight 676 pitch up
so steeply in the first place?

Campbell combs through data
from earlier in the flight.

- Throughout the investigative
process,

everything gets looked at
and relooked at.

- Look at this.

That's weird.

(narrator): Something strange
took place on board Flight 676

just seconds before the stall.

(rattling)

- Bring up pitch and elevator,
please.

You can see the pilots making
control inputs here... and here.

But during these 11 seconds...

...the plane is pitching up.

(narrator):
Investigators determine

that once the pilots initiated
the go-around,

no inputs on the control column
were made

as the plane continued
to pitch up dangerously.

- The aircraft
will naturally want to pitch up
as the engine thrust increases.

So I would expect the crew
to counteract that pitching-up

by pushing down on the controls.

While looking
at the flight-recorder data

and seeing that there was no...
pitch controls,
no changes in those controls,

it did make me wonder...
what the crew were thinking.

So no one's flying the plane?

It's very unusual that there
would be no control inputs
by the pilots

during this period,
very surprising.

- And 11 seconds in this
situation's like an eternity.
In fact,

to... just sit there
and do nothing

while this airplane
is pitching up,

losing speed, having issues,

um...
that verges on unbelievable.

- Do you think the controls
were jammed?

- Just for these 11 seconds?
No way.

- There's three independent
flight-control systems for...

uh, pitch, roll and... yaw,

so it's the elevators,
ailerons and rudder.

All those systems showed
that there was no activity
for that 11-second period.

But prior to the go-around,
during the early part
of the flight,

and during the recovery
from the stall,

there were inputs made
on all those systems,

and the aircraft response
was as expected.

- If the controls were working,

why didn't the crew do anything?

- This was a stunning finding
to us.

Whenever you're faced with
evidence of improper actions
by a flight crew,

you have to ask why.

Was it because
they were perhaps intoxicated?

Was it perhaps
because they were incapacitated?

You really have to get
into the human-factor element
of this.

- We need to know everything
about these guys.

Background, training,
favourite foods, the works.

Thank you.

(narrator):
Investigators search to explain

why two trained pilots
allowed Flight 676
to pitch up so steeply

that it lost lift and stalled.

- When you see a situation
where the pilot actions,
frankly, don't make any sense,

you wonder: Is there something
medically wrong with the pilots?

Alcohol, drugs, you know,
anything else going on?

(narrator):
They review the pilots'
postmortem toxicology tests.

- No sign
they were incapacitated.

- You have to be
very methodical.

You can't allow any biases,

or opinions, to get in the way
of you collecting facts,

because at this point,
that's all you're doing.

- No red flags in the crew's
flying records, either.

- Nothing stood out
that would explain
what happened here.

- Thank you.

(narrator):
Investigators pin their hopes
of finding answers

on the cockpit voice recorder.

- Okay, let's hear it.

- The cockpit voice recorder
gives you

those little pieces
of information
otherwise you wouldn't have.

It's critical to understand
timing of the crew,

how are they working together,
what's the tone of the cockpit?

(FO): Weather is 16° and cloudy.

We won't need any wheelchairs
tonight, right?

(narrator): The team starts
the recording 30 minutes
before the end of the flight.

- Look at the ECAM,
the trim tank.

(narrator): They listen intently
to everything the pilots said.

- Trim-tank system in flight
if no forward transfer.

Not our case.

Okay, clear.
So you see, that's it.

That's the Trim Tank System
Fault procedure.

- This captain's spending
an awful lot of time
helping his first officer.

- Normally you have a division
of labour.

However, this captain is doing
almost all the flying
and monitoring himself.

He's not engaging
the first officer
in really helping with things.

- Operations, Dynasty 676.

- Disregard. Dynasty 676.

(narrator):
When the first officer uses
the wrong channel

to call airline operations
on the ground...

- This side.

- ...the captain intervenes
by making radio calls himself,

which is contrary to procedure.

- I think in the captain's mind:

This guy's incompetent
and I can't trust him
to do a simple task.

(chuckling)
And so the captain,
what'd he do?

He started doing more
on his own.

- Don't write that down.
We're descending.
- Okay.

(narrator):
The captain begins criticizing
the first officer's actions.

- Okay.

- The captain felt
that the first officer

was not performing his tasks
up to his standards,

and it might be easier
and faster
to do everything himself.

- What are you doing?

- I'm-I'm keying in the data.

- Don't waste too much time
on that.
What's the QNH?

(narrator):
It's a risky situation.
- It sets up a problem...

where this first officer
may be almost afraid

to take action without
the captain's permission.

- Statistics show that over 80%
of aircraft accidents

have human performance
as a contributing factor.

So it's very, very important
to work together effectively
as a team,

to have good communication,

and to make the best decisions
they can,

even under stressful situations.

(thunder)

- Did you see that?
The lightning's pretty strong.

(narrator):
The worsening weather
puts even more pressure

on the busy captain.

(Captain):
The power of that lightning.

- Bad teamwork, task overload,
and now... weather.

- The cockpit
was a stressful environment.

The captain in particular
was worried

about the deteriorating weather
at Taipei,

and whether he might need
to divert or not.

(narrator): It's what
investigators hear next
that gives them a vital clue.

(CVR aural warning)

- Hold on. Hear that again?

(rewinding)

(CVR aural warning)

Huh. That's the autopilot
switching off.

- There's a distinct sound
or an aural warning that occurs

when the autopilot disengages,
and it's called
a cavalry charge.

(aural warning)
Switching the autopilot off
is a routine part of the flight.

- Landing lights.

- On.

- But at this stage
of the flight,
it was unusual to hear it,

and very unusual
that there was no comment
by the crew.

(narrator):
The pilots don't discuss why
the autopilot has disengaged.

- Come on, guys,
talk to each other.

- You would expect the captain
to say, "I'm taking over.
I have control."

Or at least some comment
between the two crew

about the fact
the autopilot's disengaged,

but there was no comment at all.

- Landing Checklist complete.

- In my opinion,
after the criticism
by the captain...

to the first officer,

he was just going to respond
to any direct requests
from the captain.

- GO lever. Go-around.

(narrator): Six seconds
after investigators hear
the autopilot disengage,

the captain initiates
a go-around.

Without the autopilot,

the captain needs to make inputs
manually on the yoke
to control pitch.

But he doesn't.

- The autopilot is crucial,
because...

that autopilot prevents
the airplane from pitching up

whenever you're initiating
a go-around.

- I don't think the captain
knows the autopilot is off.

- What the captain didn't seem
to catch was that the autopilot

is no longer flying
the airplane.

(narrator): Even if the captain
doesn't realize the autopilot
is disengaged,

and the first officer
doesn't bring it
to his attention,

it doesn't explain
why neither pilot noticed

the plane was pitching up
to the point of stalling.

- Looking
at your instrumentation,

you can tell
that things are going wrong;
you should make corrections.

It becomes very difficult
in investigation
to figure that part out.

- Tee up to the st
he go-around.

(narrator): Investigators focus
on the pilot's actions

during the critical 11 seconds
that led to a devastating stall

of China Airlines Flight 676.

(Captain): GO lever. Go-around.

Gear up.

- Gear... down.

(narrator): They discover
that while the plane
is pitching up,

the pilots debate
how to configure the plane
for the go-around manoeuvre.

- Gear up.

- Gear up first.
He should be calling for flaps
before gear.

- Heading select plus...?

Plus 10?

- Flaps!

(narrator): It distracts them
from their instruments,

which show the plane
is in danger of stalling.

- What a mess.

- During the go-around,
that's when you really have
to have your act together.

You're close to the ground,
a lot of things are happening,

and you've gotta be
on the same page.

That didn't happen here.

(narrator): Investigators
now have a better understanding

of the pilots' behaviour
prior to the stall.

But it doesn't answer
a key question.

- Who turned the autopilot off,
and why?

- The captain was under a lot
of stress and high workload.
Under those conditions,

people can make mistakes.

- He's near the end
of his approach
and he's too high.

(narrator): The team returns
to the flight-data recorder
for clues.

- Somehow, the autopilot
gets switched off.

- God, the tailwind's
really strong.

(narrator):
Data reveals the captain
did something unusual

right before
the autopilot is disengaged.

- Here,
he's really at a crunch point.
He's still too high,

so he gives the control column
an extra push.

(narrator): Investigators
suspect the captain
pushes the nose down hard

to try to salvage
his too-high approach.

But when they dig
into the Airbus-300 manual,

they find the captain's actions
had another tragic consequence.

- Take a look at this.

- The autopilot is designed
to be disengaged
in a number of ways.

There's the routine way of
just switching it off normally.

But on this aircraft,

if you apply 33 pounds of force,

it will automatically disengage.

- He disengaged the autopilot
by accident.

- And I think that's due
to the task overload
he's going through,

that there's so much
going on in his mind,
there's so much happening here,

that he doesn't catch the fact
that he's been pushing like mad,

and... whoops,
the autopilot just disengaged.

(narrator):
Investigators now understand

why China Airlines Flight 676
fell from the sky.

- It starts with bad teamwork
in the cockpit.

- It seems like we don't have
to do anything.

- Yeah, we do.
See the Trim Tank System Fault.

Trim-tank system in flight...

- In aviation,
it's definitely not a good idea

to do everything yourself
in a two-person cockpit.

There should be
a proper division of labour.
If there isn't,

that one pilot
that's doing everything
becomes saturated with tasks

and doesn't have
adequate capacity
to handle potential challenges.

- God, that tailwind's
really strong.

(narrator):
The overworked captain
is too high on approach.

And when he attempts
to descend faster,

he unintentionally disengages
the autopilot.

(aural warning)
- Landing lights.

- On.

(narrator):
Neither pilot comments
on the autopilot.

- Landing Checklist complete.

(narrator):
When they are still too high
on approach...

- GO lever. Go-around.

- ...Captain Kang calls
for a go-around.

Not realizing
the autopilot has shut off,

he assumes
it will control the plane.

It doesn't.

(passengers crying out)

The Airbus pitches so high,
it begins to stall.

By the time
the captain notices...

...it's too late.

(pilots crying out)
(TAWS): Terrain, terrain.
Pull up.

- What a shame.
It was totally preventable.

- The aircraft was serviceable.

And if the crew
had acted differently,

then the end result
would've been different,
as well.

(narrator): In the final report,

investigators recommend
more training,

including better
cockpit communication,
for all China Airlines pilots.

In response, China Airlines
begins recruiting pilots
with proven track records,

while improving
their pilot-training program.

- After the loss
of this aircraft,

crew resource management
training was required

to improve the communication
and teamwork skills
between the pilots.

(narrator):
Taiwan also overhauls
its Transportation Safety Board.

- It's now got
an international reputation

for their expertise
in the technical aspects
of investigation,

including recorders,

and also in publishing
high-quality reports.

So that's been a real positive
after the accident, as well.

- In all accidents,
you want to gain the most
out of it,

so you can prevent the next one.

So from this tragedy,
we learned,

and we adjusted the system.

And what we'd like to have

is that we never see an accident
like this again.

Subtitling: difuze